Radio Advisory

To make progress on delivering behavioral healthcare at scale, we have to hold up examples of what progress looks like—and unpack how we achieve it. That was the goal of our live panel discussion at the Advisory Board Summit in Washington, D.C., moderated by Radio Advisory co-host Abby Burns. In today’s episode of Radio Advisory, hear Abby’s conversation with three provider leaders—Dr. Tristan Gor...

Treatments like cell and gene therapies (CGTs) and GLP-1s are transforming care, but with double-digit growth in drug spend year over year, this transformation comes with an unsustainable price tag. And it’s putting pressure on every part of the healthcare ecosystem, from patients and providers to employers and health plans. The strategies that purchasers have used to manage drug spend in the past...

On July 4th, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law. In this “minisode,” host Rachel (Rae) Woods unpacks the sweeping implications of the most significant healthcare legislation since the Affordable Care Act. From enhanced subsidies expiring to major cuts to Medicaid and ACA marketplace coverage on the horizon, Rae explores what this legislation means for pro...

In this special live episode from the 2025 Advisory Board Summit, host Rachel (Rae) Woods sits down with a leader well-versed in bold transformation: Paul Markovich. After more than a decade as President and CEO of Blue Shield of California, Paul now leads Ascendiun—a new nonprofit parent company that includes Blue Shield of California, its clinical services firm Altais, and the newly launched hea...

Healthcare executives are closely watching legislative activity in Congress—anticipating shifts in government-funded insurance, new economic headwinds, and regulatory changes. And while change is certainly coming, what remains uncertain is how these forces will shape market dynamics and organizational finances. To help hospitals and health systems prepare, Advisory Board’s quantitative experts dev...

When experts warn that the economy could be headed for a recession, people working across different corners of the economy get nervous. People working in healthcare, maybe less so. That’s because of a longstanding idea that healthcare is impervious to recession. Okay, maybe that’s overstating it. Healthcare is less susceptible than other industries. But did this notion hold up during the pandemic?...

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to generate excitement across healthcare, promising to reduce clinician burnout, fuel innovation, and ease financial pressures. But despite the hype, AI is far from a “plug-and-play” solution—and simply investing in AI won’t guarantee success. This week, host Rachel (Rae) Woods is joined by Advisory Board AI expert Ty Aderhold to explore what it really takes...

Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a policy update on the bill containing Medicaid cuts that is making its way through Congress, and the recent MAHA Commission Report. If you were to ask any healthcare leader what the top challenges in our industry are, it’s a fair bet that “improving patient access to care” would be on the list. There have been so many investments made in the industry to im...

In this special live episode from the 2025 Advisory Board Summit, Ardent Health Services President & CEO Marty Bonick and Chief Digital and Transformation Officer Anika Gardenhire recount the harrowing story of a ransomware attack that brought their 30-hospital system to a standstill on Thanksgiving Day 2023. Cyberattacks on healthcare systems are becoming more frequent, more sophisticated, an...

5/22 Update: The House early Thursday narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a budget bill that includes a number of healthcare provisions that could have a significant impact on Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. It has been over 100 days since President Donald Trump began his second term. During that time, Radio Advisory has received a steady stream of questions from leade...

Believe it or not, 60% of healthcare payments in the US are tied to value. But it’s still surprisingly hard to find examples of health systems that have been doing VBC at scale, successfully, over time. So that’s what Advisory Board researchers set out to do. And across 66 conversations with 44 systems, we found four systems with approaches worth emulating. This week, we’re unpacking the approach...

(This episode originally aired on October 22, 2024.) For years, the best word to describe Medicare Advantage (MA) was “untouchable.” Hugely popular among seniors, profitable for health plans—the hybrid public-private payment model grew to the point that it now covers more seniors than traditional Medicare. But in the past few years, the tide has started to change. And if you’ve been paying attenti...

