Maverick's Update

If you see In the Heights, the new movie-musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the theme is sueñito — meaning little dream. Two years ago this week, Maverick Health Policy launched as a new health policy consulting firm to help businesses understand the fast-moving and complex swirl of federal laws and regulations. The American healthcare system reflects the best and the worst of us — indeed, today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act for the third time is a great example of how we eventually bless imperfect solutions. (“This Court has gone to great lengths to rescue the Act from its own text.” – Justice Thomas). At Maverick, we are privileged to assist some of the best problem-solvers in the healthcare business. To take an entrepreneurial leap like this requires support from family, friends, mentors, and colleagues. Maverick is so grateful to all of the people — including an outstanding team of interns, both present and past — who helped this sueñito become a reality.

Other little dreams reflected in the news this week:

1. Policymakers dreamed that consumers would know more about the price of their healthcare services before needing them, but apparently that remains a dream. According to a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine (and reported by Axios — we do not have a subscription to JAMA, but we trust Axios — plus, this is not a new story), most hospitals are not fully complying with a new federal rule requiring them to make their prices publicly available.

2. Google Health, Apple, and Amazon have big dreams to expand their reach into healthcare markets — but Google Health is moving 130 employees out of its healthcare group to other areas, according to a scoop by Business Insider. Apple, on the other hand, announced that several electronic health record companies are integrating with the Apple Health app so patients can see their medical records on their phones. Amazon, for its part, posted an example of how its industry customers can use its models and data lake to build patient outcome prediction applications.

3. The Biden Administration is dreaming of how to use artificial intelligence with a new task force, laden with academics and cloud providers like Google and DefinedCrowd. It will be co-chaired by the National Science Foundation and the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy.

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