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In this episode of The Strategy Catalyst Dispatch, Ricky Bloomfield, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Oura, walks us through the company's partnership with Counsel Health, which connects Oura members to a board-certified physician asynchronously without leaving the app. We cover what Oura was seeing in consumer behavior that pulled the company toward care delivery, why they built the experience around messaging rather than video visits, and Dr. Bloomfield's perspective on how consumers are actually using AI in their own health.

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• Epic recently unveiled Ergo Visit, a platform that combines the company’s AI tools into a single workflow that assists clinicians before, during, and after an outpatient visit.

  • The announcement caught our attention because the ongoing migration of care to outpatient settings has turned the office visit into a key battleground where systems compete for access, patient loyalty, and increasingly scarce physician time.

  • To learn more, we interviewed Falyn Curtis, VP of Clinical Systems at Ochsner Health, the first system to put the tool into clinical use.

    • One month in, Ochsner is judging the tool on how physicians perceive it—less burnout, faster chart completion—rather than measurable ROI. The system is using time savings to ease physician workload and strengthen the patient-provider relationship rather than booking more patients.

    • Ochsner leans on layered AI governance including an AI Center of Excellence, an AI steering committee, and frontline clinicians to vet new tools as AI increasingly shapes clinical decisions.

• New data from Aon forecasts that U.S. employer health costs will rise 9.5% in 2027, continuing an elevated trend for the past four years.

  • On the other hand, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that health benefit spending is relatively stable as a share of total worker compensation. Instead, rising healthcare costs are translating into higher out-of-pocket spending.

  • Payers also report that AI upcoding is driving up healthcare spending.

• More than 40 health systems across the country have posted alerts about a MyChart phishing scam that targets seniors with free Medicare kits or wellness packages.

  • As the industry-leading EMR vendor, Epic is a proven partner but also a recognizable target for bad actors.

  • Phishing scams predominantly target older Americans, making an aging patient population a ripe target. At past THMA forums, we’ve also heard about C-suite leaders and highly compensated physicians getting targeted by bad actors.

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• This week’s edition offers four predictions about payer mix headwinds, 340B rebates, cybersecurity, and clinical AI.

  • Prediction #1: The ACA Exchange-driven payer-mix hit will keep deepening through H2 2026, and the for-profits' full-year guidance marks the trajectory the rest of the sector is on.

    • Our Call: The H2 2026 self-pay and bad-debt hit could land harder than mid-year budgets assume. The question is whether it's in your FY2027 budget or discovered against it.

  • Prediction #2: By the end of 2026, more drug manufacturers will tie 340B pricing to their own claims-data mandates and enforce by withholding discounts. HRSA will not force a reversal of those policies.

    • Our Call: Health systems betting on a federal rescue from manufacturers’ claims-data mandates are likely to be disappointed. Regardless of whether it’s a drug manufacturer-led process or federal program, hospitals will end up submitting claims data to access discounts they are statutorily owed.

  • Prediction #3: The debate over the HIPAA Security Rule is a distraction from a more urgent reality: AI is about to enable vulnerability discovery and cyberattacks at a scale that health systems simply aren't ready for.

    • Our Call: New AI tools are creating a radically new cybersecurity world. Vulnerability discovery is scaling rapidly, while healthcare remains constrained by its ability to deploy fixes across complex clinical environments. By year-end, the board's cybersecurity question will be, "Of the vulnerabilities we've identified, how quickly can we remediate them? What is the plan for the ones we can't?"

  • Prediction #4: OpenEvidence will add 3+ health system deployments by year-end while staying ad-supported and selective about which terms it agrees to.

    • Our Call: Clinicians aren't waiting for those deals. The individual-clinician Business Associate Agreements leave the system holding the liability while the vendor keeps the ad revenue. Every health system should make a deliberate choice: pursue enterprise integration, stand up a governed alternative (e.g., UpToDate, Doximity), or establish formal guardrails for continued use.