Hospitalogists,
I hope you're all enjoying a wonderful holiday. This December was baby Madden's first Christmas, and we got to spend it with the whole fam. I wouldn't trade these memories for anything.
This week we're diving into some lighter newsletters with the year wrapping up, then we'll hit the ground running in 2024.
With that being said, here were some of my favorite reads from 2024. Did you have a favorite read? Shoot me a reply with the best thing you read this year and I'll add it to the online version of this post! Finally, please excuse the varying formats from month to month. |
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The Hospitalogy Top Healthcare Reads from 2023 |
January - If you have the WSJ, a highly recommended read regarding the NFL's Damar Hamlin incident and the growing mental health concerns facing the NFL. (Read more)
- I enjoyed this overview of AI in healthcare headed into 2023 (Read more)
- Why are clinical trials so expensive? (Read more)
- ICYMI: I posted the Hospitalogy healthcare 2022 year in review. Read it here! (Read more)
- This article was a nice overview from McKinsey of the value-based care landscape and predictions for growth into 2027 - a $1 trillion opportunity. (Read more)
- X=primary care published a nice overview of the direct primary care landscape (Read more)
- This was a great dive into hospital market dynamics with a specific focus on HCA's strategy. (Read more)
- Would you sell your extra kidney? (Read more)
- Damar Hamlin's collapse and the mental health concerns facing the NFL (Read more - paywall WSJ)
- McKinsey released a comprehensive report detailing things to expect in US healthcare in 2023 and beyond. Despite the profit pool chart crime, it's a solid look at what's ahead. (Read more)
- The mental health burden athletes face - a nice read on the NFL and the pressure that athletes face in competing. (Two Docs and a Stack)
- Silicon Valley Bank dropped its 2022 report on healthcare investment, IPO, and trend insights. (Read more)
- Florence Healthcare released a superb report on the state of clinical trials operations technology. As someone who doesn't know a ton about this space, it was super interesting to dive into. (Read more)
- Bain released a nice overview of the healthcare private equity market 2022: year in review and outlook. (Read more)
- Packy and Elliott's recent post and investment thesis on Atomic AI and the capabilities of RNA was a great read. (Read more)
- The VMG team released a great report on the ASC's year in review, covering a wide array of topics and everything that ASC operators would need to know headed into 2023. (Read more)
February - Pharmacy benefit managers: the middle men for the middle men. (AHCW)
- Health Affairs wrote a nice overview of workforce composition in private equity affiliated practices versus non PE practices. (HA)
- And finally: a gut-wrenching story. UnitedHealthcare Tried to Deny Coverage to a Chronically Ill Patient. He Fought Back, Exposing the Insurer's Inner Workings. (ProPublica)
- Betty Chang wrote a nice overview of common pitfalls facing digital health startups and her thoughts on how to overcome those challenges. Easier said than done! (Link)
- A nice dissertation from Liz Kirk on how payment models are financially incentivizing value-based care, which is pushing the movement forward. (HCD)
- Steak dinners, sales reps, and risky procedures: inside the big business of clogged arteries. (Propublica)
- Vick's Picks discussed innovations in end-of-life care across hospice, advance care planning, and more. (Vicks Picks)
- Eric Topol had a nice distillation of the Hospital at Home movement (Topol)
- Summit Health Advisors released a great report on healthcare platforms in 2023 and why they're poised to win long-term. (Summit)
- This Overview of Teladoc and Livongo moving forward past 2023 was a great read. (MedCity)
- Some recent, interesting Twitter threads:
- A market map of psychedelic startups
- Rethinking women's health
- Medicare Advantage and acute care utilization
March - Hal Andrews shared a great read on pricing opacity - It's All About the Rate (Trilliant)
- Everything you think you know about homelessness is wrong (Noahpinion)
- Macro trends in contraception (Fertility Rules)
- Denied by AI: How Medicare Advantage plans use algorithms to cut off care for seniors in need. (Stat)
- Is vision insurance a scam? (Out of Pocket)
- 'Indentured servitude': Nurses hit with hefty debt when trying to leave hospitals (NBC)
- Is there an emergency for Emergency Medicine? (Sheriff of Sodium)
- Zach Miller wrapped up his great 4-part anthology series looking at learning differences. (Post-Op)
- Nikhil's recent post on screening healthy people and the unforeseen, nuanced issues that doing so creates. (OOP)
- A great overview of Lilly's R&D process and history. (WSJ)
April - Health Affairs published a provocative, thoughtful piece around CMS payment reform, and how current value-based care efforts are leading to the corporatization of primary care rather than primarily improve care capacity or quality. I'd love to hear readers' opinions on this piece. (Health Affairs)
- James Leckie wrote a great post around employer-sponsored health insurance and self-funded health plans. (AHCW)
- David Paul dove into the nursing shortage and the emerging & present venture opportunity in the space, including spaces within it that are more compelling to watch. (Link)
- Brendan Keeler wrote about the 3 ways to integrate with other healthcare organizations. (HAPIG)
