Crew Talk

We will be back Jan 5th. 2026

A special episode on the ACA subsidy cliff and why it’s more than “policy drama.” We break down where things stand right now, what the 2026 reality looks like for premiums and behavior, what people are arguing about, and how to lead through it if you run a plan, health system, or benefits team.

Headline 1 FDA digital health leaders exit amid reorgs, which could slow approvals and reshape how AI devices get reviewed heading into 2026.Headline 2 Employers are seeing big ROI on workplace insurance, but the hidden cost is rising employee friction that quietly hits trust, retention, and delayed care.Headline 3 The ACA subsidy cliff is back on the edge, and if it drops, plans and systems could face fast operational chaos as affordability snaps overnight.

Headline 1: Is healthcare in an AI bubble? CIOs weigh in (Becker’s Hospital Review, Nov 17, 2025)A bunch of CIOs basically say the hype might pop, but the workflow wins are real, measurable, and already changing day-to-day care operations.
Headline 2: Growing GLP-1 drug costs squeeze Minnesota employers and health plans (Axios Twin Cities, Dec 15, 2025)GLP-1s are helping people and hammering budgets, forcing employers and plans to build policies that protect both outcomes and affordability without losing trust.
Headline 3: Thatch embeds ICHRA health benefits into ADP payroll platform (MobiHealthNews, Dec 15, 2025)This is a “go where people already are” play, turning benefits into something that lives inside payroll workflow instead of a once-a-year fire drill.

Five Ways AI Agents Will Transform Healthcare Operations AI is shifting from suggesting to actually doing the work—from revenue cycle to clinician support—forcing leaders to ask: what are you ready to delegate in 2026?
Non-Labor Expenses Are Becoming Hospitals' Biggest Cost Threat The quiet margin squeeze isn’t coming from labor anymore—it’s hiding in thousands of “that’s just how we’ve always done it” non-labor decisions.
Bad Debt and Charity Care Up 40% Since 2022 Coverage gaps and Medicaid redeterminations are driving unpaid care higher than ever, turning affordability leaks into a shared crisis for hospitals, plans, and eventually employers.

All 50 states applied for CMS’s $50B Rural Health Transformation Program, awards due Dec 31: A massive bet with a year end clock, where the real question is whether states build the boring foundation that makes change stick, or just dress up a plan with buzzwords.
Hospital CIO priorities for 2026 shift from new tools to scale and govern: Big systems are moving from “more AI” to “make it work,” focusing on fewer bets that reduce documentation burden, tighten security, and actually show enterprise impact.
Texas AG sues Epic over alleged monopolization and restrictive data practices: Strip away the noise and this is a power fight over data access, switching costs, and what “open” is going to mean in the next era of EHR competition.

Headline 1: Trump Signs Executive Order Blocking State AI Regulations in Healthcare (STAT News, Dec 11, 2025) — A messy state by state AI rulebook may get replaced by one lane, which means your internal governance becomes the real guardrail.
Headline 2: HHS Proposes Radical Overhaul to EHR Certification, Slashing 34 Criteria (STAT News, Dec 11, 2025) — If the federal checklist shrinks, this is your chance to stop buying “certified” and start contracting for measurable data flow in real workflows.
Headline 3: AARP Study: Tech Use Surges Among Adults 50 Plus, With Smartphone Ownership at 90% and AI Use Rising to 30% (AARP, Dec 2025) — Older adults are already digital, so the market is no longer about adoption, it’s about trust, usability, and follow-through.

In this episode we pull apart Rock Health’s new 2026 innovation map, walk through the six lanes they say actually mattered in 2025, then camp out in the AI lane to ask a simple question: what’s your park, and where do you need to stop pretending you belong?
 
 
AI Implementation Toolkit 

Headline 1: 40+ Health Systems Drop Medicare Advantage Contracts for 2026The MA growth story runs into its first real return line, as hospitals decide they would rather walk away than keep eating losses and fighting denials while seniors try to hang on to the doctors they trust.
Headline 2: Harvard Study Finds GLP-1s Have Little Impact on Obesity-Related Cancer RiskThe cancer halo around GLP-1s gets a reality check, nudging leaders to treat these drugs as powerful tools for weight and metabolic disease, not a shortcut around building a real prevention strategy.
Headline 3: AI Adoption Surges but 95 Percent of Projects Fail on WorkflowMIT’s ninety five percent failure stat meets a growing set of real wins, highlighting that the difference is not the model you bought but whether you walk a simple set of STEPS that give clinicians time back instead of homework.

Headline 1: Brown & Brown 2026 Employer SurveyEmployers hand CFOs a permission slip to make cost control priority number one and quietly move “nice to have” benefits off the table.
Headline 2: Lin Health’s 11M Series A and Mayo PartnershipBehavior-first chronic pain care tries to prove it can live on real health system and payer rails, not just in the wellness tab.
Headline 3: WellSky 2025 Evolution of Care ReportFresh data on sicker patients, messier handoffs, and exhausted staff that shows exactly how overloaded post-acute and home-based care has become.