Sg2 Blog

As part of Sg2’s value-based care (VBC) analysis and market research, we review the quarterly earnings calls from a subset of publicly traded legacy payers and VBC-focused entrants. The summary is designed to highlight emerging trends and dynamics in these closely related industries, especially as they tie to VBC. The following post draws from recently released earnings call transcripts fro...

Many health systems have intentionally delayed taking downside risk in payment contracting for many reasons. In some cases, organizations aren't ready to perform in these contracts. In too many cases, there's a detrimental level of risk aversion that's impeding health systems from margin growth, particularly in value-based care (VBC) arrangements. Health systems and provider organizations that suc...

Many health systems have explored direct-to-employer opportunities at some level in recent years, but there needs to be more traction to show for these efforts. It is no secret that employer-funded commercial health insurance has provided the financial margin for providers, payers, benefits advisers and others in the ecosystem. Despite offerings from new entrants and incumbents designed to help em...

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on Sg2’s parent company Vizient Inc’s blog. For most of 2020, COVID-19 disrupted and significantly altered the infrastructure of the world’s industries, including health care delivery and services. But at what level can we expect health care to return to pre-pandemic levels? What are the long-term effects of the pandemic ev...

Editor’s note: this post was originally published on Sg2’s parent company Vizient Inc’s blog. Frustrated with high costs, a growing number of self-insured companies are considering going in a different direction: contracting directly with high-performing health systems for their employees’ specialty care. Aiming for healthier, more productive employees and lower costs, ind...

As we kick off 2022, health systems may feel they are playing out the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray, trapped in a time loop, endlessly relives a day with Andie MacDowell. The movie serves as an omen three decades in the making, shining a light on the importance of perseverance and human connections—attributes that continue to epitomize health care. It is in the spirit of forgin...

As care increasingly shifts out of the hospital, health systems’ goals for their ambulatory business also are shifting. No longer are innovator organizations content for these services to function strictly as feeders of an inpatient core; they expect ambulatory services to independently boost the bottom line. Achieving that goal, however, can be elusive. Success in the ambulatory arena is mo...

At the end of 2021, we celebrated Sg2’s 20-year anniversary with heartfelt reflections from friends and colleagues past and present. This year Sg2 celebrates another milestone: five years as part of Vizient, the largest member-owned health care company. Sg2 members have heard us speak often about our System of CARE (Clinical Alignment and Resource Effectiveness) concept, which is our ...

Anyone who has visited Colorado and driven down from the mountains toward Denver will recognize the title of this article. The same words of caution apply to the health care ecosystem moving into 2023. Despite the tricky financial gradient health care organizations have navigated since the onset of the pandemic, the road ahead remains challenging. Let’s break down some of the financial force...

With the Strategy Accelerator program, efforts to strategically prioritize your physician alignment initiative take shape As internal and external pressures push care out of the hospital, health systems must identify the best clinical opportunities and local trends for expanding their ambulatory business. Innovator organizations understand there are both opportunities and vulnerabilities amid w...