Thank goodness for distractions. The Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift romance, or K-Tay (we may never say that in real life but we haven’t decided yet), may or may not be real but it is fun to talk about. In fact, it may boost the economy (more proof here, here of the Taylor Swift economic effect) in addition to our national mood. Who doesn’t want to be distracted from the government shutdown, the Republican presidential candidate debate, and so many other bad things happening? In the One Thoughtful Paragraph, we borrow Taylor Swift’s lyrics to help explain the latest health technology accelerator announcement.
Other news to distract us from bad things happening:
- Maverick Health Policy is going to HLTH in Las Vegas! If you are going to be there, look us up on the app and come by to say hello!
- Trilliant Health, a healthcare analytics and market research firm, published its 2023 Trends Shaping the Health Economy Report. The 147-page report is an analysis of insurance claims data that shows 10 data-driven trends, including the sharp increase in demand for obesity drug prescriptions and the rise in the use of telehealth for behavioral care.
- J.D. Power released its 2023 U.S. Telehealth Satisfaction Study that asked 5,424 telehealth customers what they like and don’t like about telehealth. No surprise: younger patients prefer telehealth services more than older patients and everyone wants the services to be easier to use. The highest ranking satisfaction among direct-to-consumer brands was CVS and MDLIVE, and the highest ranking among payer-supplied telehealth is United Healthcare and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan.
If you’re a Swiftie, then you may recognize the lyric “I am still a believer but I don’t know why” from the song Mirrorball. That’s what we thought of when we read about the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announcement about the launch of ARPANET-H, a nationwide health innovation network that is launching the first hubs in Dallas and Boston. According to the press release, the agency is trying to establish the foundation for a 50-state network that will, among other things, develop user-friendly technology so people can better engage in their own health care. The development of easier-to-use devices is huge if we are going to modernize the system with convenient, cost-effective, and higher-quality care options. This is why the big retailers — Target, CVS, Walmart, and increasingly, Amazon — are getting into health care delivery because the health care consumer experience is NOT convenient or modern or happy, and these are consumer-facing companies who know how to keep customers. In fact, we just heard an Amazon health care executive liken the health care experience to “being at the DMV but naked.” Agreed. We know that ARPA-H is really well-funded and is run by two very strong leaders (Renee Wegrzyn and Susan Monarez), so we want to be believers but are a tad skeptical. On a hopeful note, Taylor asks “Is this the end of all the endings?” We shall see.
