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House Republicans have already begun work on a follow-up budget bill that seeks deeper cuts to Medicaid and new spending reductions in Medicare, Bloomberg reported July 14. 

Five things to know: 

1. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, told Bloomberg he sees the legislation — coming this fall — as an opportunity to secure Medicare spending cuts he unsuccessfully sought in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law on July 4. 

2. Mr. Arrington’s goals include reducing reimbursement to hospitals through a site-neutral payment system.  

3. He said conservatives are also seeking to use the legislation to penalize states that fail to enforce existing laws against Medicaid benefits for undocumented immigrants, according to the report. 

4. The federal reimbursement rate to states for healthy, able-bodied adults added to Medicaid under the ACA is also on the chopping block, as Mr. Arrington plans additional cuts to the program. 

5. He added that the bill would also be used to fix any errors inserted into the U.S. tax code by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 
The post House GOP eyes deeper Medicaid, Medicare cuts in next budget bill: Bloomberg  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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Rural hospitals are bracing for Medicaid cuts that could affect their cybersecurity.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law July 4 by President Donald Trump, slashes Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. Healthcare leaders testified before Congress on July 9 that the reductions could harm rural cybersecurity.

But will rural hospital leaders really delay cybersecurity projects or investments because of the government spending cutbacks?

“The answer is yes. We have to look at all expenses right now,” Kevin Stansbury, CEO of Hugo, Colo.-based Lincoln Health, told Becker’s. “Relative to the cybersecurity issues, we are also concerned about USAC [Universal Service Administrative Company] funding. This year, we were denied some of the grants that help us cover the costs of cybersecurity infrastructure.” 

Sixteen percent of small and rural hospitals are planning to postpone cybersecurity expenditures, in part due to the looming Medicaid cuts, Black Book Research reported June 30.

“We are still evaluating the bill and the potential effects,” said David Walz, president and CEO of Madelia (Minn.) Health. “We have very little funds to begin with, so any decreases will cause additional challenges.”

Still, several rural hospital executives told Becker’s that they plan to prioritize cybersecurity despite the potential loss in revenue.

“We do not plan on cutting back on cybersecurity as we prepare for the upcoming Medicaid cuts. In fact, that would be one of the last cuts I would advocate for,” said Daniel Grigg, CEO of Enterprise, Ore.-based Wallowa Memorial Hospital. “I was part of a cybersecurity event at a former hospital, and it’s not something I want to be part of again. I can’t speak for my other small hospital colleagues, but I would be surprised to see that as a popular strategy.”

Some small and rural hospitals have been acquired by larger health systems and now get their cybersecurity defenses that way. “We are not delaying any cybersecurity protection, as we belong to WVU health system, and it’s part of our system process,” said Mark Boucot, president of Oakland, Md.-based Garrett Regional Medical Center and Keyser, W.Va.-based Potomac Valley Hospital.

Other small hospitals are upping their cybersecurity budgets in the face of the funding slowdown. Healthcare is now the most-targeted critical infrastructure industry by hackers, while cyberattacks tend to be more disruptive for rural hospitals.

“We view cybersecurity as one of the greatest risks to our business,” said Brett Altman, CEO of Atlantic, Iowa-based Cass Health. “While the cuts to Medicaid may impact smaller hospital investment in cybersecurity, we have no plans to cut or delay our investments. In fact, in light of increasingly sophisticated attacks, we have invested more in our staffing, technology, and monitoring defenses in recent months.”

Pinckneyville (Ill.) Community Hospital is still seeking a cybersecurity partner in spite of the Medicaid cuts, said CEO Randall Dauby. The 20-bed critical access hospital’s IT department facilitates firewalls and internal testing but the organization needs more sophisticated outside assistance to thwart cyberattacks. Fifty-nine percent of small hospitals don’t have 24/7 threat monitoring or a dedicated security operations center, relying instead on general IT staff, Black Book Research found.

“Finding the right company based upon our needs as a small rural hospital at a reasonable price has been difficult, but we are going to proceed with cybersecurity,” Mr. Dauby said. “There are way too many chances of getting hit by cyber thieves, and the cost of an attack can be in the thousands/millions.”

