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Consumer-focused transparency might soon become a reality, one expert suggests.

Price Transparency: The Top Revenue Cycle Trend for 2020

By 2050, it's estimated that 139 million people worldwide will have dementia, but by today's standards, 60% will be undiagnosed. It's clear that there's a significant gap in dementia detection and care, but what can your organization do about it?

Get perspectives from clinical leaders and neuroscience experts about the underlying causes and consequences of these gaps, practical opportunities to address them, and a proven roadmap that shows how leading health systems have successfully transformed their dementia screening and care processes.

Closing the Dementia Care Gap: Expert Insights and Proven Strategies for Health Systems

At the HLTH conference in Las Vegas last fall, plenty of sessions and programs focused on the use of artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry.

 of last year’s event, which drew thousands of healthcare leaders to Sin City.

But this year, AI appears poised to truly take center stage. The HLTH conference returns to Las Vegas Oct. 19, but the planning is already underway.

Rich Scarfo, president of HLTH, tells Chief Healthcare Executive® that last year’s event represented the “first focused effort” on AI, but it will play a much larger role this year.

This year, Scarfo says, “We're coming back with a full AI zone on the floor. It'll be about four times the size of last year's. We will have a broad mix of companies in it.”

This year’s conference will feature an “AI Transformation Zone,” with three immersive theaters.

Scarfo says pharmaceutical companies are keenly interested in AI for drug development. Healthcare organizations are also interested in AI tools to make business functions more efficient, and they’re increasingly looking at AI technology that can support clinical decisions.

There are more AI startup companies attending HLTH, Scarfo says.

“We started to see new companies come in that we hadn't seen at the event before,” he says. “So a lot of new-to-market companies, but also a lot of companies that were just stepping in that hadn't been at HLTH before. What we're seeing this year is AI across different sectors at the event.”

In talking about the greater attention on AI, Scarfo recalls one remark that stuck with him.

“There's one comment that I heard: ‘If you're not using AI, you've already lost,’” he says. “So I think a lot of companies are looking at that, and it's just become something that people are either knowingly or unknowingly using in their everyday lives. So of course, it's going to be in every aspect of health care.”

AI will be seen in all sectors, from pharma to diagnostic to age tech.

“It's sort of the thing that's permeating all of our different categories,” Scarfo says.

At HLTH last year, conversations around AI began to evolve. Healthcare organizations that are looking at AI tools aren’t just getting them for the sake of having them, but they’re looking for solutions that will address problems they’re facing.

“You'll start to see, I think the conversations around AI mature a bit as well,” Scarfo says. “What's going well, what's not going well? Where are areas that we're not using AI, that we should be? What are the impacts on patients? How is it making business more efficient?”

“So I think all of those things are going to go beyond what you saw in the past … Is AI a good thing or a bad thing? Now it's really integral to a lot of the conversations that we're having.”

Scarfo says he sees hospitals and health systems expressing more interest in AI technology. Some health systems are seeing the value in finding partners as opposed to trying to build tools on their own.

“These are very complex problems. I just think AI is offering a different way to address them and solve them,” Scarfo says.

This year’s event will also feature heavy focus on pharma and life sciences innovation, with several major pharmaceutical companies presenting on the floor.

The conference will also feature a bigger area highlighting diagnostics and precision health.

And this year, the event will also introduce the HLTH Startup PItch Tournament for the first time. Startup companies will face interviews and try to connect with investors.

Scarfo says the goal is to “engage startups differently at the event.”“We found a couple of things that are important to them,” he says. “One is getting in front of people. So the pitch competitions are a great way to do that. So we're really focusing very heavily on how we can get to more startups and get them involved in different ways, not just exhibiting.”

There will be several pitch competitions at the event, and one of them will be focused on AI.

The HLTH conference featured some mega-stars, including 

 and John Legend. Scarfo says it’s too early to disclose celebrity guests this fall, but acknowledged that it won’t be easy to match the star power of the 2024 event.

“It is a hard act to follow, but I think we're on our way to doing that,” Scarfo says.

The health technology conference in October will be spotlighting artificial intelligence. Rich Scarfo, president of HLTH, says the focus reflects the growing importance of AI in the industry.

Topic

At HLTH this year, AI will take center stage

With more patients turning to urgent care for illnesses and injuries, Todd Latz sees plenty of opportunities for growth.

