Archive
Everything published by Hospitalogy.
September 2024
- SEP 26Charted: How Mercy Health Turned it around in 2024You guys liked my overview of Ascension Healthcare, so we’re back with another nonprofit health system that just reported its full fiscal…
- SEP 26Charted: the Top 100 Health Systems by Patient Revenue and Discharges, and the Top 59 Children’s Hospitals by Patient Revenue and DischargesCharted: Top 50 Health Systems by Patient Revenue This (public) information was passed along to me by Brady Post (who also co-wrote this…
- SEP 25Ascension Healthcare’s Wild Year: How Ascension is Redefining itself in 2024 and BeyondAscension recently reported their 2024 report and I thought it was worth looking into for you guys. Long story short, Ascension is in the midst of a rapid strategic shift as they look to exit undesirable markets and restructure the health system’s portfolio and associated assets around what’s working.
- SEP 19🏥 September and August RecapToday's newsletter is a link roundup on major developments across policy, partnerships, innovation, and more - including some great data…
- SEP 18PEP Health: Redefining Care QualityHospitalogists, I’ve been talking with an innovative company looking to redefine healthcare, and I’m excited to share this essay with you…
- SEP 18The Biggest Issues and Trends for Hospitals Entering Q4 and 2025: Analyzing recent HCA, Tenet, UHS, CHS, and Nonprofit CommentaryThe main themes continue to be the main themes for hospitals: utilization is up, acuity is up, exchange volumes are providing material…
- SEP 18🏥 PEP Health: Redefining Care QualityI’ve been talking with an innovative company looking to redefine healthcare, and I’m excited to share this essay with you guys today.
- SEP 17🏥 4 Takeaways for Advanced Primary Care from Astrana's Q2Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimized by this year’s Fantasy Football injuries disaster .
- SEP 12🏥 Q2 Nonprofit Health System UpdatesI'm back from SF and the Rock Health Summit where we learned about obesity treatment & GLP-1s, food as medicine, what healthcare might look…
- SEP 10🏥 Revisiting 2024 Predictions(Sorry for the Texas propaganda, moving on to healthcare now)
- SEP 5Q2 2024 Cross-Comparison of Public Hospital Operator PerformanceJoin Lumeris’ Rick Goddard, Mercy’s Michael Englehart, and me on Tuesday, September 24 in a virtual event where we’ll be diving into the…
- SEP 3🏥 Wrapping UpI hope you guys enjoyed the long weekend.
August 2024
- AUG 29Emerging and ongoing trends for nonprofit and for-profit health systems entering 2H 2024This week continues our series on major themes from hospital earnings – management commentary, key trends to take note of, financial trends…
- AUG 28Medallion: Credentialing Partners for the Long-TermHappy Wednesday, Hospitalogy fam. Today I’m continuing my series with the Medallion team to break down their value prop for Hospitalogists…
- AUG 27🏥 Drugmakers go DirectI can tell the healthcare folks are BACK from their summer vacations and ready for Q3/Q4.
- AUG 23🏥 Tenet Q2 One-PagerHappy Thursday, Hospitalogists, I’m hitting your inboxes a bit later today but that’s alright because I’ve got some fun hospital analysis…
- AUG 20🏥 Playing Catch UpWelcome to another Tuesday and the blessing of another day of life!
- AUG 19The Ardent Health BreakdownThere’s a new kid (hospital operator) in town by the name of Ardent Health.
- AUG 19The State of Value-Based Care Enablement in 2024You guys know I love the enablement space, and the value-based care space at large.
- AUG 15🏥 One-Page HCA Q2 BreakdownI know I’ve hit you twice this week with a Care Continuity business model breakdown and the latest in retail health, so today’s send is my…
- AUG 13🏥 Retail Health Headwinds + Amazon's Long GameToday's post is a collaboration with Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, who writes the Surgeon's Record and has excellent content.
- AUG 12The Care Continuity Company Breakdown: Transforming Patient NavigationHi Hospitalogists! Blake here. Today, we’re continuing the series on all things care navigation in partnership with Care Continuity (Read…
- AUG 8🏥 Ardent Health Part 3Like I asked on Tuesday, I need a huge favor from you all.
