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  Today in health IT, we are discussing funding bill skips measure to avert physician pay cuts, which is a blow to the GOP doctor's caucus. My name is Sarah Richardson and I'm president of community development at this week health, where we host a set of channels and events dedicated to transforming healthcare one connection at a time.

And I'm joined by Kate Gamble, managing editor here at this week health. Kate, welcome to the show. Thank you, Sarah. Sarah. So today we are literally talking about a funding bill that skips measure to avert physician pay cuts, which is a blow to the GOP doctor's caucus. Yeah, we're diving into the recent congressional funding bill that extends key health care provisions while omitting others and what that means for health care IT leaders.

And we'll talk about five key things that are important from this bill, and most importantly, what you can do with the information within your organization. Because as we know, policy changes like this don't just live in Washington. They have real tangible effects on hospital operations, budgets, and IT strategy.

Even in urban areas without prior in person visits. Yeah, this is big news. I think a lot of us were hoping it would be even further, but still this is significant. And I think healthcare leaders should see this as validation that telehealth is not just a pandemic workaround. It's now a permanent care model.

And so if your organization has been hesitant about investing in long term telehealth solutions, this extension signals a window of opportunity. And that means it's time to evaluate vendor contracts, optimize workflows, and tighten integration with EHRs for seamless virtual visits. Because let's be honest, telehealth biggest challenges in technology. It's the adoption of the technology. Yeah, absolutely.

And as we know, many organizations still struggle with position buy in along with reimbursement complexities and patient engagement. CIOs and CMIOs have to lean on data to show where telehealth is improving outcomes and where the barriers still exist.

I'm also going to put on my CISO hat because this is a moment to reassess cyber security measures. Remote care introduces more data privacy risks and the continued use of telehealth means ensuring HIPAA compliant platforms with robust identity verification and encryption protocols. So if you were pausing on any of that work effort, now's the time to lean back into it.

And here's why it matters if you're listening, because if you're the CTO, the CIO, or a combination thereof, you have to scale remote monitoring capabilities to support the care model. And the CMIOs should explore clinical workflows that allow seamless escalation if a home patient suddenly worsens. And so these are key questions for boards and also leadership teams.

Are our IT systems ready to support real time monitoring, virtual rounding, and rapid response escalations? And of course, we can't forget logistics. Hospital at home depends on strong broadband access for patients. So if you're serving rural populations, this could be a major barrier. And we know that it is from our discussions with people like Brad Reimer at Sanford.

It is a great reminder, Kate, because CIOs have to also be thinking about any strategic partnerships with broadband providers or looking once again back into the federal funding models that are aimed at closing the digital divide we've experienced in healthcare.

The next one is Medicaid DSH payment cuts have been delayed. So the disproportionate share hospital DSH payment cuts. This is great news for hospitals that do serve vulnerable populations.

But it's a delay, not a fix. These cuts will come eventually, so hospital executives do have to use this time wisely.

So if you're a CIO or CFO, look at the cost saving opportunities through AI driven revenue cycle management, and look to leverage automation to reduce administrative overhead. And as the I. T. leader, it's time to optimize your tech stack, ensuring you're not overpaying for redundant or underutilized systems.

I will say, though, that when you're working with your CFO and these AI driven revenue cycle management opportunities and this automation, it's going to tip sometimes towards fear of losing your job. And we just talked about fear in healthcare, so make sure you're taking some of the points we covered in our fear conversation.

into how you look for these efficiencies that don't necessarily turn into reductions in force. Yeah, that's a really good point. And our next takeaway is going to get into the financial relief. So rural hospitals often struggle the most with funding, staffing, and tech adoption. So this bill does provide some financial relief to help them stay afloat, which is really important.

Except that it's not going to fix everything. The question, again, CIOs, CMIOs, is how do we make technology work in a resource constrained environment? So a few things that you can think about if you're a leader in a rural setting. One, cloud based EHRs. can reduce infrastructure costs. Two, AI powered decision tools can help small clinical teams manage high patient loads.

And then lastly, shared telehealth networks between hospitals can maximize specialist availability. And we've seen that, Kate, for years, especially in the mental health space, where the shared telehealth networks can Broaden the reach for the services that are hardest to come by. But the bill did not fix Medicare physician payment cuts.

The biggest controversy is that physician pay cuts were not addressed. Medicare doctors face a 2. 8 percent reimbursement cut starting this year. Yeah, clearly this has some really big implications. Even for IT leaders, because if positions are financially strained, it's going to affect staff retention, of course, fewer physicians may choose to stay in Medicare.

And then the tech adoption piece is if you have tighter margins, investments in digital tools can slow down. So what leaders really need to watch is Will these cuts impact EHR optimization and AI driven documentation tools aimed at reducing physician burnout? And can organizations use automation and AI to ease documentation burdens, freeing up more time for patient care?

So if you're listening to this, summarizing the general conversation of the points that were important for us to make today, this bill gives healthcare IT leaders more certainty in some areas, but major challenges are still going to remain. So if you're a CIO, CTO, CMIO, CNIO, this is what you need to take back to your leadership team.

Telehealth isn't going anywhere, but how do we make it more sustainable and integrated? Hospital at Home is expanding. But are our remote monitoring and escalation systems ready? You also have to look at DHS cuts. They're delayed but not canceled. So how do we optimize our IT budgets to prepare? And then rural hospitals need tech driven solutions.

So how can cloud, AI, and telehealth support them? And then finally, physician pay cuts remain an issue. Can IT help with efficiency tools to offset financial strain? And these conversations healthcare leaders should be having right now with their boards, executive teams, peers, but they also, the piece that they're having even with us is having multiple versions of your budget.

And I know it's been a rough year in terms of having to figure out what health system, remember Kate said four versions of their budget and thinking about those NIH grant cuts that you and I had discussed separately. So you've got pressures from the Medicare cuts. You've got pressures from. The grant cuts, you've got these efficiency things coming down to play, and then you're hopeful some of these other models are staying open so you can continue services and provide the right level of patient care.

So it's definitely a time when all of these conversations, probably with an element of fear layered into them, need to be occurring. And if you have the information at your hands, you can help make sure the decisions that you are moving towards in your organization are done so with the right data.

perspectives needed to make the right decision in those moments.

Yeah, absolutely. So we encourage you to have those conversations and let us know, what's your organization doing? How are you adapting to these changes? That's our conversation for today. Definitely not a light one, but we look forward to having you join us tomorrow where we're going to talk about EHR training with escape rooms for new nurses that are showing results.

Kate, thank you for joining me today. And remember to share this podcast with a friend or a colleague, 📍 use it as a foundation for daily or weekly discussions on the topics that are relevant to you and the industry.

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