Topics:

• Can Hospitals Survive?  Hospital Strategy in a Maturing Market
  After decades of seemingly continuous expansion, hospital inpatient utilization in the United States has fallen for five years in a row.  Despite forecasts a decade ago of significant bed shortages, many hospitals and systems find themselves with excess capacity.  At the same time, the uncertainties surrounding ObamaCare and the pressures created by the recession have stressed hospitals, resulting in declining earnings and increased pressure from physicians and patients. Merger and acquisition activity spiked after 2010’s health reforms, and continues unabated.  How will the private insurance reforms contained in ObamaCare affect hospitals’ financial futures?  Can hospital systems that have sought to become “unavoidable” through mergers survive the transition to narrow network insurance products and rising transparency and consumer choice?  Can hospitals survive this transition?  How can hospitals become the “hospitals of choice” in their communities and regions.
• Is the Health Cost Dragon Dead or Sleeping?
  Health costs have grown at the slowest pace in the past five years since Dwight Eisenhower’s last year in office (1960), five years before Medicare.  No-one is clear on the causes.
  Is it the recession?  Is it ObamaCare?  Is it new “accountable” payment and delivery models?  Is it “market competition” or increased regulation?   Jeff Goldsmith’s startling answer is: “none of the above”.  This talk unravels  and explains in English a remarkable piece of economic news- the cessation of a more than forty year run of inflation in health costs.   Is this good or bad news?  Is the relief from rising health costs sustainable?  Will it last?  This talk examines the spreading “recession” in US healthcare, and how health costs and access will be affected by the retirement of the 76 million person baby boom generation.
  
• What if the Crowd is Wrong: Six Debatable Propositions about the Future of Healthcare and What They Mean for Strategy
  “Everyone knows” what the future of US healthcare looks like. It’s unanimous! We’re moving from “volume to value”. We’re shifting from “treatment to prevention”. Integrated Delivery Networks (IDN’s) are the future of healthcare organization. “Disruptive technologies” will undermine the traditional businesses of hospitals and physicians. And empowered consumers will force the health system to be accountable for the cost of care and move healthcare markets. This talk asks the provocative question: what if these things don’t actually happen? Where does it leave healthcare systems, professionals, insurers and vendors? How would your strategy change if the future actually turns out to be different from what “everyone” expects. Jeff Goldsmith talks about the future of healthcare payment and delivery reform, how it is affecting local markets around the US and talks about the “no regrets” strategies that position healthcare’s major actors for an uncertain, post-health reform future.
• The Tragedy of Health Reform
  Despite compelling unmet needs, the bold health reforms enacted in 2010 in the Affordable Care Act appear to be faltering. A lethal combination of political controversy, flawed design and incompetent implementation have put health reform in peril. What went wrong? How will the unfolding of expanded health coverage, increased regulation and new models of care and coverage affect the health system and society? Will employers abandon health coverage and push their employees into the Exchanges? Will the Exchanges revitalize or destroy private health insurance? How will health reform affect caregivers and patients? Will the Medicaid program sustain a 20% increase in enrollments? Can or should health reform be saved?  A veteran health policy analyst looks at ObamaCare and looks ahead.
• 2037: A Healthcare Odyssey
  In 1986, in Hospitals’, Jeff Goldsmith looked ahead fifty years to the US healthcare system in 2036. In 2016, Jeff revisited these forecasts, noting both accurate and inaccurate predictions, and looked ahead yet again to the health system in twenty years time. In 2037: A Healthcare Odyssey, Jeff examines the digital health revolution he foresaw in his 1986 piece, and how it is likely to affect care. He also looks at the concluding chapter of the baby boomer’s saga, as well as promising new progress in the neurosciences and produces a fresh forecast for the US health system in twenty years.
• Beyond Health Reform: Strategic Imperatives for Hospitals and Health Systems in March
  Congress passed and President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. This legislation, the most significant change in the US health system in 50 years, will fundamentally change how healthcare is financed in the US, both broadening access and restructuring both public and private health insurance. It will not only expose the federal government to significant spending increases, but also change incentives to hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, medical technology firms and everyone who supplies or supports the health system. PPACA will also strain the capacity of state and federal governments to finance healthcare in future years, compelling changes in how they pay for care. Learn how PPACA will affect the health system, and how providers, suppliers and technology firms can cope with and prosper under these changes.
• Organizing for Risk: How Hospitals and Physicians Can Collaborate Both to Contain Cost and Improve Quality
  Health reform is changing both how and how much the care system is paid. This lecture reviews the history of both hospital and physician efforts both to sponsor and to contract with health plans, and discusses how they can become more accountable for both the cost and value of what they do. It will also review what’s happened to the idea of “accountable care organizations” (ACO’s) and what some viable alternatives to the strategy might be.
• What Will the Trump Presidency Bring to Healthcare?
  Donald Trump won an unexpected Presidency in part by promising to repeal ObamaCare, the landmark 2010 Obama administration health reform law. This law provided coverage for 20 million formerly uninsured people and hundreds of billions in new funding for hospitals and care systems. How will unwinding and replacing this law affect those who render care? What role did poor health play in Trump’s election? How will a divided Republican Party decide where to cut and how to restructure Medicare and Medicaid, the twin mainstays of public funding for health services? Where will Trump succeed and where will he fail? What strategies best position hospitals and physicians to cope with a new wave of policy uncertainty?
• The Future of the Hospital
  The nation’s $900 billion hospital system is changing rapidly in response to health reform. The industry is not only consolidating, but also establishing a broader footprint in physician practice and in financing and organizing care. How are these strategies unfolding? Which ones are likely to be successful? How will hospitals respond to the increasing concerns about the effects of hospital consolidation and cost, and the pressures to transform clinical care? This lecture will identify winning strategies for hospitals facing an uncertain economic future.