This week's episode explores OpenAI's new healthcare-focused AI products, Cencora's new majority stake in OneOncology, the 340B rebate pilot ruling, and our predictions for 2026.

In this episode of The Strategy Catalyst Dispatch, we unpack why expanding a physician workforce alone can't fully resolve access challenges and how Inova Health System has targeted the problem through a coordinated access-and-flow strategy.

Michelle Vassallo, VP of Operations, Clinical Enterprise, walks us through the systemwide standards, centralized infrastructure, and unified referral and transfer processes that allow Inova to unlock “virtual capacity” and move patients to the right place, at the right time, with the right resources.

To learn more of Strategy Catalyst's access work and in-depth case studies, click here: https://hmacademy.com/insights/strategy-catalyst/care-delivery/access-as-a-strategic-product-redefining-how-health-systems-connect-people

This week's edition recaps our favorite intel and insights from the Fall 2025 CSO Forum held in San Diego. We also take a look at the new ACCESS model unveiled by CMS with outcomes-based payments.

In this episode of The Strategy Catalyst Dispatch, we explore a commonly cited theme in strategic plans that rarely gets commensurate investment: culture transformation. Matt Terry, Chief Strategy Officer at Wellstar Health System, shares how Wellstar has positioned culture as a strategic pillar to make it visible, measurable, and fundable alongside other enterprise priorities. Building on Strategy Catalyst’s Strategic Plan Compendium we examine:

• How leaders are balancing culture transformation against near-term workforce needs
• Which initiatives are proving most effective at reducing turnover and showing real ROI
• How pipeline development and partnerships are being used not just to fill roles, but to reinforce culture and engagement
• Which metrics executives and boards find most credible for tracking cultural change

To read the full Strategic Plan Compendium, click here: https://hmacademy.com/insights/strategy-catalyst/workforce/strategic-plan-compendium-learning-from-peer-health-system-strategic-plans

This week's edition looks at Intermountain Health's pediatric growth strategy, Ballad Health's lawsuit against UnitedHealth, AI highlights from the HLTH 2025 conference, and a recent Senate HELP Committee hearing on 340B reform.

This week's episode covers the shifting landscape for CMS innovation payment models, the challenges that the government shutdown poses for AMCs, Amazon Pharmacy's new prescription drug kiosks, and the Hospital for Special Surgeries partnership with General Atlantic to establish a nationwide ASC chain.

This week’s episode covers the ongoing federal government shutdown and its implications for health systems, including lapses in telehealth and hospital-at-home flexibilities, paused Medicaid payments, and the potential loss of coverage for millions if ACA subsidies expire. It also explores major insurers’ contraction in Medicare Advantage markets, Evolent Health’s sale of its ACO to Privia Health, and new visa fees that could intensify physician shortages by restricting international medical hiring.