- AUG 7Hims & Hers, and the Brewing GLP-1 Compounding ControversyGLP-1s are on track to be one of the most profitable drug classes of all time – and everyone wants in on the action.
July 2024
- JUL 30Humana Takes over Walmart (Health)Humana’s CenterWell takes over leases at 23 Walmart Health sites On July 24th, Humana announced intentions for CenterWell, its senior…
- JUL 29NeuroFlow: The Deep Costs of Suicide, and the Promise of PreventionToday’s special edition is a deep dive with the NeuroFlow team on the deep costs of suicide, and how new suicide prevention tools hold promise to change the game for families nationwide, along with benefiting our healthcare system to a secondary degree.
- JUL 29🏥NeuroFlow: Suicide Prevention at ScaleToday’s special edition is a deep dive with the NeuroFlow team on how new suicide prevention tools hold game-changing potential to prevent…
- JUL 29🏥NeuroFlow: Suicide Prevention at ScaleToday’s special edition is a deep dive with the NeuroFlow team on how new suicide prevention tools hold game-changing potential to prevent…
- JUL 25🏥 There's a New Kid in TownI'm spending the next couple of Thursdays (part 1 and part 2) on the most recent hospital operator to hit the public markets - Ardent…
- JUL 25🏥 Ardent Health, Part 1I'm spending the next couple of Thursdays (part 1 and part 2) on the most recent hospital operator to hit the public markets - Ardent…
- JUL 25🏥 There's a New Kid in TownI'm spending the next couple of Thursdays (part 1 and part 2) on the most recent hospital operator to hit the public markets - Ardent…
- JUL 23Ardent Health Goes Public, Commure acquires Augmedix, and Surgery Partners up for Sale?SF friends! Come visit me on Wed 9/11 for HealthTech Hang’s happy hour.
- JUL 23🏥 Ardent Goes Public, Augmedix Goes PrivateLots of healthcare news to get through today.
- JUL 23🏥 AI ConsolidationLots of healthcare news to get through today.
- JUL 18🏥 UnitedHealth Group's Q2 in 4 ChartsToday's is a quick scan of UnitedHealth Group's Q2 with some notes and analysis below.
- JUL 16🏥 Summer RecapHospitalogists, To all of you playing CFB 25 and pretending to work, I hear you. Welcome.
- JUL 11Yet Another Cut: Physicians Lose the Fee Schedule Battle AgainSince the 2025 proposed Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) went live yesterday, I’ve put together some jumbled thoughts on interesting tidbits…
- JUL 11🏥 Yet Another Budget CutThis newsletter is sponsored by my wife. It's her birthday today and she's turning the big 3-0, a milestone I hit earlier in the year.
- JUL 11🏥 Yet Another Budget CutThis newsletter is sponsored by my wife. It's her birthday today and she's turning the big 3-0, a milestone I hit earlier in the year.
- JUL 9Not another AI Health Coach: Why Healthcare is Human, and Always will beHealthcare would be a lot better off if we stopped trying to solve human problems with pure software solutions.
- JUL 9🏥 AI ToxicityHealthcare would be a lot better off if we stopped trying to solve human problems with pure software solutions.
- JUL 9🏥 AI ToxicityHealthcare would be a lot better off if we stopped trying to solve human problems with pure software solutions.
- JUL 4🏥 8 Visuals Defining Healthcare in 2024Hospitalogists, A short and sweet one today to cap off the week. Like...legitimately no words - all visuals.
- JUL 2HATCo – a Marketing Ploy, or a Serious Health System Transformation Vehicle? Breaking down the Summa Health AcquisitionHospitalogists, I’m happy to be joined once again by Health Data Atlas founder and Board Room member Michael Stratton.
June 2024
- JUN 27🏥 8 Takeaways from Health System Q1 2024 FinancialsToday concludes the Hospitalogy Beach Reads as I return from Florida soon.
- JUN 26🏥 State of EnablementHappy Wednesday, Hospitalogists! You guys know I love the enablement space, and the value-based care space at large.
- JUN 25🏥 Kaiser's Busy 2024I'm at the beach, but the content doesn't stop.
- JUN 20Healthcare AI’s Public DebutHospitalogists, Thanks to everyone for the outpouring of support for my ‘investigative’ piece on Done.