Cybersecurity is particularly important for rural hospitals as hackers have shifted their focus from larger health systems to smaller organizations, as they see them as “softer targets,” at the same time AI makes hacks more sophisticated, said Trevor Smith, director of information services at Gunnison (Colo.) Valley Health. So he’s grateful that his county-owned health system, anchored by a 24-bed critical access hospital, doesn’t plan to reduce cybersecurity investments.

“When I’ve been thinking about the One Big Beautiful Bill and the implications, cybersecurity is definitely not one of those places that bubble up the top of my mind [to cut] versus unprofitable service lines or other areas that are high cost and don’t have a lot of revenue associated with it,” said Gunnison Valley Health CEO Jason Amrich. “That’s been more my focus.”

He called cybersecurity funding the “price of admission” in healthcare and said that any downsizing would be too risky to operational and patient safety.

Mr. Smith said the health system has been experiencing cost increases from 300-500% on cybersecurity vendors that could force its hand on this issue. Many cybersecurity companies are trying to become all-in-one platforms, while his health system’s cybersecurity posture has benefited from an a la carte approach, he said.

“We are getting into a little bit of, I would almost say, corporate greed with some of these vendors that we’re dealing with right now. So it’s only a matter of time before we have to make those hard decisions,” he said.

But, he added, “I’m fortunate that we have a CEO who obviously sees the importance there, but that wasn’t always the case here. Trying to sell cybersecurity to some CEOs is a very difficult task that a lot of other small organizations may struggle with, because you don’t really appreciate it until you get in a really difficult spot where you have some sort of ransomware or other event.”

Mr. Amrich said he doesn’t envision his peers at other rural hospitals downsizing their cybersecurity beyond what they have now, as a baseline level is needed to protect against hackers. They may, however, look at saying no to the latest “Cadillac model” upgrade, for instance.

“As new bells and whistles come out, yes, those could be delayed, but there really is just a foundation that we have to have, that can’t be eroded,” he said.
The post Cybersecurity ‘can’t be eroded,’ rural hospitals say amid Medicaid cuts appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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In the last four years, Beth Israel Lahey Health has expanded its primary care physician workforce by 30%, but its specialty workforce has remained relatively stagnant, according to its chief clinical officer, Rob Fields, MD. 

There are a few factors for this recruitment issue, he said.

For one, some medical students tend to avoid specialties known for lower pay, which translates into certain specialties failing to keep pace with patient demand. Private equity and venture capital are investing in the more lucrative specialties, Dr. Fields said, further exacerbating the gap. 

The 14-hospital system struggles to recruit endocrinologists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, anesthesiologists and, to some degree, radiologists. With an average $526,000 salary, as of 2025, radiology is the third highest-paid specialty. Gastroenterology and anesthesiology average more than $500,000 per year.

Neurologists earn on average $332,000, a 3% decrease in the last year, according to Medscape. Although diabetes and endocrinology physicians saw the largest pay increase among specialties, at 7%, they are among the least lucrative, at $274,000 per year. 

A significant share of the U.S. population is entering retirement age, too. 

“You have a shrinking workforce, higher demand,” said Dr. Fields, who also serves as executive vice president of the Cambridge, Mass.-based system. “It’s like, whoa, a significant mismatch of supply, demand.”

“The other sort of phenomenon of an aging population is that they utilize so much more healthcare than a commercially insured patient,” he told Becker’s. “So in the hospital services, it can be three to four times the amount of a working age adult. That’s a huge amount of demand that’s being created every day as more people age into Medicare.”

To buck this trend, Dr. Fields said Beth Israel needs to compete harder to recruit the small pool of physicians in these specialties. It might not be able to create more gastroenterologists, he said, but the system can tweak the delivery model to cut inefficiencies and create a culture that attracts specialists.
The post A ‘significant mismatch’ for specialty care appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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Generation Z healthcare workers prioritize financial wellness and mental health support — and hospitals and health systems are responding.