The federal drug purchasing program known as 340B was created in 1992 to help select provider organizations stretch scarce resources to care for patients. More than three decades later, health systems of all shapes and sizes have come to rely on 340B for their financial sustainability. But the program has come under criticism. And in recent years, it’s been under more scrutiny, with manufacturers,...

In 2025, 6% of US adults are taking a GLP-1. But the popularity of weight-loss drugs isn’t the only thing changing the obesity care landscape. On Radio Advisory, we’ve talked about what comprehensive obesity care looks like, the reality of weight bias, and the strain high-cost drugs like GLP-1s are having on employers and plans. But we haven’t done an updated scan of the obesity care landscape, un...

Let’s face it: Hospitals and post-acute providers can find themselves at odds. Post-acute is an area of the industry that is often misunderstood and sometimes villainized. But when post-acute care struggles, it directly impacts hospital operations. The industry needs a solution. It starts with understanding that the post-acute space is not a monolith. Because only by understanding how different fa...

Every stakeholder in healthcare is getting squeezed by mounting financial pressures, and health plans are no exception. Higher utilization and rising treatment costs are hitting plans hard. At the same time, plans are facing heightened public scrutiny. It may seem like the wrong time for plans to focus on cost management, but the combination of market and public pressures is exactly why it is so i...

It feels like only yesterday that workforce challenges were the biggest problem facing the healthcare industry. While COVID-19-related staffing shortages may have declined, an inefficient workforce can still threaten health system operations and finances. Often, systems turn to staffing ratios or benchmarks to determine whether they need more cuts or more hires. However, systems need more than sta...

In the first two months of the Trump administration, the political and regulatory environment have shifted considerably. Since the inauguration, we’ve fielded dozens of questions about the slew of executive orders, cuts to research funding, HHS layoffs, tariffs, and an unstable economic outlook. All of that is coupled with the potential for major payment cuts to government-funded healthcare and ri...

There is a lot happening in federal policy that may affect healthcare payment transformation and care delivery. But we’ve said it before: healthcare leaders can’t afford to focus on fighting near-term fires at the expense of driving long-term success and sustainability. Amidst the uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to push forward conversations about how we can structurally evolve our syst...

Partnerships between health systems and life sciences play a critical role in giving patients access to the best data, therapies, and technologies available in the market. However, these partnerships can be less fulfilling if both sides don’t align on purpose and expectations. This week, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites Advisory Board expert Fanta Cherif to break down the current state of health sy...

On September 27, 2024, Ballad Health was forced to evacuate Unicoi Hospital in rural Tennessee due to a freak flash flood caused by Hurricane Helene. After two failed rescue attempts, an aerial operation managed to successfully airlift all 70 people who were trapped on the rooftop of the small community hospital. In an era where extreme climate events are increasingly common, more healthcare leade...

We’ve said it before on Radio Advisory: hospital volumes are back. But leaders know this isn’t necessarily a sigh of relief. With a lot of hospitals at—or even over—capacity, hospital leaders need to find ways to improve patient throughput and reduce length of stay. And trust me, they’ve been trying. The question is, why is it so hard to address capacity and length of stay, and what can leaders do...

The cost and quality of care can vary dramatically—even within the same health system. This has real ramifications for patients and clinicians, not to mention system outcomes. But reducing unwarranted variation in clinical care is much easier said than done. In 2019, UNC Health launched a care redesign office to take on the job. They identified 24 sources of variation to target. And their efforts...

As hospitals face mounting financial pressure in 2025, health systems are reckoning with the fragility of their legacy business models. Ambulatory networks have long been considered an opportunity for growth, but legacy thinking still focuses on how ambulatory sites could drive inpatient volumes. That strategy is no longer working (and perhaps, never did). Savvy health leaders are now asking, how...

Back in December, we discussed why leaders should re-envision their approach to digital change management. But to truly implement digital change, health systems must understand their organization’s success (or failure) to date. However, assessing digital progress is not a simple task. While models exist that measure digital maturity in other industries, there is a serious lack of tools to measure...