Newsweek's inside look at the business of health care |
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Don't sweat it if you missed last week's virtual panel discussion, "Is Your Hospital Cyber-Safe?" You can watch the full event and read a recap here. |
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| By Alexis Kayser
Alexis is Newsweek's health care editor, covering industry updates from hospital C-suites to Capitol Hill. Previously, she reported on the CEO desk at Becker's Hospital Review. You can reach her at a.kayser@newsweek.com. |
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The supply chain is one of the trickiest layers of a health system’s operations. One misstep and the whole thing crumbles.
We saw it with the IV shortages during Hurricane Helene last year—and during Hurricane Maria in 2018. We saw it with PPE during COVID-19, and with the blood pressure drug Ramipril in October. When the entirety of a certain supply is manufactured in one facility or one region, the entire U.S. health care system can find itself at the mercy of that facility or that region. Sometimes, the weather is not in our favor, and we end up substituting Gatorade for intravenous fluids.
Enter tariffs, which took that sensitive supply chain and gave it shake. This week, I called Peter Brereton, president and CEO of the supply chain solutions company Tecsys, to learn how health systems are reacting to President Trump’s tariffs.
He said that he hasn’t heard of any hospitals or health systems that are hoarding supplies, but that it could be happening further up the supply chain. Price changes haven’t hit yet, either. “What [hospitals] are more nervous about is potential loss of supply,” Brereton said. "Because of a spat between the countries, you [could] end up with a country saying, ‘Well, we’re just not shipping you that stuff anymore.’” Tariffs could also have such a severe impact that distributors decide to stop importing certain items out of fear that they won’t be able to sell them, he added. That prospect has his hospital and health system clients “sweating.”
Geopolitical implications aside, diverse sourcing can reduce the risk of a disrupted supply chain. Even if tariffs do haul manufacturing jobs back to the United States, we’re at risk of over-consolidation. Ideally, Brereton said, we’d have three to four sources around the world that could produce the same critical components.
We tend to picture individual manufacturing plants overseas, but in reality, it’s more like a series of manufacturing villages, according to Brereton. Oftentimes entire communities are based around the development of a certain product: someone makes the paper, someone makes the labeling, someone makes the plastic, and then they bring it all together.
To recreate that in the U.S., “You're probably trying to reverse 100 years of supply chain development,” Brereton said. “You're not just moving the finished goods plant. You're needing to move that whole village. And that’s difficult.” It would also be expensive—and near impossible to domestically source that amount of manpower.
Brereton offered a tip for health system leaders: Hire a true supply chain manager, borrowed from another industry like retail. In his opinion, they’re best poised to lead this sort of operation.
“[Health care] is an industry that has not recognized that it is a big supply chain business,” he said. Walmart and Home Depot know they’re in that supply chain business, but hospitals see themselves—first and foremost—as a patient care business.
“Yet, we’re now bringing almost 20,000 products to bedside,” Brereton continued. “It’s a big, complex supply chain, and in many cases, the problem the patient is in the hospital for is solved by something coming through the supply chain.” |
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Major health care headlines from the week |
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Newsweek and Statista released our ranking of the Best Maternity Hospitals for 2025. Click here to see if your facility made the list, and here for a deeper dive into our methodology—as well as a look at one top-notch hospital in particular. Solid maternity care providers are more important than ever, because they’re rarer than ever. Over 100 U.S. hospitals have closed their obstetric units since 2022, often citing financial pressures and dwindling demand. That’s a harrowing amount, especially given our country’s dismal birth outcomes.
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And things aren't exactly looking up. Ahead of the rankings launch, I spoke with OB-GYNs and clinical chiefs from leading health systems across the country. They told me that we’re in trouble if the government proceeds with Medicaid cuts—more than 40 percent of births in this country are covered by the program. Read more here.
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Five ongoing health care-related lawsuits against the Trump administration are summed up in this excellent AJMC article. It's a quick and worthwhile read. Notably, attorneys general across 22 states have filed a lawsuit against HHS, disputing recent medical research cuts and grant approval freezes.
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Multiple health systems are acquiring and constructing new facilities, while others are fighting to stay afloat. This week, Community Health Systems announced that it would be selling a Texas medical center to St. Louis-based Ascension for $460 million cash. Novant Health shared plans to build a $132 million hospital in Greenville, South Carolina, and Orlando Health unveiled a $750 million plan to construct new facilities in Brevard County, Florida.
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Orlando Health is also closing its Rockledge Hospital next week—a move that is expected to cost other local providers more than $44 million, according to Florida Today. In Maine, Northern Light Health is inching closer to a June hospital closure, while in Pennsylvania, Crozer Health is struggling to meet its $9 million payroll for the week.
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Per usual, AI is getting mixed reviews in the literature. The National Academy of Medicine published a report documenting generative AI’s progress in health care, reporting that summaries from LLMs were deemed equivalent to medical experts’ in 45 percent of cases, and superior in 36 percent of cases. It also noted that 92 percent of nurses feel AI-drafted messages improve efficiency, empathy and tone.
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Meanwhile, a recent study from Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine revealed bias in LLMs’ clinical recommendations. Researchers found that patients labeled as high-income were 6.5 percent more likely to receive LLM recommendations for advanced imaging tests, like CT scans and MRIs. Meanwhile, the models suggested basic or no further testing for low- and middle-income patients with the same clinical presentations. Click here to read more of their findings—and my conversation with the senior author.
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Executive perspectives on key industry issues |
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Stuart Archer, CEO
Oceans Healthcare
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Stuart Archer is the CEO of Oceans Healthcare: the Texas-based behavioral health system providing inpatient and outpatient care across nine states and 48 facilities.
