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• At this year’s JPM, health system presentations were focused on disciplined execution, strategic simplification, and missions grounded in financial realities.

  • New technologies are accelerating the shift towards more proactive, longitudinal care models.

  • Health systems are streamlining patient journeys, internal processes, and vendor ecosystems. Portfolio rationalization is proving essential for investor confidence.

  • Technology leaders are prioritizing core tech infrastructure over flashy novelties and point solutions.

• Congressional leaders have attached a bipartisan package of healthcare reforms to this week’s “must pass” government funding legislation. An impasse over immigration enforcement funding could delay passage.

  • The package includes new limits on PBM practices, extensions of key programs like Hospital-at-Home and telehealth flexibilities, and a new billing requirement for off-campus HOPDs.

  • Overall, the provisions are mostly positive for health systems. A larger, more comprehensive site neutral payment reform is unlikely this year, but policymakers are still chipping away at the issue.

• At a recent Strategy Catalyst webinar, health system leaders debated three provocative claims about payviders, PE, and distributors.

  • Most attendees agreed that payviders will exert leverage through benefit design and referral control rather than outright ownership. However, payers might lack the network density to execute this strategy in some markets.

  • The vast majority agreed that health systems don’t necessarily need to outbid PE for physician assets if they can just outlast them instead.

  • The virtual room was split on the competitive threat posed by distributors like Cencora, McKesson, and Cardinal Health.

• Zarminali Pediatrics raised $110M to expand its multispecialty platform to several new markets, including Chicago, Milwaukee and Dallas.

  • Health systems might be able to partner with Zarminali in an “embrace-and-extend” model that still refers acute and complex cases to the hospital setting. Other systems might see the firm a new competitor for care volumes, workforce talent, and patient relationships.