Sg2 Blog

Health systems and organizations face numerous evolving challenges when it comes to achieving strategic growth — be it due to changing competitive landscapes, workforce constraints, or access and capacity challenges, among many others. And while the terrain has become tumultuous, there is an essential constant that exists with great potential for differentiation and growth for any healthcare...

Clinical and technological advances continuously reshape healthcare services and the workforce that delivers them. In a cycle of creative destruction, new roles emerge while some legacy positions are reconsidered. Multiple drivers will also impact workforce needs in coming decades. Examples include an older and more diverse population, environmental impacts that disproportionately affect vulnerabl...

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...

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...

Direct-to-employer healthcare offerings benefit from proof-of-concept, and often your employees can provide an excellent test group. As health systems pursue employer engagement through direct-to-employer healthcare solutions, two of the first questions health systems marketing their services to local employers should expect are: Have you done this with your own employees? and How did it go? Organ...

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...

At Sg2, our job is to stay ahead of changing health care trends—and to help you, our members, proactively navigate industry change to benefit your top lines. Over 10 years ago, we introduced the smart growth concept because we foresaw the need for a course change in health care strategy. Smart growth challenged members to invest in services not just clinically appropriate, but also financial...

How serious are health care systems about their consumer strategy? For decades, consumerism in health care has been a “nice to have” but not a “must have.” Health care as an industry didn’t value customer loyalty because they didn’t see those utilizing their services as customers, they saw them as patients—and patients require care. Thus, the health system...

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has seized the public consciousness, signaling a potential disruption that could be one of the most profound in generations. Large language models, such as ChatGPT, are advancing rapidly, demonstrating an uncanny ability to process natural language and write compellingly (if not always accurately) by predicting word sequences. As more AI tools become avai...

Making Care Primary Model Overview On June 8th, CMS announced the upcoming launch of the Making Care Primary (MCP) model. This new CMS model aims to achieve three goals: Provide patients with primary care services that are integrated and coordinated with specialty care as well as leverage community-based connections to better address patients’ social determinants of health (SDOH) needs...