Becker's Healthcare Annual Meeting Highlights: AI's Impact, Private Equity in Healthcare, and Growing Concerns about Violence towards Healthcare Workers
We just returned from Becker’s Healthcare four-day Annual Meeting in Chicago. It was a great experience. Where else can you hear from the nation’s top medical minds and from luminaries like former President George W. Bush, Martha Stewart, and former NFL coach Bill Belichick?
Also: ABIG Health team’s designs were on display for Radiant Healthcare and we took some time to watch the eclipse on the first day. One of our key takeaways is that back-office business processing for credentialing and enrollment is a growing space as companies look for, and find, solutions like Radiant Healthcare that will help them reduce costs.
Among the hottest topics, of course, was artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential impact on the healthcare industry. AI is being integrated into several processes across healthcare: documentation, back office processing, scheduling, and operational improvements just to name a few. Click through to read our full newsletter for more on how AI is evolving and some other pressing issues facing providers.
Keep up on AI advances — and how feds are shaping to this new tool
Clinicians are ready to embrace AI. A new Berkeley Research Group study found 75% of healthcare professionals expect widespread implementation of AI within the next three years and 87% are confident in their organizations’ ability to comply with regulations surrounding AI. Additionally, about 60% of providers said the already are providing some form of internal AI training and education while more than half are establishing AI-specific use guidance.
If you want to keep up on AI developments — and how federal policymakers are thinking about the national rules that could guide AI implementation — Punchbowl News has a great resource that examines:
The way Congress and the executive branch are approaching AI as part of the nation’s cybersecurity defense strategy;
How AI has become a crucial tool in healthcare and scientific discovery; and
How small businesses are deploying AI to handle tasks and improve efficiency.
Our BIG Thought: As we have argued before, while we believe strongly in the promise of AI (a tool to stop sepsis — yes!), to put patients at ease, providers and policymakers each will have to work hard to put guardrails in place for adoption. What should that work look like? We would love to partner with you to moderate a discussion like the one we led at George Washington University a few months ago.
A path forward on private equity in healthcare
Private equity (PE) and hospital closures. Private equity’s lock on methadone clinics. The industry’s role in the country’s (questionable) move toward concierge health.
No matter the healthcare topic, private equity’s impact on the industry is getting more and more attention. In early April, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) who chairs the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, requested information from three private equity firms and the distressed physician staffing companies they control. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is considering whether to introduce a bill that would require private equity firms to be licensed before investing in healthcare. The White House is investigating PE healthcare deals.
Are these moves warrented?
Our BIG Thought: If you are reading the headlines, it is easy to come away with the opinion that PE and healthcare are a bad mix for patients, but there is more to the story. Federal regulators, enforcers like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and policymakers need to read the whole novel before they act too forcefully. Read Dr. Adam Brown’s take on this debate.
The threat of violence against healthcare workers is real
According to Becker’s Clinical Leadership, reported assaults against nurses were up five percent between 2022 and 2023 to an all-time high. One-third of registered nurses report experiencing violence “occasionally” or “frequently” from patients or their family members while at work. A separate report from the Emergency Nurses Association found 56% of nurses said they had been physically or verbally assaulted or faced threats of violence at least once in the previous 30 days. Ten percent said they are considering exiting the profession due to this violence.
Meanwhile, KFF Health News reports, “Violence against health care workers is on the rise, including in the ER, where tensions can run high as staff juggle multiple urgent tasks. Covid-19 only made things worse: With routine care harder to come by, many patients ended up in the ER with serious diseases — and brimming with frustrations.”
Our BIG Thought: Let’s be honest: rhetoric coming from national leaders is an important part of this discussion. Whether it is questioning basic science, intervening in the relationship between patients and their providers, questioning the efficacy of vaccines or the fact that the nation just came out of a pandemic, politicians and policymakers must take heed: their words matter and can spill over into violence against nurses and doctors.
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