Given changing demographics and labor shortages, organizations across the U.S. are focused on recruiting and retaining the newest generation to enter the workforce. Gen Z employees include new college graduates and those with a few years of professional experience, with the oldest members age 28.

Becker’s connected with human resources leaders from five organizations — ranging from large academic health systems to community hospitals — to learn how they are tailoring benefits to meet workforce demands.

A head start on retirement savings

Gen Zers are contributing to 401(k) plans more often than millennials did when they entered the workforce, with about 20% across industries saving for retirement, according to 2023 and 2024 reports.

At Arlington-based Texas Health Resources, more than 42% of Gen Z employees are participating in its 401(k) plan. The system offers a matching contribution starting at employees’ six-month anniversary, Jenny Perkins, vice president of total health and rewards, told Becker’s. 

The share of Gen Z employees participating is higher than what the system has seen in benchmarking data for this group, Ms. Perkins said.

“But this isn’t particularly surprising to us, as we know financial well-being is very important to Gen Z,” she said. “It’s likely that having Generation X or older Millennial parents may be a factor. This generation has seen their loved ones face many of life’s financial challenges: economic instability and recession, ‘sandwich generation’ pressures and uncertainty with Social Security.”

Of Blairsville, Ga.-based Union General Health System’s 1,294 employees, about 36% are participating in its retirement offerings. Among Gen Z workers, about 17% are participating — less than 3% below the national average, Stacy Plante, corporate HR director, told Becker’s.

A thorough explanation of the system’s retirement accounts during new hire onboarding and orientation — as well as a live phone meeting with a retirement representative — is a key reason for Gen Z’s participation, Ms. Plante said.

Financial wellness

UC San Diego Health has seen a growing interest among Gen Z employees in long-term financial wellness — but not in the traditional sense, interim Chief Human Resources Officer Kim Eskierka told Becker’s.

“Many are seeking guidance on student loan repayment, budgeting, and investing,” Ms. Eskierka said. “This interest is often driven by economic uncertainty, rising living costs and a desire for financial independence earlier in life.”

UCSD Health has also noticed trends in the types of financial or retirement planning resources Gen Z employees seek.

“They are generally not interested in traditional retirement seminars — those are filled with retirement ready individuals. Instead, they are looking for mobile tools, and on-demand financial coaching,” she said. “It’s less about the distant idea of retirement and more about achieving financial flexibility and freedom on their own terms.”

The primary focus of younger employees at Knox County Hospital District in Knox City, Texas, appears to be wages, benefits and work-life balance — similar to millennials and older employees, due to household budgets and financial obligations, David Troublefield, PhD, director of human resources, told Becker’s.

“Retaining Gen Z adults can be a challenge, as they are somewhat ‘monied and mobile’ and sought after by other employers elsewhere with plans to develop them as workers during the coming years,” Dr. Troublefield said.

Overall well-being

In recent years, Fountain Valley, Calif.-based MemorialCare employees have asked for more support in financial security and mental, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being. This led leaders to reinvigorate its Good Life Program, which supports events and education focused on well-being, said Suzanna Winslow Hazboun, vice president of human resources and assistant general counsel.

At its financial wellness event, MemorialCare leaders offered access to vendors about saving money, paying off loans, and planning for home ownership, retirement and children’s educational expenses, Ms. Winslow Hazboun said.

“What our Gen Z employee population seems most interested in is our debt programs, and finding viable solutions to tackle their student loan debt,” she said. “MemorialCare utilizes a student loan consolidation service that supports individuals through planning, borrowing and repayment.”

While MemorialCare’s Gen Z workforce is interested in aspects of financial wellness, they are most interested in mental, emotional and spiritual well-being support services, she said.

Mental health, paid time off

Gen Z places an emphasis on mental health benefits, which is not unexpected given the toll the last five years have taken on society, Ms. Eskierka said.

“They have been very vocal about advocating for access to therapy and environments that support psychological safety, especially in high-stress healthcare roles,” she said.