- Ro wrote an incredibly comprehensive overview of the obesity problem, GLP-1s, common questions, getting into the obesity debate, and more. (Link)
- GettingClinical wrote an informative piece on Large Language Models in Healthcare (Link)
- If you haven't read our overview of AI in healthcare, you should. It's one of the better pieces out there right now in healthcare. Read it here! (Link)
- This WSJ (paywall) feature on hospitals embracing the new wave of staffing firms and the nursing gig economy was a really great read and compelling look at the potential workforce makeup of tomorrow. (Link)
May - I would be remiss not to include the NY Times profile of Elizabeth Holmes with the following byline: "Liz Holmes Wants you to Forget About Elizabeth: The black turtlenecks are gone. So is the voice. As the convicted Theranos founder awaits prison, she has adopted a new persona: devoted mother." Although I wouldn't necessarily consider it a 'top read' it's on here moreso from the shock value perspective. There is no doubt that the NYT was trying to be provocative to bring some attention to itself with this piece. I'd be the first in line to tell you that I believe in forgiveness and second chances, but there's also a saying that comes to mind for me in this instance: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them." Anyone who has read John Carreyrou's ironclad journalism in Bad Blood knows that Holmes deserves everything coming her way. She actively made choices leading to financial fraud and employee death by suicide. (Link)
- This was a good overview of the $100B estimated weight loss market from Fierce's Heather Landi. The write-up covers the rapidly growing obesity space and the players involved in trying to capitalize on the market. (Link)
- Health Affairs is publishing a multi-part series on megatrends in healthcare which the author expects to shape healthcare over the coming decade. You can probably guess most of them if you read Hospitalogy. (Link)
- This post from xpostfactoid discussed potential policy changes to Medicare Advantage risk adjustments and current dynamics at play. (Link)
- I enjoyed this write-up from Business Insider on Truepill's challenges as a startup in the digital pharmacy space. (Link - paywall)
- Drug Channels' update of vertical integration between insurers, specialty pharmacies, and providers is worth a read. (Link)
- Alongside Brendan Keeler, the Healthcare Platform Blog posted an article on how APIs are increasingly enabling the 'platforming' of healthcare, transforming how data is shared and utilized in the industry. As APIs facilitate seamless integration and interoperability, they're set to revolutionize health IT landscapes, opening new avenues for innovation, collaboration, and patient-centered care. (Link)
June - A new startup Ezra, which provides full-body preventive scans in an effort to prevent cancer, was featured in a recent Not Boring sponsored piece. I really enjoy Packy's writing and thought the piece (despite being sponsored) prompted an interesting discussion on the value of preventive screening and pushing the needle forward with more efficient scanning, innovation in medical imaging. Of course, these potential benefits contrast against scan access (it's all out of pocket, thousands of dollars) and downstream over-utilization problems that a startup like Ezra is bound to create at scale. Nikhil's piece on over-utilization of diagnostic testing and screening healthy people is a good counterbalance to the discussion. (Link)
- Nikhil Krishnan wrote a nice overview on CPT Codes - their origins, what they incentivize, and challenging dynamics that an evolving healthcare world faces given the system. (Link)
- Chrissy Farr did a great deep dive into the obesity market, peeling back the layers of a complex chronic condition. (Link)
- Rock Health wrote a wonderful dive into the world of Medicaid and the abundant, underrated opportunity in the space. (Link)
- Two Docs and a Substack released a nice overview of the behavioral health space, including some spicy takes on consolidation and specialization vs. generalization over time. (Link)
- Ultimately, we predict that the hyper-specialized behavioral health platforms will become acquisition targets for the generalist providers of care, which is when their true power will be unlocked as they will be available to increasingly broader swaths of the population.
- Chrissy Farr and Leslie Schrock wrote an excellent essay on the state of the fertility market. (Link)
- While at ViVE I joined the Friends of Project Healthcare for a podcast about my background, growing a healthcare newsletter, and current trends in healthcare. It was a great discussion and I'd love to hear readers' thoughts on the discussion! (Link)
- This essay was a solid note on value-based care in Health Affairs, defending its 'value' proposition from recent criticisms. (Link)
- A recent piece from the WSJ (paywall) dives into concerns when AI meddles in patient care, even going so far as to overrule nurses. Although AI holds vast potential in clinical settings, we need to acknowledge its current shortcomings and develop guardrails for patients and clinicians. (Link)
- ProPublica published an investigative piece on outpatient vascular care and the bad actors that developed in the space after the implementation of financial incentives in the space. (Link)
- A pair of nice essays in healthcare came from the NY Times this week - the first discussing five other countries' healthcare systems and what the US can take from them, and the second discussing the ongoing corporatization of healthcare and physicians' emerging moral crisis from the trend.