- JUN 18Done is Done: How Ruthia He turned ADHD Telehealth Platform Done into a pill mill, exploiting patients for profit.I’ve unexpectedly been in conversation with multiple sources close to Done, and I have the full inside story of what went wrong (spoiler: a lot) and the latest ongoing developments internally. So with that backdrop, today, we’re diving into how one founder – Ruthia He – exploited well-meaning people, created a culture of gaslighting and deceit, and created one of the worst-acting pill mill enterprises to date. Done is one of the worst examples of exploiting patients, providers, and even internal employees – for pure profit.
- JUN 13No Growing Pains: Sword Health’s $3 Billion Journey to becoming an AI Care Company, and the red-hot virtual MSK spacePain sucks. Right now, billions of people globally deal with pain on a daily basis.
- JUN 11Waystar’s IPO, Elevance and Enablement, and Walmart Health’s $230M LossHappy Tuesday Hospitalogists, You’re looking at (well…reading about) the two-time Big Jack Open Madden family golf scramble champion from…
- JUN 6Diving into the Pennsylvania Health System Merger Mania with a deeper look at the Jefferson Health – Lehigh Valley Health Network MergerHospitalogists, I’m back from the mother land (Austin) after convening with my teammates from the mothership (Workweek) feeling energized…
- JUN 3Return of the Healthcare IPO – is this time different?Happy Tuesday, Hospitalogists, I’m in Austin for the Workweek retreat (Hospitalogy is affiliated with Workweek) and having a grand old time…
- JUN 32024: The Year of Health System Margin Recovery – Analyzing Q1 2024 Hospital PerformanceHappy Thursday Hospitalogists, I …think…there’s some other major news happening right about now, but I’m sure you guys would rather be…
May 2024
- MAY 28The CVS Struggle: Why CVS can’t get out of its own way in 2024In 2024, CVS is struggling. Since 2010, an investment in CVS has underperformed the broader market significantly.
- MAY 28🏥 Revisiting Amazon's Healthcare StrategyChange of plans today - After a long weekend and with Dallas in a state of emergency ( and consequently being without power, childcare, and…
- MAY 22How Tampa General supercharged its delegated credentialing strategy with MedallionHappy Wednesday, Hospitalogists! I’m back in your inbox with the latest installment in my series with Medallion on everything credentialing.
- MAY 21Oscar Health’s Profitable Q1Happy Thursday Hospitalogists! If you’ve missed any of my recent content, they are ready for your perusal at the following links.
- MAY 21🏥 $199 GLP-1s?I'm back from Pennsylvania ready to break down the latest healthcare news for you guys.
- MAY 15Analyzing Privia’s start to 2024, and Steward Health Care’s next ChapterHappy Tuesday, Hospitalogists! I hope you’re having a great start to the week.
- MAY 15The Healthcare Industrial Machine Rolls on: Analyzing 13 Years of Health Insurer Revenue GrowthHappy Thursday, 2024 is quickly shaping up to be the year of cybersecurity incidents, as rumor has it Ascension has been taken offline…
- MAY 15Breaking down Payor Performance in Q1Diverging Payor Performance during Q1 2024 Earnings Season I broke down HCA and Tenet’s Q1 performance last week here, so I wanted to…
- MAY 2Hospital Breakout, Payor Breakdown: HCA, Tenet Hit the ground running in 2024Today is day 1 of the new Thursday format. Let me know what you guys think!
- MAY 2The End of Walmart Health, and Retail Health’s Demise?We’re a month into my new format, and I’ve finally had the chance to finish the revamped newsletter format and cadence.
April 2024
- APR 25How to Kill a Health System in 5 Easy Steps: Breaking Down the Commons Clinic StrategyToday is a fun one! I’ve been chatting with Commons Clinic co-founder Nick Aubin for a while now, and he’s given me the go-ahead to share some exclusive news with you guys so you hear it first through Hospitalogy. Along with that announcement, I’m also taking a dive into the Commons Clinic model and why their team is well positioned along a number of tailwinds in healthcare – a new partnership model for orthopedists, movement toward value-based specialty care, growth in orthopedic procedures, and vertical integration.