UCSD Health has implemented several offerings, including free or subsidized counseling sessions, behavioral health benefits through medical plans, and its team member well-being program and physician wellness program.

In addition to financial wellness, Texas Health Gen Z employees have shown an interest in more paid time off, flexible schedules and mental health resources, Ms. Perkins said. To offer greater flexibility, the system added an extra paid day off in 2024. The flex day supplements its PTO program and can be used for a mental health day, holiday or any other reason.
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We’ve come a long way from when electronic health records (EHRs) were first built as billing systems. As we progress as an industry toward better usability, it’s clear that general best practice workflows have not reflected the daily realities of clinical users, especially at the specialty level.

Behavioral health is just one clinical focus area that exemplifies the gap between health IT and provider needs. Let’s explore the current state of behavioral health and how EHRs can evolve to support provider satisfaction and efficiency while promoting patient-centric care.

Behavioral health trends since COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic was a turning point in behavioral health demand. Consider the following trends identified since its onset:

Approximately 23% of adults received mental health treatment within the span of a year.

Among adults with a mental illness, 17% of those with a perceived unmet need for treatment said there were no openings in the treatment program or with the healthcare professional they wanted to go to.

More than one-third of the U.S. population lives in a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area, and these shortages are particularly pronounced in rural areas.

As the volume of patients seeking treatment has risen, more healthcare organizations have begun providing outpatient behavioral health services. Many have grown their group therapy offerings to expand access to these services in their communities—but EHRs largely have not caught up.

Single workflow for multi-patient sessions

One of the biggest sources of inefficiency I’ve heard in conversations with behavioral health providers is group therapy documentation.

In a single session, there might be 10 patients and a multidisciplinary team including a psychiatrist, a psychologist and a social worker. At the end of that session, the providers typically must document a shared group summary for each participant, though many EHRs don’t support this need. Providers are left manually copying and pasting notes across the ten different records. This sort of inefficient process drains time and increases the risk of errors.

Clinicians should be able to document group session details, participant lists, session objectives, activities and outcomes in a single streamlined process that applies the group note to all participants simultaneously. EHRs traditionally have not been able to accommodate bulk group therapy notes, underscoring the need for flexible health IT solutions that align to the ways clinicians prefer to work.

Individualized patient notes

While bulk group therapy notes can save a lot of headaches, providers must also be able to individualize notes for patients in the session. The system should support documentation for each patient’s progress, participation and treatment details.

With the time saved from a group therapy bulk note capability, providers can then spend more time adding customized remarks to each patient’s record to ensure personalized care documentation. Striking a balance between efficiency and individualization is just one example of how EHRs can produce real value when they reflect what users truly need.

By evolving to support the specific workflows of behavioral health delivery, EHRs can support both providers and patients. It’s not just about better documentation. Ultimately, it’s about better experiences and outcomes. At Altera Digital Health, we are bringing rural, critical access and community hospitals the EHR capabilities they need with an available behavioral health module through Paragon® Denali. Learn how the cloud-native, containerized EHR can support your teams here.
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Joanna Weiss, executive vice president and CFO of Tampa, Fla.-based Moffitt Cancer Center, has spent nearly two decades serving in various finance-related roles at the National Cancer Institute-designated center. 

She began her career at Moffitt as director of internal audit, working her way up to vice president of revenue cycle management and then to senior vice president of finance, prior to her current role. Ms. Weiss’ experience in revenue cycle and finance has shaped her leadership approach at the facility, which serves more than 30,000 new patients and 600,000 encounters each year.

During a Becker’s CFO and Revenue Cycle Podcast episode, Ms. Weiss shared her perspective on today’s top healthcare trends, from post-pandemic financial stabilization and capital constraints to the evolving role of AI in operational efficiency.

Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Question: What are the top 3 trends you’re following in healthcare today?

Joanna Weiss: I would say financial stabilization. We came out of the pandemic, and it took us several years to sort of recover from that experience. We’ve seen improving margins subsequent to the pandemic, and I would say we’re just now sort of taking a deep breath. As the winds are always changing in healthcare, just that stabilization and that continuation of financial stewardship in such a slim margin industry is always top of mind. Trying to understand how you balance both growth and growing out of those compressed margins, but also finding ways that you can continue to increase those margins in ways that are both good for the patient and good for our faculty.