He’s been at the helm of the system for more than a decade and has also served as chairman of the Texas Association of Behavioral Health Systems since last summer. Recently, we connected for a pulse check to discuss the current behavioral health care landscape—and what acute care systems can do to ease the crisis in their own EDs.
Demand for behavioral health care services is rising in the United States. How is Oceans Healthcare working to improve access? Which programs, policies or technologies have been most effective in your service areas?
Improving access is complex and requires many solutions. Right now, our industry is also facing unknown federal actions and state budget challenges, adding uncertainty as we work to meet increasing demand.
At Oceans Healthcare, we provide care to communities across the country from Pennsylvania to Idaho, and in between. Our approach in all communities is to do what we do best and what has proven successful so far. We’ve made it easier to get treatment in a variety of ways, including significantly increasing outpatient options, partnering with academic and nonprofit acute care systems to create or expand services, building new free-standing inpatient facilities and advocating for local and national legislative changes.
In the last few years, we’ve added nearly 30 intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs, allowing patients to get care when and how they want and need it. It’s critical we provide choice, increasing the likelihood of adherence and decreasing the fear and stigma associated with inpatient care.
We’ve grown as a recognized high-quality behavioral health partner in the industry, forming several key joint ventures in the last several years. Our partnerships increase bed capacity, reduce emergency room wait times and leverage resources to grow capital investments—all key tactics to increase access in communities with demonstrated need for inpatient and outpatient care.
We’ve also placed great emphasis on advocacy and changing outdated state and federal laws that create roadblocks to coverage, reimbursement and patient choice.
EDs across the country have reported discharge delays when attempting to place patients in post-acute care settings, including behavioral health facilities. We often hear hospitals' perspectives on this issue—but as a behavioral health care leader, how do you recommend approaching these bottlenecks?
I think many of us—providers, advocates, elected leaders—can agree accessing mental health care in our country should not be as difficult as it is. Well before COVID-19, the U.S. was facing a crisis of increasing need, and the pandemic sent the demand into overdrive with spiking rates of substance use, anxiety and depression. After the pandemic, challenges persist including insufficient bed capacity, workforce shortages, inadequate coverage and reimbursement rates, a disjointed system and stigma.
The threat of Medicaid cuts also looms large. Medicaid covers some of the most vulnerable in our society and because of its low reimbursement rate, it’s already hard to find a provider who participates. If rates decrease or an increasing number of individuals are no longer covered, we could face a perfect storm of uninsured or underinsured people seeking care where none is available or affordable and ending up in emergency rooms or the justice system.
There are solutions that can be deployed right now: |
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Integrate mental health into primary care and other settings to address the challenges before reaching crisis level.
- Offer more flexibility and varying levels of care, including telehealth consultations—more inpatient beds are not always the solution.
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Employ emergency department mental health coordinators. Oceans Healthcare partners with an acute care system in Louisiana to provide navigators and it’s reduced wait times and increased capacity.
- Continue to invest in crisis units and crisis levels of care, ultimately diverting patients out of the emergency room.
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Where health care leaders are coming and going |
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Tony Esposito is stepping down from his role as CEO of Crozer Health tomorrow, according to an email to employees obtained by CBS News. The Delaware County, Pennsylvania-based system narrowly avoided closure last week after a $1 million cash infusion from the county and a $5 million acquisition proposal from Penn Medicine—but the funds still fall short of the $9 million needed to meet payroll this week. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro says the system is “critically important,” and leaders are continuing to work toward a sustainable solution.
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Mayo Clinic has selected Micky Tripathi to serve as its chief AI implementation officer, STAT reported. Previously, he served as the assistant secretary for technology policy and national coordinator for health IT under the Biden administration.
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GE Healthcare tapped Jeannette Bankes as president and CEO of its Patient Care Solutions division. She joins the company from Alcon, where she oversaw portfolio management and product development/commercialization as president of global franchises.
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How health care execs are managing their own health |
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Carter Barnhart is the co-founder and CEO of Charlie Health: a virtual behavioral health platform for people who require therapy more than once per week, but don’t need 24/7 care. The company delivers care in 37 states and maintains a physical office in each of them. This week, I connected with Barnhart to discuss the importance of accessible, personalized mental health care. I also asked her how she stays grounded while juggling the demands of a nationwide telehealth practice in a particularly heavy specialty. Her answer may surprise you: -
“I feel incredibly lucky to do the work that I get to do at Charlie Health, but it also demands a lot from me. In order to show up fully for our clients, our team and my family, I have to make sure that I'm showing up for myself first.
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“I've done so much work over the past few years to figure out what keeps me grounded. This may be a bit of a hot take, but I really let go of the idea of balance. I don't believe that you can balance work and life. I think it's much more about integration. Because of my role, I'm never truly off, and that's intentional. I need to be available for our team and our clients, because the work that we do is really urgent and the stakes are high—but that also means for that I have to build in moments to help me reset.
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“That looks like regular family dinners with my husband, my parents, my brother, time with friends who keep me grounded, and then finding windows throughout the day to just get up and move, whether that means taking a Zoom call while walking during the day, getting outside for meetings with the team, leaving the office...I have to figure out how I can move my body throughout the day and really integrate [work] with my very full life.”
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Before you go, check out these profiles of international clinician leaders who are part of Newsweek’s CEO Circle: Barbara Collins, president and CEO of Humber River Health in Toronto, and Dr. Wei-Ming Chen, president and CEO of Taipei Veteran General Hospital in Taiwan.
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https://link.newsweek.com/oc/67cefc38d67ab80c8e09447bnhqcf.246/1383e69b
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