My Favourite Quotes of 2023

Annually I look again on the interviews I carried out or webinars I reported on and pull out a couple of of the quotes that actually acquired me to rethink a few of my assumptions concerning the healthcare system. So here’s a baker’s dozen from 2023 that I hope you can find thought-provoking as nicely. I’m trying ahead to extra attention-grabbing discussions on well being coverage, informatics, and enterprise points in 2024!

“If hospitals and different employers of nurses are actually severe about addressing the drivers of burnout, they actually need to dispense with these concepts of throwing pizza events and doing resiliency trainings, and as an alternative be attentive to what nurses say they want, which is manageable and protected workloads.”
— Karen Lasater, Ph.D., R.N., affiliate professor at Penn Nursing 

“We have created a system that has quite a lot of related overhead, a lot of which does not do something for anyone. Take into consideration what number of federal taxpayer {dollars} go to Medicare Benefit advertising and marketing. It’s staggering,”
— Sachin Jain, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO, SCAN Group & Well being Plan

“With points like granular consent……it isn’t serving to sufferers and it isn’t engendering confidence in EHR programs, HIEs or the federal authorities that the overwhelming consensus appears to be that that is too arduous. Simply attempt one thing. And at the very least, be prepared to return out and say ‘we’re not going to get it proper the primary time. That is difficult, however we all know it is a precedence.’”
— Nichole Sweeney, J.D., in-house basic counsel and chief privateness officer for Maryland-based CRISP Shared Companies

“You would most likely get everyone in the USA who actually understands psychological well being parity into a big ballroom. And due to that, you’ve quite a lot of worry and quite a lot of confusion as to what’s truly concerned…..You’ve acquired individuals who say, ‘Lastly, I’ve acquired a hammer that I can use to get these insurance coverage corporations to do every part they’re alleged to do.’ And also you’ve acquired the insurance coverage corporations saying, ‘Oh, nice, right here comes a hammer, and you continue to have not even advised me precisely what I have to do.’”

— Shawn Griffin, M.D., CEO of the nonprofit healthcare accreditation group URAC 

“If the capital markets and personal fairness particularly and others are pouring all this cash in to attempt to rework healthcare, for those who do not play that recreation, you are going to have your cheese moved with out you being concerned. So an enormous a part of why I believe lots of people work with us and work with different gamers is as a result of they’re making an attempt to determine what the market is telling them. In any company function, all day lengthy you might be like a horse with blinders on. You are making an attempt to ensure you maintain your operation operating. I can say this as a result of I am a former chief of corporations, and that was how I ended up in LRV as a result of there have been so many issues occurring after I was at Premier, particularly in AI on the time, that I did not have any visibility into. And I assumed, who might I’m going speak to, who might I’m going work with that might be a market translator for me? So that you’re making an attempt to take these blind spots away.”
—Keith Figlioli, managing companion at enterprise capital agency LRVHealth

“The doctor teams which are embracing Medicare Benefit are likely to have a major care perform, the place they’ve the attribution of the lined lives and the place they get to maintain the financial savings from the capitation and the place they will additionally largely management the coding of diagnoses and the administration of the care, whereas hospital programs which have determined to shun Medicare Benefit are these that do not have a major care base and depend on referrals, the place denials and prior auth actually matter for folks’s entry to them. So it is not but clear whether or not these two diverging paths will go and whether or not one will outlive the opposite. Neither path has been rigorously evaluated so far and admittedly, it’s too early to inform what the implications are for suppliers or sufferers on a big scale.”
— Zirui Music, M.D., Ph.D., affiliate professor of well being care coverage and medication within the Division of Well being Care Coverage at Harvard Medical Faculty