- APR 25Non-Competes Banned, and UnitedHealth Group’s Q1Big news – we’ve crossed 30,000 Hospitalogists! That’s about 30% of Texas’ DKR Memorial Stadium, so we’re getting there, fam.
- APR 18Diving into Physician Corporatization: The Latest Numbers on Physician EmploymentHappy Thursday Hospitalogists, Avalere published its latest study on physician employment trends this week, so you know I had to dive in.
- APR 17Paylocity: The One-Stop Healthcare HR ShopHappy Wednesday Hospitalogists, Today we’re diving into the world of healthcare HR alongside Paylocity – a one-stop shop for all things…
- APR 16An Epic Dispute, Carelon’s Vertical Integration Foray, and more healthcare news: 4/16/24 Hospitalogy UpdateThanks to everyone for the great comments and collaboration on the largest health systems by revenue piece I published Thursday!
- APR 11113 of the Largest Health Systems Ranked by Revenue as of 2023Happy Thursday, Hospitalogists, For those who partake, it’s the best weekend of the year for golfers – Masters weekend. Who ya got?
- APR 11The MultiPlan Fiasco, $9 Nurses, and other weekly healthcare storiesGood morning to everyone except the hackers who apparently keep extorting Change Healthcare. Yikes.
- APR 4🏥 Kaiser, Risant, and GeisingerI hope you're enjoying your Thursday! Today's a fun one.
- APR 2Major Announcement: On the future of Hospitalogy and a Community RevampHospitalogists, I’ve got some big news to share about the future of Hospitalogy that affects this newsletter and our community — consider it…
March 2024
- MAR 28Private Equity’s Role in Healthcare: Comments from HospitalogistsI received some great responses from my newsletter on private equity’ role in healthcare and finding an equilibrium, so I decided to turn it into a third send (all anonymous). Lots of great perspectives below and I enjoyed those of you who took the time to respond!
- MAR 263/26/24 Roundup: CMS Launches a new payment model, MA Final Rate notice watch, Modern Health Shutdown, and moreHappy Tuesday! NEXT Tuesday, I have a big announcement on the future of Hospitalogy. Stay tuned!
- MAR 25Private Equity in Healthcare: Where do we go from here? A balanced look at the good and bad of PE in HealthcareA balanced look at the good and bad of private equity in healthcare and why we need private investment in the industry
- MAR 19🏥VindicationHospitalogy, meet Bracketology. If you’re into March Madness and you’ve filled out a bracket, join the Hospitalogy Bracket Challenge here .
- MAR 153 Pain Points & Opportunities Finance & Strategy Leaders Are Facing in 2024Hospitalogists, I’m excited to co-publish this piece alongside Unlock Health’s Chief Revenue Strategy & Managed Care Officer, Kevin…
- MAR 15🏥 Let's chat about Private EquityGiven all of the hubbub around private equity in healthcare, M&A, and capital markets, there’s quite a bit to catch up on in the space.
- MAR 12Hospitalogy Roundup: State of the Union Highlights and other notable weekly healthcare news3.12.24 Intro I’m still not recovered from the absolute yearly ambush that is Daylight Savings Time’s spring forward.
- MAR 7Analyzing the $19.2B merger between Northwell Health and Nuvance HealthWith this newsletter being the third send this week, I didn’t want to overwhelm you guys so this post is visually heavy, and short and sweet…
- MAR 6Care Continuity: the air traffic control for your health systemI recently connected with the Care Continuity team and for health system folks, Care Continuity has a great value prop to get patients navigated within your network, transition them between care settings, and help you with your overall ambulatory strategy through better analytical information, ultimately preventing network leakage.
- MAR 5UnitedHealth Group’s Antitrust Review: This time is different?Welcome to Hospitalogy, a newsletter breaking down healthcare finance, M&A, and strategy twice weekly.
February 2024
- FEB 29🏥 February RecapI join you today from Nashville where I’m participating in a few fun healthcare panels at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center.
- FEB 27Change Healthcare clicked the wrong linkGood morning, I hope everyone is having a great time at ViVE! I couldn’t make it this year, but you guys better be Vive’ing in my stead.