Latz is the CEO of GoHealth Urgent Care, which operates nearly 400 urgent care locations around the country. He talked about the company and the urgent care model in the latest episode of Healthy Bottom Line, a podcast from Chief Healthcare Executive®.

“We continue to see immense opportunity for growth,” Latz says.

GoHealth has recently partnered with UPMC in a joint venture to operate 81 urgent care locations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The company also has forged partnerships with 13 health systems, including Henry Ford Health, Northwell Health, Novant Health and UCSF Health.

GoHealth has also expanded its work with Hartford HealthCare in Connecticut.

“We started with a sizable partnership, but over the past 18 months, even in a more mature partnership, we found many opportunities for future growth, both in terms of service expansion, but just pure geographic growth and opportunity,” Latz says.

GoHealth operates in 17 states in joint ventures with health systems. He talks about the keys in developing successful partnerships.

“The first piece is finding a like-minded health system partner that sees the world the way we do, wants to be consumer-oriented, is looking to get patients into a lower cost site of care, with high quality not being sacrificed in that process,” he says. “And then we think about the geography and that community access, the need state, the competitive landscape.”

The partnership with UPMC, its newest relationship, represented an alignment of those factors, he says.

“One of the beauties of our partner there is, it's a very large provider system … It's also a huge health plan in that market as well. And so it allows you to think about value-based care and other things. And so really a unique opportunity for us to partner with a high quality institution, real access needs in the market,” Latz says.

GoHealth operates in markets ranging from California to West Virginia, but the company doesn’t take a “cookie cutter” approach in each region. “There are nuances in each market that make it unique,” he says.

In an area with fewer healthcare providers, Latz says, “That might mean different hours or staying open longer to meet the need. It might mean that you see a different mix of not just episodic injury and illness, but you have to lean in more on a primary care sort of management side of it.”

 expected in the coming years, hospitals and health systems may be looking to direct more patients into urgent care settings. Hospital leaders say they expect to see 

millions of patients losing Medicaid coverage

more people turning to emergency care for basic health needs

Health systems may be looking to divert more patients into urgent care settings to alleviate some of the crowding in emergency rooms. Latz expects to see more demand for urgent care.

“It's going to put even more pressure on the system, health systems and payers and everyone else involved in it, to get patients into the right site of care and to lower the cost in doing that,” he says. “So if it is not a life-threatening event, then that patient really shouldn't be in the emergency department, and urgent or on demand care is absolutely the answer for that.”

“We see a huge opportunity to help support the communities and our health system partners there,” he says.

Latz has led GoHealth for 10 years, but he has experience outside the healthcare industry. He began his career as an attorney, and he jokes, “I’ve been in recovery for a long time.”

He talks about the “beautiful complexity” of the healthcare industry.

“There's so much opportunity,” Latz says. “Many would say that the healthcare system we live with today is broken in many respects, but it also creates an immense amount of opportunity.”

Check out the full conversation in our podcast. You can subscribe to Healthy Bottom Line wherever you get your podcasts.

Todd Latz talks about the company’s partnerships with hospital systems and the impact of Medicaid changes in the latest episode of Healthy Bottom Line, a podcast from Chief Healthcare Executive.


GoHealth Urgent Care CEO sees big opportunities for growth

For nearly 20 years, U.S. News & World Report has compiled its listing of the best children’s hospitals, and the analysis includes rankings of treatment for cancer, cardiology and orthopedics.

But U.S. News has added a newer category to its listing: behavioral health. U.S. News released 

 of the best children’s hospitals for 2025-26, and this is the second year that the U.S. News listing of best children’s hospitals includes mental health treatment.

Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News, says the inclusion of the behavioral health category reflects the growing interest of pediatric hospital leaders.

“The genesis of it was during the pandemic, when children's hospitals came to us and said, ‘We need to have a North Star around providing behavioral health to children,’” Harder tells Chief Healthcare Executive®.

“The challenge that we face is that there weren't a whole lot of well defined, well agreed on quality measures for behavioral health, especially in the pediatric world. And so we've had to develop many of those in consultation with clinicians and researchers,” he says.

(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

Ben Harder of U.S. News talks about a new ranking of pediatric hospitals in behavioral health

U.S. News names top children's hospitals for mental health

U.S. News names top children's hospitals for 2025-26

more children and teens requiring treatment for mental health needs

, including youths requiring emergency treatment.