“Secretary Mark Ghaly of the California Well being and Human Companies Company did a fireplace chat with us in fall of 2021. He is actually been an enormous supporter of this concept of a rising tide raises all boats. That’s actually not an unusual phrase, however I believe it was actually very acceptable that he used it given how he and the state companies which are beneath him have come collectively to handle the inhabitants as a complete in that public sector multi-payer alignment. They’ve actually completed that superbly. To me, that is a crucial message for states to listen to, as a result of they’ve the ability. They do not have to attend for the non-public sector. Medicare will get to do it on the federal degree. Medicaid can do it on the state degree. And relying on the state, the general public worker profit program could be a enormous further companion in that, particularly for the states which have huge enrollment in these plans. They’ve the power to drive high quality in a manner that is very highly effective. That is the factor that I’d say is the best alternative on the subject of addressing fairness.”
— Kristine Thurston Toppe, vice chairman of state affairs on the Nationwide Committee for High quality Assurance (NCQA), a healthcare accreditation group

“We created a roadmap over three years in a sure order, as a result of some issues are dependent upon others. I need to do some intelligent issues with knowledge, however I would like the information infrastructure first. I need to do some automation with bots, so we have to put within the bots and software program and get folks skilled up on how one can use it. The evaluation on when to do issues consists of asking: how prepared is the group for the expertise? How mature is the expertise for the use case? How are the customers in having access to that expertise? If it is one thing that may be a shiny object that excites all of the nerds on the market, however the medical doctors should not actually concerned with it, I am not going to place that ahead. One good instance is faucet and go. You are taking your badge and also you faucet it to log in. Emory has not rolled that out but. I am doing that instantly, as a result of I do know from earlier expertise that everyone loves it. It is simple to do. Different issues are rather more advanced. When it comes to home-based care, it’s going to take quite a lot of logistics so that’s within the out years. But it surely’s nonetheless on the listing.”
— Alistair Erskine, M.D., M.B.A., Emory Well being’s chief info and digital officer

“So long as we’re hospital-centric in all of our processes and approaches to ship provides and sources and labor, it’s very arduous to pivot to a special setting and to truly take into consideration that setting as being the cornerstone for care versus pondering of the hospital being the cornerstone for care. So it is a huge paradigm shift. I do suppose there’s a rising recognition of the feasibility of it and and more and more, the worth of it.”
— Christine Ritchie, M.D., M.S.P.H., professor of medication at Harvard Medical Faculty

“As soon as we began doing telehealth-only, over 30 p.c of all new sufferers coming into our program had by no means been in an in-person [opioid use disorder] remedy program earlier than. We have been lastly tapping into that invisible 90 p.c that different packages do not serve. And that is simply every part for making an attempt to really tackle this public well being disaster.”
—  Brian Clear, M.D., Bicycle Well being’s chief medical officer

“Labs have been very gradual to return on board, regardless that they’re an actor beneath the information-blocking prohibitions, and it is a little bit campaign of mine to attempt to assist the labs perceive that they should come on board. All of the labs are federally required to share knowledge immediately, at once, with out particular effort within the kind and format that is been requested and so they’re simply not doing it. If I have to get all of David’s labs from each lab that has seen him within the final 10 years as a result of I need to see his longitudinal lab file, that is not potential as a result of individuals are actually breaking the legislation.”
— Steven Lane, M.D., M.P.H, chief medical officer at Well being Gorilla

“A part of the rationale why I got here to the VA from the non-public sector, past feeling honored to have the privilege to look after our nations Veterans, is that I assumed that the VA can function a beacon of what care and fee fashions ought to be for CMS and the non-public sector. The VA has a tremendous alternative and adaptability to do that. That is why the VA was a pacesetter in telemedicine nicely earlier than the COVID pandemic. What we will successfully show might be part of conversations on what adjustments ought to occur within the non-public sector. We’re reaching the outcomes and measuring the issues that matter critically to our Veterans and reaching the associated fee avoidance that’s crucial for long-term sustainability.”
— Cole Zanetti, D.O., M.P.H., the appearing director for value-based care within the VHA’s Heart for Care and Fee Innovation (CCPI) and a senior advisor to the VHA Innovation Ecosystem