Down the hall and to the left. This is what Donald Trump, the pre-president NYC hotel tycoon, says to Kevin McCallister to help him find the lobby at The Plaza in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. It is a fitting example of how the President-elect has a long history of giving people directions – so none of us should be surprised that he is giving directions to the House Speaker about the federal budget. May I suggest adding this movie to your holiday watchlist? I will explain why some of the film’s dialogue is so apropos for these interesting times in the One Thoughtful Paragraph below.
Other news that makes us want to just go watch movies instead:
- The House Bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence released a big report with significant healthcare findings and recommendations. See our executive summary.
- Glen Tullman, a serial healthcare entrepreneur and investor, described 2025 as the year of AI implementation.
- ASTP/ONC finalized two rules (HTI-2 and HTI-3) that strengthen the frameworks for nationwide interoperability and amend information blocking exceptions, but do NOT include significant payer and public health updates to the ONC Health IT Certification Program that were included in the proposed rule. See our summary here.
Kate McCallister: [at The Plaza Hotel] What kind of hotel allows a child to check in alone?
Desk Clerk: The boy had a very convincing story.
Kate McCallister: What kind of idiots do you have working here?
Desk Clerk: The finest in New York.
This scene from Home Alone: Lost in New York is a good reminder that the people in charge of a situation don’t always making the best decisions. Fun fact: the movie is about how a large family goes on vacation in Florida (Mar-A-Lago?) but one kid (Kevin) gets on the wrong plane and runs into Donald Trump in NYC instead. The lesson: even the best laid plans can suddenly be thrown out the window. So helpful at a time when we fast approach a federal government shutdown despite a carefully-negotiated bipartisan agreement to avoid a shutdown. Like Kevin’s Mom in the movie, I wonder if we will ever get back together and agree on some key health provisions. I thought we all agreed that we like telehealth flexibility extensions and hospital-at-home policies so that our seniors have more, not less, access to affordable and convenient healthcare? At least there is hope in things like the Connected Health Collaborative Community, launched by the Digital Medicine Society and Consumer Technology Association to scale hospital-at-home technologies. For now, best wishes for a happy holiday season to our Maverick Update readers – we appreciate you. Or, as Johnny the Gangster says in Home Alone 2: Merry Christmas You Filthy Animal and Happy New Year.