Since U.S. News has only recently included behavioral health in its analysis of pediatric hospitals, Harder says researchers are still refining the process. In its rankings, U.S. News named the top 50 children’s hospitals, but didn’t offer a numerical ranking of the providers on that list. There’s no first, second or 50th place. (See the full list below.)

Harder says a more specific numerical ranking could be coming down the road.

“I think that that is definitely an option for us as we go forward, but we felt that it wasn't the right time for us to assign ordinal ranks to hospitals,” Harder says.

“We are still working with clinicians and experts in the field to really define: How do you measure quality in adolescent pediatric behavioral health? So, yeah, I think it remains a work in progress,” he adds.

This year, U.S. News added another element to its analysis of behavioral health, which tracks patients who are spending extended periods in the emergency department. Pediatric hospitals and general hospitals 

have seen more patients “boarding” in emergency rooms for days or even weeks

“Boarding is particularly a problem for young people with behavioral health needs,” Harder says.

"There's really an epidemic, I think, nationally, of children being brought into the emergency room and not being able to get admitted to a psychiatric bed," he adds.

Harder says the rise of kids and teens stuck in emergency departments prompted some hospital executives to push U.S. News to include behavioral health in its analysis of the top pediatric hospitals.

Such care is increasingly in demand, but as Harder says, “It's not a profit center for most hospitals.”

“There's so much demand for it,” he says. “They can barely meet that.”

U.S. News is also hoping to draw more attention to the many young people that need behavioral health treatment.

“It's a societal problem. It's not just a quality problem within our institutions,” Harder says

“We hope that that can shine a light on the acute need, but also the fact that it is possible to get great care, to make great care available for adolescents and children who have behavioral health needs,” he adds. “So we hope that we can be part of the solution to this societal problem.”

U.S. News named the top 50 children’s hospitals in behavioral health, but didn’t rank them numerically (first, second, third). These 50 facilities are listed in alphabetical order.

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital

Duke Children's Hospital and Health Center

Hackensack Meridian Health JM Sanzari and K Hovnanian Children's Hospitals

Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital-University of Utah

Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital at Memorial

Johns Hopkins Children's Center-Kennedy Krieger Institute

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford

New York-Presbyterian Children's Hospital-Columbia and Cornell

North Carolina Children's Hospital at UNC

Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health 

St. Louis Children's Hospital-Washington University

UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, San Francisco and Oakland

University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital

University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital

University of Rochester-Golisano Children's Hospital

University of Virginia Children's Hospital 

West Virginia University Children's Hospital

Pediatric hospital leaders urged U.S. News to include behavioral health as part of their rankings of the top children’s hospitals. It’s a new area, and poses some challenges to evaluate.

Picking top children’s hospitals in behavioral health

Health systems and hospitals rely on temporary staffing to provide continuity of care.

In this video, three healthcare leaders engage in a fascinating conversation about locum tenens, managing resources, ensuring financial returns, and the clinicians looking at temporary staffing roles.

Thomas Lanvers, senior vice president of Locumsmart, moderated the discussion with Ryan Schwanke, chief medical officer of Billings Clinic, and Roy Milwee, chief ambulatory officer of Appalachian Regional Healthcare.

Check out the full conversation for important insights. This is one of a series of videos on expanding healthcare access. 

Thomas Lanvers of Locumsmart moderates a discussion on locum tenens

A Locumsmart panel discussion on temporary staffing

Thomas Lanvers of Locumsmart leads a video discussion on trends in temporary staffing, financial returns, and the clinicians interested in short-term roles.



Locum Tenens and ensuring continuity of care

Hospital and healthcare leaders are urging Congress to end the government shutdown.

The shutdown began early Wednesday, as the spending legislation financing government programs expired Sept. 30. Lawmakers haven’t been able to come together on a compromise, and one of the key issues involves 

extending tax credits for the Affordable Care Act

telehealth and hospital-at-home programs have been disrupted

. With the spending bill stalled, Congress has also still yet to act on other funding streams that have been important priorities to hospitals.

Sister Mary Haddad, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, issued a statement Wednesday imploring hospitals to end the shutdown.

“We urge Congress to come together to fund the government for Fiscal Year 2026 and extend vital health and safety net programs that millions rely on,” Haddad said in the statement. “A government shutdown jeopardizes the health and stability of millions of families—especially those living paycheck to paycheck and communities that depend on essential services.”

