Healthcare Huddle

We have some very exciting news to share. Healthcare Huddle has officially been acquired 🎉 Our co-founders, Jared Dashevsky, Brett Dashevsky and Harrison Kaplan started building Huddle right before the pandemic began. A year and a half later, Huddle is now part of Workweek - a new kind of media company. Through this acquisition, Huddle will now have more of the tools and resources it needs to grow and thrive, so that we can continue to inform, connect and strengthen the healthcare community. A huge shoutout to the amazing OG Huddle team (you know who you are) for all of the hard work and support along the way and to our Huddlers who’ve reinforced the value of Huddle.  We are beyond excited for what the future has in store for the Huddle. Keep following for updates! https://lnkd.in/g-W4xx-5

Most hospital admissions start the same way. A patient enters through the ER or direct admission, gets hooked up to monitors, has blood drawn, and waits. Then they’re told they’re staying. But what comes next? Who’s in charge of their care? When will they be discharged? What should they expect? For most patients, the hospital is a black box. They don’t know what’s happening, why it’s happening, or what to expect next. Meanwhile, clinicians are caught up in the daily grind—rounding, ordering tests, managing crises. We assume patients “pick things up” along the way. They don’t. A structured onboarding process could eliminate this confusion. A simple roadmap explaining their care team, daily plan, and hospital expectations could turn an overwhelming experience into a manageable one. Hospitals onboard employees. Why don’t we onboard patients? I break it all down in this week’s Healthcare Huddle Inefficiency Insights. 💌 Read the full article here → [https://lnkd.in/egM6tAkU]

I host a weekly live event discussing key healthcare themes and ideas. Last week, I covered the Digital Health space 👇 - Hinge Health going public – What this means for the MSK market and the future of tech-enabled physical therapy. - 23andMe is trying (again) to go private – With their stock in free fall, what happens to all that consumer genetic data? - Food as Medicine is seeing a surge in investment – Why this sector is outpacing the broader digital health market. - Telehealth companies are teaming up with Eli Lilly and Company and Novo Nordisk – How they’re reshaping GLP-1 access. You can watch my recap below! Want to attend the live events? 💌 Subscribe to Healthcare Huddle: [https://lnkd.in/dHi5Zxtm]

Do the whiteboards in patient rooms actually get updated? I've seen many different versions of the whiteboard... - Pt's discharge time (unlikely happening). - Attending’s name (they were there once… last Tuesday). - Pain level (always mysteriously documented as 3/10 no matter what). And then I've seen “Plan for the Day” section - “Awaiting imaging.” (they'll get that CT when the hospital and the universe align) - “Discharge planning in progress.” (Frequently left to the last second.) - “Consult team aware.” (The consult team will eventually get to the patient after the 30+ other patients they have to see) Should we be using that dry-erase marker more? I've seen new tech in patient rooms with screens displaying the faces of the care team etc. Pretty neat, but then there's a screen that's on the whole night...

You’re dead tired. Back-to-back admissions. A brutal call shift. You’re running on fumes. But somehow, you keep going. Tadej Pogacar gets it. This guy crashed hard at Strade Bianche—hit the ground, got banged up, covered in dust. But instead of tapping out, he hopped back on his bike and won the race. Residency? Same energy. Just when you think you’re catching a break—boom. Another admission. Another rapid response. Another overnight grind. But you dig deep. Find another gear. Not because you have to, but because quitting isn’t an option. And yeah, you leave exhausted. But somehow, weirdly, fulfilled. P.S. Tadej may also be the best cyclist ever to cycle this earth (debate me in the comments).

Hims & Hers acquired Tribe labs—what does this mean for at-home diagnostics? Tribe Labs offers home diagnostics for cardiac markers like lipids and prostate screening. The appeal for Tribe is obvious: Convenience. Control. Accessibility. Consumers get faster results without needing a doctor’s visit. But are there tradeoffs? • Who’s providing follow-up care? If a patient’s LDL is sky-high and they have a family history of heart disease, a PCP would step in to manage it. A DTC platform? Not so clear. • How robust is the clinical oversight? Are these tests integrated into comprehensive care, or just another transaction? At-home diagnostics are taking off, but as more companies jump in, the question remains: Are they complementing traditional care—or replacing it with something less comprehensive?

Walgreens tried to become a healthcare giant. It failed—badly. Now, after billions lost and mass clinic closures, Walgreens is handing over the reins to private equity. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. The plan was bold: primary care clinics inside pharmacies, home health expansion, even a push into clinical trials. The goal? To transform Walgreens into a one-stop shop for healthcare. But execution fell apart. VillageMD clinics struggled with low patient volumes. Medicare reimbursements tightened. Walgreens lacked an insurer partner like CVS Health, and the financial bleeding never stopped. Now, Sycamore Partners will likely call the shots. Expect more closures, possible sell-offs, and a shift back to Walgreens’ roots—pharmacy, not healthcare. So, does this prove retail healthcare just doesn’t work? Or was Walgreens simply the wrong company to pull it off? I break it all down in today’s Healthcare Huddle. 💌 Subscribe to read: [https://lnkd.in/ezjNwc54]

Walgreens is going private. Private equity firm Sycamore Partners is acquiring Walgreens Boots Alliance in a $23.7 billion deal. This marks the latest chapter in the ongoing shake-up of retail health. But here’s the real story: - Walgreens’ aggressive push into healthcare—VillageMD, Summit Health, CityMD—never delivered the returns it needed. The company bet big on integrating primary care with its retail footprint, but execution fell short. Now, it’s offloading assets and refocusing. - WBA’s stock was down 80% from its peak. Pharmacy reimbursement cuts, debt burdens, and operational struggles forced its hand. Going private means it can restructure out of the public eye. - Retail healthcare isn’t dead—but Walgreens’ playbook is changing. The focus shifts back to pharmacy-led services rather than running a primary care network. Meanwhile, CVS is doubling down on its health strategy, and Walmart is pulling back on clinics. What does this mean for retail health moving forward? 💌 I wrote about the rise and fall of retail health Check it out 👉 [https://lnkd.in/e2fqGCdz]

The most efficient healthcare experience I had this week was… a colonoscopy. Not exactly what I expected to say this week, but here we are. Anyone who’s been through the joys of “bowel prep” knows the real battle starts before you even step foot in the hospital. But the procedure itself? Absurdly efficient. - Checked in → IV placed → wheeled back → propofol → lights out all within minutes. - No waiting around in a cold gown questioning my life choices. - Woke up before my scheduled start time and was home early. In a healthcare system where a simple prior auth can take weeks, how did my colonoscopy move at Amazon Prime speed? More importantly… can we get this level of efficiency elsewhere? I break it all down—including why patients need better prep instructions unless they enjoy last-minute panic—in my Inefficiency Insights newsletter. 📩 Read it here: [https://lnkd.in/gbJEQVKi]

If the government needs to cut healthcare spending, where do you think they’ll start? Medicare is politically untouchable, so that leaves Medicaid—a program covering 72 million Americans. One idea that keeps resurfacing: Medicaid work requirements. Conservative policymakers have pushed this before, estimating it could save $109 billion but at the cost of over a million people losing coverage. Here’s the problem: • Studies suggest work requirements don’t actually increase employment. • Cutting Medicaid doesn’t eliminate healthcare costs—it just shifts them elsewhere. • Without Medicaid, millions will turn to emergency rooms, driving up uncompensated care costs that hospitals (and taxpayers) end up covering. Budget cuts have to come from somewhere, but targeting the nation’s safety net has real consequences. If Medicaid funding gets slashed, where will those patients go?