The Strategy Catalyst Dispatch

The CY2027 OPPS proposed rule (340B cut, site-neutral imaging), Cassidy's 340B reform discussion draft, and Optum's negotiations to sell New York specialty practices from Crystal Run. 

This week's episode covers the House vote to defund the WISeR prior authorization pilot, Eli Lilly's 340B enforcement actions, Nebraska Medicine's National Quarantine Unit, and an HHS OIG report on Medicare Advantage prior auth denials. 

THMA-Tegria research finds 82% of systems call access a strategic pillar but most have trouble executing. We unpack the finance gap, post-acute blind spots, and the governance structures that separate progress from priority fog. Resources mentioned in this episode: The Access-Driven Enterprise Report from THMA and Tegria THMA-Tegria webinar featuring executives from Emory, Sutter, and IU Health Ac...

This week's episode covers proposed Medicaid payment caps, insights from chief physician executives, the medical student shortage, Eli Lilly's 340B ultimatum, and a court ruling on Medicare Advantage star ratings. 

This week's episode covers four hard truths shaping AI strategy for 2026, new CMS rules overhauling the ACA marketplaces, Q1 margin recovery, and a six-month moratorium on new home health and hospice enrollment. 

This week's episode covers Q1 hospital earnings, UnitedHealthcare's prior authorization rollback, the proposed CJR-X model, J-1 visa delays, and CMS's Medicaid revalidation push. 

We dig into how St. Charles Health System, a four-hospital not-for-profit in Central Oregon and the sole major provider across a 32,000-square-mile service area, went from seven Medicare Advantage payers down to one and then turned a twenty-year track record of clinical quality into a negotiating tool that cut cancer treatment authorization times from weeks to a single day. Matt Swafford, CFO, and...

This week's episode covers five big ideas from the Spring CSO Forum, CVS's new pharmacy-only stores, Amazon and Walmart's competing GLP-1 programs, Baylor Scott & White's health plan exit, and who's in and out of the CMS ACCESS model. 

This episode recaps three key themes from the 2026 Strategy Catalyst Summit: what it takes to move service line rationalization from theory to action, what a live scenario planning exercise revealed about strategic preparedness, and who should be owning the AI agenda. Watch our highlight reel from the summit here . And for more on the content referenced in this episode, read our analysis in The St...

This week's episode covers the finalized Medicare Advantage rate increase, new research on AI scribes, Anthropic's unreleased Claude Mythos model and cybersecurity implications, and MedPAC's findings on Medicare Advantage margins. 

This week's episode covers the Sutter Health and Allina Health merger announcement, CMS administrator Mehmet Oz's comments on AI agents for Medicare, key insights from the Strategy Catalyst Summit, and THMA's executive priorities survey results.  

Dr. Peter Newcomer, SVP and Chief Operating Officer at UW Health, walks us through how two organizations that used to compete built a financially aligned, strategically coordinated partnership — without merging. We dig into how the JOA with UnityPoint-Meriter helped UW Health address capacity constraints, delay a major capital build by years, and create a shared patient flow system. 

This week's episode covers the American Medical Association's new maternity payment codes, our new CSO Advisory Council, health system access strategy survey results, and insights on consumer segmentation. 

In this episode, we share highlights from a recent Strategy Catalyst webinar where Liz Jones, Research Director, walked strategy leaders through three disruptors reshaping service lines in 2026 and tested a few intentionally provocative predictions. We cover why payvider M&A slowdowns don't mean reduced threat, what the PE retreat from care delivery means for acquisition timing, and why d...

This week's episode covers Humana's acquisition of MaxHealth, the Trump administration's antitrust appeal, the Supreme Court's tariff ruling, CMS's new ACCESS model rates, and CVS's new GLP-1 drug access service.  

This week's episode covers the end of the proposed 340B rebate pilot, healthcare earnings highlights from HCA, UnitedHealth, and Amazon, the MA rate announcement shaking up payer stocks, ChenMed's new stance on GLP-1s, and Sword Health's acquisition of Kaia Health. 

 This week's episode covers key takeaways from the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, the bipartisan healthcare reform package in Congress, insights from our latest Strategy Catalyst webinar on payviders, PE, and distributors, and Zarminali Pediatrics' expansion into new markets. 

 Women in midlife are the highest healthcare spenders on the managed care side and women use healthcare more than men, even when you take obstetrics out. In this episode, Kathleen McHugh, AVP of Corporate Strategy, and Jennifer Todd, VP of the Women's Service Line at Memorial Hermann walk us through the business case for investing in women's health, why they partnered with MIDI Health to...

This week's episode explores OpenAI's new healthcare-focused AI products, Cencora's new majority stake in OneOncology, the 340B rebate pilot ruling, and our predictions for 2026.

In this episode of The Strategy Catalyst Dispatch , we unpack why expanding a physician workforce alone can't fully resolve access challenges and how Inova Health System has targeted the problem through a coordinated access-and-flow strategy.  Michelle Vassallo, VP of Operations, Clinical Enterprise, walks us through the systemwide standards, centralized infrastructure, and unified referral a...

This week's edition recaps our favorite intel and insights from the Fall 2025 CSO Forum held in San Diego. We also take a look at the new ACCESS model unveiled by CMS with outcomes-based payments.

In this episode of The Strategy Catalyst Dispatch, we explore a commonly cited theme in strategic plans that rarely gets commensurate investment: culture transformation. Matt Terry, Chief Strategy Officer at Wellstar Health System, shares how Wellstar has positioned culture as a strategic pillar to make it visible, measurable, and fundable alongside other enterprise priorities. Building on Strateg...

This week's edition looks at Intermountain Health's pediatric growth strategy, Ballad Health's lawsuit against UnitedHealth, AI highlights from the HLTH 2025 conference, and a recent Senate HELP Committee hearing on 340B reform.

This week's episode covers the shifting landscape for CMS innovation payment models, the challenges that the government shutdown poses for AMCs, Amazon Pharmacy's new prescription drug kiosks, and the Hospital for Special Surgeries partnership with General Atlantic to establish a nationwide ASC chain.

 This week’s episode covers the ongoing federal government shutdown and its implications for health systems, including lapses in telehealth and hospital-at-home flexibilities, paused Medicaid payments, and the potential loss of coverage for millions if ACA subsidies expire. It also explores major insurers’ contraction in Medicare Advantage markets, Evolent Health’s sale of its ACO to Privia Health...