- FEB 22Tenet’s Multi-Year Bet on ASCs: How going all-in on USPI is leading to outperformance for Tenet HealthcareHappy Thursday all! Today’s is a quick one on Tenet Healthcare’s Q4 and full year 2023 as a follow up to HCA’s I did back on 2/1.
- FEB 20Hospitalogy Roundup 2/20/2024 – Cancelled mergers: SCAN Group, CareOregon; Blue Cross of Louisiana, Elevance call it quitsHospitalogists, For those of you who partake in President’s Day, I hope you had a restful, 3-day weekend.
- FEB 15Analyzing Oak Street Health’s Growth Trajectory from Private, to Public, to Vertically Integrated with CVSHow has Oak Street Health’s growth trajectory and profitability changed throughout its life as a private, public, and now vertically integrated company?
- FEB 13Hospitalogy 2/13 Roundup: MA Advance Rate Notice, $5B Children’s Hospital Project, Primary Care Merger, and MoreGood morning Hospitalogists, If you’re tired of the unrelenting, unstoppable bombardment of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce since Sunday…
- FEB 8Oscar’s Pirate Ship: How the Insurtech is Reinventing itself in 2024Today’s post is all about Oscar Health and its ascent out of the abyss. Why am I posting an upbeat essay on an insurtech in 2024? I’ll tell you why, and then you can tell me what you think.
- FEB 6Healthcare Fire Sales – Cigna’s MA biz, Cano’s Bankruptcy, and the Steward Health Care FiascoHappy Tuesday, Hospitalogists. I hope your February’s are off to a swimmingly wonderful start.
- FEB 18 Key Takeaways From HCA Healthcare’s 2023Who better to kick off the Hospitalogy one-page executive summaries than HCA Healthcare, the 186-hospital operator generating $65B in annual revenue?
January 2024
- JAN 29The Hospitalogy January Recap: 18 of the biggest stories across the healthcare landscapeHospitalogists, We’re 1 month into 2024 already. Isn’t that insane?
- JAN 25The New, NEW Utilization Normal: Why the Pendulum is Swinging back to Providers in 2024Patient volumes are BACK in a big way in 2024. It’s an ongoing trend extending back to the second quarter of 2023. And everyone is watching, waiting, to see how volumes play out. So, what happened in 2023? In what areas is volume returning? Finally, what are the downstream implications of this ‘New’ New post-post-Covid Utilization Normal ™ on payors, providers, and risk-bearing organizations?
- JAN 22The Hospitalogy JP Morgan Roundup: Updates from Privia, ApolloMed, Centene, Talkspace, and moreHere’s the rest of my roundup from JP Morgan, highlighting some of the more interesting stuff from around the public company presentations and notable commentary.
- JAN 22Data Visualization ToolkitThe art of sharing data is rooted in thoughtful design.
- JAN 19Credentialing 2.0: How a behavioral health group transformed its growth strategy by streamlining legacy credentialing through Medallion’s superior platform and processToday we’re continuing the series on credentialing by diving into a real world example on how a good strategy and the right partner drives scalability, provider retention, and other positive effects on your organization.
- JAN 18Hospitalogy Year in Review, Part 3: The Rise of Retail Health and Non-Traditional PlayersOne of the more trends that struck me as fascinating this year was watching the utter chaos happening among retail and nontraditional players trying to enter healthcare and figure out cohesive strategies. Bottom line: large retailers want a piece of the healthcare pie, and you should expect stepwise and incremental movement into healthcare from here for most of these (Amazon, Best Buy, various grocers, Walgreens, etc). The below is what I perceive to be close to a comprehensive review of what each player did in 2023, and what their core focus in healthcare is.
- JAN 16What’s Top of Mind for Health Systems post-JP MorganWhat’s Top of Mind for Health Systems post-JP Morgan – Hospitalogy
- JAN 11Hospitalogy 2023 Year in Review, Part 2: Big-Picture Trends in Medicare Advantage, ACA Marketplace, and Medicaid will drive the healthcare landscape forwardmuch of what’s occurring across government health insurance programs ties into the vertical integration trends, and ties into where investment dollars are headed in 2024. Here’s what happened, and where we’re headed across Medicare Advantage, ACA marketplace, and Medicaid.
