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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Laura Dyrda on Navigating Uncertainty, Leadership Resilience, and AI in Healthcare
00:07:46
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- [00:01]
A
This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I am thrilled today to be joined by Laura Dearda. Laura is the editor in chief at Becker's Healthcare and the absolutely remarkable leader. Laura joins us regularly to talk about what are the top stories that she's watching in healthcare. Laura, why don't I tee it up and ask you to take it away? What are a few of the key stories that you're watching currently?
- [00:22]
B
Thank you so much, Scott. And you know, I think right now we're keeping a very close eye on everything that's happening with the government shutdown. We saw that the Senate passed a spending package to fund the the federal government through January 30, but the decision on whether to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, which will have a huge impact on health care, will have to wait until December. According to coverage from the Wall Street Journal, the spending package, which was passed in a 60:40 vote in the Senate, would fund HHS through the end of January and then the FDA as well as the VA through the full fiscal year. So the spending agreement then would allow the Senate to vote in December on legislation extending the enhanced ACA subsidies set to expire the end of 2025. And it would also deliver back pay to the federal employees and reverse layoffs of some of the federal workers made during the shutdown. The package now is moving to the House of Representatives, who could vote on it as soon as November 12th. And the agreement would likely then reimburse healthcare providers as well. For Medicare telehealth visits that haven't been paid during the stoppage, telehealth claims would be paid retroactive to October 1st. And then claims that were reimbursed at a lower rate because of geographic rule changes would likely be reprocessed as well. And so I think all of those things very present and top of mind for health care leaders and executives and thinking through what they're really looking at for some of these different legislative updates. But kind of the overall bigger picture is that the C suites are really embracing more ambiguity than ever before and figuring out how to navigate through some of these uncertainties in kind of, you know, not always knowing where the funding is going to come from or what policy is going to be shifting forward or backward, but being able to make sure their teams are ready to keep the main thing, the main thing for them thinking about patient care and really focused on how they can build a strong financial stability so that no matter what happens at the federal level, they'll be able to continue operations and as much as possible, lead their organizations through some of this back and forth that we've seen over the last several months.
- [02:30]
A
Thank you. And I think you said that so well about ambiguity. You hear from leaders about dealing with these uncertainties and how they sort of manage through all these uncertainties.
- [02:39]
B
Yeah, absolutely. For sure. I mean, I think, you know, it's something that we have seen before, of course, during some of the disruptive times, COVID 19 pandemic, some of the other legislative changes during, you know, implementing EHR and other technology. But one of the things that feels a little bit different right now is just the pace at how quickly things are swinging forward or backward, not really knowing necessarily whether a strategic plan, again for, you know, late for three years is going to actually pan out or what could happen even six months from now. And so I think what we're hearing from a lot of the leaders is being able to build a solid workforce, build a solid and resilient leadership pipeline is more critical now than ever. And one of the things that they're leaning into when they think about their leadership pipeline and those that they're growing up within their organ is identifying people who can really build relationships. Well, and see relationships as a strategic advantage for them is part of leaning into what makes health care human, of course, especially thinking about how much AI is coming through and can support the operational side. But those leaders who can develop relationships, who can have clear communication and then see the big picture in a meaningful way, can look, you know, five years down the pipe and see what they're going to need to be stable in the future, but at the same time, deal with the very real challenges of today and know where they need to spend their time and resources is going to be critical. So I think that's kind of the biggest takeaway that we've heard from a lot of the discussions during our CEO CFO Roundtable is, you know, figuring out how you can build that pipeline, how you can select the right people for those leadership roles, and then know what you need to do in order to be transparently communicating with your teams and build more resilience across the board.
- [04:28]
A
I think that's great. And where are you at? Or what are you hearing about systems and artificial intelligence and how quickly they're trying to move on it. Any quick headlines there?
- [04:37]
B
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we did have an AI summit at our CEO CFO Roundtable, too. And so a lot of the content and information coming out of that was just fascinating to hear. I think, of course, most executives would agree that AI is now table stakes. Ambient listening and recording is now table stakes for a lot of organizations. They've been able to deploy to various degrees, but it's been successful. They're looking at what is going to be helpful and meaningful for their clinicians as well as their patients. Of course, looking at the outcomes, performance impact of the ambient AI technology right now rests a lot on, you know, looking at provider burnout, reducing the time and charts and those kinds of things, which is, you know, again, not surprising. But, you know, in the future that's not going to be everything and that's not going to be enough to actually continue to invest in that AI and the ambient. They need to be able to kind of find that dollars and cents around what their actual investment is bringing back into the system. And so, you know, we're hearing a lot of different talk and really examinations of what it means for these healthcare leaders to actually bring on a new technology, how they're setting up the right governance structures to identify the companies that they want to partner with and move forward in a smarter, strategic way. I think it's not enough just to have AI in the title anymore is what we're hearing from a lot of these leaders, but truly to have those kind of examples that show where they can either create savings, financial savings, time savings, operational savings directly, or be in a space where they can truly kind of improve the quality of care. I think precision medicine is something that a lot of, especially the academic system and larger organizations are trying to get deeper into as they organize their data and really dig further and deeper into what it can do for them. But then secondly, more of the regional systems and smaller community hospitals still very much open and available for trying and investing in AI. But it has to be the right company, the right fit and the right system so that they can build the technology together, you know, and keep the data safe. For sure.
- [07:02]
A
Laura, just a fantastic take and wrap up. I want to thank you for joining us in the Beckers Healthcare podcast. I always learn a lot. I hope our audience does too. Like you will be cheering for the Chicago White Sox next year. Let's hope it's another year of improvement and getting that sorted out. Maybe they could use AI as well to improve.
- [07:21]
B
That would be helpful. You know, they have not been the most technologically savvy organization. So hopefully in this next year will Venable and the team can bring in some addition talent, you know, on the technology analytics side to, you know, give them a little bit more of a boost.
- [07:37]
A
For sure, let's see if it will help. God bless you. Thank you so much for joining us. They were just fantastic as always. Thank you.
- [07:43]
B
Thanks. Thank you, Scott.