2,719: The number of 20–30-year-olds out of 8,600 we polled who said they will likely try to forgo using traditional health insurance if possible and instead use other means to pay for healthcare if needed. Nearly twice that many – 5,330 – say they won’t use a primary care doctor, instead relying on urgent care. A majority said they’d rather use funds for exercise programs, better sneakers, and concert tickets and aren’t worried about not having a PCP. About half said their instincts are drawn from frustration their parents go through with insurers and wait times and physicians who aren’t available. “My mom seems powerless,” said Catie, 27, who works for an art company but has not selected insurance. Our new study delves into the state of consumer frustration with the healthcare system. Click here.
Willing & Able: Uwill, which offers virtual behavioral health services to college students, acquired Christie Campus Health. The deal will help Uwill expand their reach to serve more than 2 million students at 300 institutions around the country.
Low Utility: Employee mental health services may not be as helpful as employers like to tout, according to new research from Oxford. The study looked at the outcomes of 90 different interventions, such as apps, coaching, and mindfulness classes, across ~46,000 workers and found that people who took advantage of such programs reported no significant benefits compared to those who didn’t. The one exception was participation in charity or volunteer work, which did seem to have a positive effect for employees.
Funding Triage: Since the launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in July 2022, it has faced challenges in staffing call centers and providing callers with adequate resources. A new bipartisan bill, known as The CONNECT Act, would provide $30 million in grant funding to provide at-risk callers with follow-up services.
Independent Physicians Unite: Independent physicians have launched their own their own lobbying group, the American Independent Medical Practice Association. Some independent physicians feel that the AMA isn’t advocating effectively for their unique interests so the new group will focus on advocating for ways that will allow physicians to retain control of their own practices. According to the creator of the new group, this may mean being more open to private equity.
AI Making Care Decisions: No, the great 76ers point guard Allen Iverson is not the new medical director of healthcare but like the hall of famer’s agility navigating to the goal or passing the ball, healthcare’s “AI” is taking on the role of traffic cop under a pilot program from HCSC, the parent company of Blues plans in five states. The AI pre-authorization tool doesn’t deny any requests - it will kick it over to a clinician if it feels it doesn’t have enough info to approve. During the initial pilot in 2022 for specialty pharmacy and behavioral health, approvals were granted 80% of the time for behavioral health and 66% for pharmacy, and the health plan said it streamlined the process substantially. Now requests for a variety of services will utilize the tool, including inpatient, long-term care, home health, hospice and outpatient services.
Phone Drop: Elevance, aka Anthem, is launching a new program to provide smartphones to some Medicaid members. The phones will include unlimited data, talk and texting service at no cost to members in an effort to improve access to healthcare.
Extra Point: Coach Rick Hauk’s Parkinson’s took his nerves at the end, but they didn’t take the impact he made. On a brisk Monday back in 1987, Coach Hauk jogged over to a group of us kicking soccer balls like football field goals over the crossbar moments before soccer practice. Coach smiled and asked us how many points we’d made with all those field goal kicks through the uprights. I said 18, Donny said 24. “Great – you could play football, if we had a team,” Coach quipped. “Now that’s how many laps you have to do – get moving.” Rick Hauk impacted thousands of students at my school growing up as the Coach and gym teacher and, when the school needed it, a health class substitute. In one class, Coach took the health students down to the gym where we played keep away. Physical education is making a resurgence again after losing ground over the past decade. Teachers like Coach Hauk are part of an era that made students accountable and helped them see the value and joy in sports before the travel sports movement started to take that away. He died this past week after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease – a disease that slowed him down and took his nerves – but not his story. At his funeral yesterday, the coach’s former players came to show support for a man who never really asked for much – just that you show up and put in effort. He helped a generation of us kids see the potential we had and the value of work ethic. At a halftime down a goal in a semi-final, he came over, not thrilled, and said “I think you all know you can work harder out there – I believe in you – I’ll give you the halftime to think about what you need to do.” There is thankfully progress on Parkinson’s research. The disease may have won for now but if stem cell researchers continue to find ways to stop deterioration in Parkinson’s patients, maybe, just maybe, folks like Coach Hauk can have another chance run on a field, and maybe for old time’s sake, even kick a few soccer balls through the uprights.
Editor: Ashley Chilton; Contributors: Samantha Kaishian, Hannah Landi; Extra Point: Bryan Cote