Health:Further 139 - Why America's Top Hospitals Are Sounding the Alarm
In this episode, Vic and Marcus cover a wide-ranging set of topics shaping today’s healthcare and economic landscape. They discuss Vic’s personal milestone of becoming an empty nester before diving into Marcus’s experience at a roundtable with HFMA and KPMG, where healthcare leaders confronted the friction between innovation and operational reality. They explore the challenges hospitals face in adopting change amidst massive fixed infrastructure costs, the impact of America’s downgraded credit rating on capital markets, and an alarming trend of weak U.S. government bond auctions. They also unpack the Walmart layoffs, Bitcoin’s surge, AI-driven venture capital, and IPO activity. Policy highlights include Trump’s Medicaid work requirements bill, soda bans in SNAP, and mounting financial pressure on nonprofit health systems. The episode closes with a discussion of America’s deteriorating youth health and the continued unraveling of emergency department infrastructure.
Links:
6:14 - U.S. Loses Last Triple-A Credit Rating WSJ
10:12 - Weak Auction of Government Debt Jolts Markets WSJ
12:04 - America’s Fiscal Situation Threatens the Good Mood on Wall Street WSJ
13:37 - Walmart to Cut 1,500 Corporate Jobs in Restructuring WSJ
14:31 - Bitcoin hits new record high above $111,000 as rally marches on CNBC
17:32 - Dazos raises $25M for customer relationship management platform Mobi Health News
19:00 - Rad AI: $8 Million Raised To Develop Generative AI Solutions For Radiology Pulse 2.0
19:59 - Biostate AI raises $12M Series A Axios
20:52 - Hinge Health raises $437 million in its IPO Axios
21:58 - Austin’s Reign as a Tech Hub Might Be Coming to an End WSJ
25:14 - - SEC Chair Signals Investor Access to Private Markets Could Soon Broaden WSJ
28:53 - Revolut CEO raises $250m for AI-powered VC firm QuantumLight Sifted
36:20 - Trump’s ‘beautiful’ bill spans more than 1,000 pages. Here’s what’s inside it AP
39:52 - Here are some of the changes to the House bill unveiled Wednesday night. NYT
46:56 - These Democratic governors are trying to curb health care for unauthorized immigrants NPR
48:54 - 4 Key Takeaways from a New White House Report on Children’s Health NYT
53:29 - In Approving Soda Ban for Food Stamps, U.S.D.A. Reverses Decades of Policy NYT
59:23 - Judge shuts down drugmakers’ 340B rebate plans, for now Healthcare Dive
1:00:35 - New Evernorth program to cap out-of-pocket costs for Wegovy, Zepbound a