- This story related to the Harvard Medical School morgue and a bad actor selling body parts was insane. (Link)
- Paul Keckley shared some great thoughts on the disconnect between the Fed and healthcare policymakers - "The Fed pays inadequate attention to the healthcare economy." (Link)
July - McKinsey published some fantastic intel on the Medicare Advantage space including how payors should navigate the rapidly changing environment. (Link)
- The Commonwealth Fund wrote up a nice piece on value-based payments and drug reimbursement models. (Link)
- I enjoyed this read from MedCity news on the 'Costco Model' for the healthcare supply chain and how it could be a significant source of value. (Link)
- The 2024 MPFS Analysis by Mcdermott consulting provides insights into the proposed changes to the physician fee schedule. (Link)
- A Substack post discusses VBC Enablement and its role in paving the way for value. (Link)
August - Visual Capitalist published a great visual on the innovation and history of vaccines & antivirals. (Link)
- Jared Dashevsky wrote a nice piece on Neko Health and whole-body scans (Link)
- Zach Miller dove into the healthcare M&A world for his latest series on healthcare services buyouts. (Link)
- Daniel Kaplan penned an excellent series on venture capital in senior care, covering a number of trends happening across the space and where payors are looking for investment. (Link)
- On Thursday, August 24 at 2pm ET, join Freshpaint's Ray Mina and me as we chat about the latest in HIPAA compliance and digital marketing in a world of Pixel scandals and lawsuits.
- For healthcare marketing leaders and compliance executives, this conversation is going to be a must-listen, and we'll have an audience Q&A where we'll dive into questions top of mind for you and your organizations! Save your Seat here.
- The hidden fee costing doctors millions every year. This piece by ProPublica is actually insane and personifies the structural disadvantages for smaller providers. (Link)
- This long, well written overview of UnitedHealth Group was a fascinating read into the giant's beginnings. Quite biased, though; lots of spin about how apparently every decision ever made at the organization was a cruel twist of fate toward an evil end. (Link)
- Xpostfactoid pondered if the FTC's suggested prohibition of noncompete clauses might reduce the corporatization of healthcare. (Link)
- The AHA provided insights on strategic investment in healthcare innovation. (Link)
- The New York Times discussed the origins of new weight loss drugs but expressed uncertainty about their mechanism of action. (Link)
- The Wall Street Journal delved into the rapidly expanding industry surrounding mental health and American anxiety. (Link)
- Nikhil Krishnan shared a nice piece on how individuals, regardless of their technical proficiency, can analyze public healthcare datasets. (Link)
- A recent analysis shared by MedCity News shows that members enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) programs tend to use post-acute services less frequently compared to those enrolled in Traditional Medicare. (Link)
- This was an interesting study from JAMA presenting an article that delves into the trends observed in cumulative disenrollment in the Medicare Advantage Program over a decade, from 2011-2020. (Link)
September - ProPublica delves into the perplexing nature of insurance denial appeals, detailing the complexities and confusions of the system.(Link)
- In an article from The Wall Street Journal, the rise of full-body scans among the affluent is investigated. The story poses the question of whether such practices lead to early disease detection or are they simply redundant. (Link)
- This was a good piece on healthcare disruption from Medpage Today. (Link)
- From an insider perspective, Dr. Hugh Harvey's tweet thread discussing the collapse of Babylon Health and how their AI was actually a bunch of Excel decision trees was unreal. (Link)
- Carbon Health's CPO Ayokunle Omojola penned a great analysis and thought-provoking piece on How to build sustainably differentiated tech enabled healthcare services businesses: "My hypothesis is that innovations in reimbursement, operations, or patient acquisition correlate more highly with success, than clinical innovations do. Even if you discover an approach with better clinical outcomes for patients, unless you also have figured out the economics in advance, you'll likely be out of business before payors adopt it (because there's no actual urgency for them to adopt it)." (Link)
- How Epic took over the hospital market - a great dive into Epic's strategy from ModernHealthcare's Gabriel Perna. (Link)
- Trilliant Health took a nice data-driven dive into the supply of various physician, clinician and APP groups across select markets. (Link)
- Devoted Health published an interesting paper on its care delivery model Patient Priorities Care - a clinical framework designed to align primary and specialty care around patient-specific idiosyncratic needs. (Link)
- a16z's latest essay focuses on 'jobs to be done' in healthcare given the two emergent use cases: intelligent aggregation of large datasets to inform decision-making; and labor-intensive tasks with little / no software adoption in the arena. Nice little chart below. Near term, I'm much more bullish on the admin & back-office functions than the clinical side of things. The essay is a nice little breakdown of their investment thesis. (Link)
- This was a great study that dove into the rapidly expanding role of the APP in care delivery: "The proportion of visits delivered by nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the USA is increasing rapidly and now accounts for a quarter of all healthcare visits." (Link)
- More life sciences than services or tech (which I usually covered) but I enjoyed this dive into Illumina by Elliott Hershberg. (Link)
- This deep dive on drug costs and retail pharmacy pricing factors was a fascinating dive by 3Axis Advisors. (Link)
- A post-mortem on Babylon…but this time more from a general perspective and a warning on AI startup unicorns. (Link)
October November December |
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Thanks for the read! Let me know what you thought by replying back to this email. Again, submit your faves to me if you have some. — Blake |
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