With the shutdown, waivers authorizing telehealth and hospital-at-home programs have lapsed for the first time since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have directed health systems to transfer patients getting acute care at home to their hospitals or to discharge those patients. Many seniors are affected, as they’re no longer getting Medicare coverage for telehealth programs.

Kyle Zebley, executive director of ATA Action, the advocacy arm of the American Telemedicine Association, said Congress needs to restore the waivers and ensure providers can get reimbursed.

“Most providers and hospital systems are taking calculated risks to continue care during this time, but long-term continuity depends on action by our telehealth champions in Washington to restore these flexibilities and ensure retroactive reimbursement,” Zebley said in a statement Wednesday.

“Medicare patients woke up this morning without telehealth coverage for the first time since the pandemic, five years ago,” he added. “Our healthcare services are regressing, falling woefully short for millions of patients in need.”

Nationwide, 147 health systems, and a total of 419 hospitals, are approved to provide acute care at home. 

 are operating in 39 states, according to 

Health systems and providers with telehealth services have been frustrated for months about the recurring stress over lawmakers extending telehealth programs. Since a two-year extension expired at the end of December, the telehealth waivers have been tied to short-term spending measures to fund the government. Providers have been seeking permanent reforms, or at least multi-year extensions to have some more predictability.

The lack of longer-term certainty has caused some hospitals to hold off on developing or expanding hospital-at-home programs, hospital leaders say.

Lawmakers remain supportive of telehealth programs, and President Trump first authorized telehealth waivers in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zebley is calling on Trump and Congress to end the shutdown and allow programs to resume.

“We are grateful to Congress and the Administration for their continued bipartisan leadership and historic support for telehealth,” Zebley said in a statement. “Their efforts have been instrumental in expanding access to care, and we look forward to working collaboratively to immediately reinstate these vital services to ensure millions of patients can continue to receive care where and when they need it.”

Hospitals have been pressing Congress to preserve a Medicaid program that offers additional funding for hospitals with a high percentage of Medicaid patients. 

The Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital program

 delivers vital funding to safety net hospitals, and a scheduled $8 billion cut to the program went into effect on Oct. 1. Congress has agreed to block those reductions before, and hospitals have been urging lawmakers to block those cuts.

Health systems have also pressed Congress to retain two Medicare programs supporting rural hospitals: the Medicare-dependent Hospitals and Low-volume Adjustment programs. Those programs expired on Sept. 30. Congress has also kept those programs afloat in the past, and hospitals are hoping a new spending deal makes provisions for those programs.

Democrats have been holding firm on rejecting any spending package that doesn’t extend tax credits that help Americans pay for the Affordable Care Act. Health systems say millions of Americans may lose coverage without those tax credits. The tax credits are slated to expire at the end of the year.

Lawmakers and healthcare advocates say the tax credits are vital, especially with health insurance plans projecting substantial increases next year.

Republicans and President Trump have told Democrats to sign off on a spending bill, and said they could address the tax credits in separate legislation. 

Democrats have said the tax credits need to be part of a deal to end the shutdown

. Healthcare groups have said the tax credits need to be preserved as soon as possible, since many Americans enroll in health insurance plans in the fall.

Haddad says lawmakers need to get together.

“We encourage lawmakers to swiftly work together to end the shutdown and preserve critical health programs,” Haddad said. “This includes extending essential telehealth flexibilities, preventing harmful Medicaid cuts to safety net hospitals, addressing the disproportionate burden of payments carried by hospitals serving underserved communities, and extending enhanced premium tax credits that are vital for millions of working Americans.”

, president of the Emergency Nurses Association, said the fallout from the shutdown could reach hospital emergency departments.

“Without funding, ENA-supported initiatives and programs which focus on, among other things, emergency care for children, nursing workforce development, critical nursing research, the opioid crisis and the health and well-being of health care workers are in danger of being disrupted,” Oglesby said in a statement.

Brian Frazee, president & CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association, said in a statement that he’s anxious to see an extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits. But Frazee also hoped to see an end to the stalemate in Washington.

“Nobody benefits from a government shutdown, and this shutdown will have real implications on critical healthcare programs,” Frazee said. “The current political gridlock creates uncertainty making these times only more challenging.”

The shutdown began Wednesday, affecting telehealth and hospital-at-home programs. Providers have implored lawmakers to extend tax credits for the Affordable Care Act and address other key programs for hospitals.


Chris Ingersoll, VP of Product Development, R1 RCM

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