[The] buzzword that we all know is artificial intelligence, and really trying to understand where we have opportunities. We have a tremendous amount of automation in our current revenue cycle, and it’s in excess of the equivalent of 400 workers. We utilize automation quite a bit, but taking that to the next level, how can we use agentic AI? How can we use AI for other things that [will] make our cost to collect lower? It’s going to decrease our overall cost of providing the service to our patients and to our organization. So that’s the second item. 

I would say the third item is really a deviation from the first. How do we grow in an environment where everyone is so capital constrained because of the margins that we live with? [We need to]  figure out ways to think strategically, scenario plan and be prepared for things such as changing reimbursement, federal regulations or state regulations, getting our operational teams ready for what we would do in case something really catastrophic [occurs].

Q: With all of the technology out there, from a financial perspective, how do you go about choosing the best option?

JW: Under the leadership of our vice president of revenue cycle at Moffitt, she has done a really good job of identifying where our largest financial opportunities are. In oncology care, denials are a big component of that. Our intent is to ensure that we receive all the reimbursement that we are compliantly and appropriately entitled to. That was the first area that we’ve really explored. We’ve just recently implemented a solution that we are extremely excited about that has already started to yield very nice returns for us.

The second is where we have substantial [full-time equivalent] reliance and, not just reliance, but it’s hard to recruit experienced team members. That’s in our coding space. Coding is, particularly in oncology and especially in inpatient oncology, where you have cell and gene therapy. Inpatient coders are very hard to come by. Looking for ways that we can increase their ability to code efficiently, compliantly and appropriately, is the second area that we’re really exploring. We haven’t implemented the solution yet, but we’ve identified it and are in the process. We’re really excited about both of those. 
The post 3 trends Moffitt Cancer Center’s CFO is following  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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Several CEO moves have occurred at hospitals operated by HCA Healthcare, a for-profit health system based in Nashville, Tenn.

Twenty-two CEO moves at HCA hospitals since Dec. 3:

Editor’s note: This list was created on Jan. 9 and updated on July 14.

1. Wyatt Chocklett was appointed CEO of Dickson, Tenn.-based TriStar Horizon Medical Center.

2. Nicole Tucker, RN, was appointed CEO of LewisGale Hospital Alleghany in Low Moor, Va.

3. Joseph Gleason was appointed CEO of HCA Florida University Hospital in Davie.

4. Wes Taylor was appointed CEO of Memorial Health Meadows Hospital in Vidalia, Ga.

5. Cindy Bergmeier was appointed CEO of TriStar Summit Medical Center in Hermitage, Tenn.

6. Dale Neely accepted a new role as CEO of HCA Florida Capital Hospital in Tallahassee.

7. Gabe Bullaro was appointed CEO of HCA Florida North Florida Hospital in Gainesville.

8. Cameron Howard was appointed CEO of Oviedo (Fla.) Medical Center.

9. Brad Griffin was appointed CEO of HCA Healthcare’s Fairview Park Hospital in Dublin, Ga.

10. Sean Patterson was appointed CEO of Portsmouth (N.H.) Regional Hospital.

11. Chris Mosley stepped down as CEO of HCA Florida Capital Hospital in Tallahassee.

12. Whitney Fenyak was appointed CEO of HCA Healthcare’s Parkland Medical Center in Derry, N.H.

13. Thomas Bowden was appointed CEO of HCA’s Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.H.

14. Jerry Gonzalez, BSN, RN, was appointed CEO of Ogden (Utah) Regional Medical Center.

15. Kenneth “KC” Donahey was appointed CEO of HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital.

16. Kelsie Green, BSN, RN, was appointed CEO and chief nursing officer of Cache Valley Hospital in Logan, Utah.

17. John Skevington was appointed CEO of Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, N.H.

18. Nanette Logan, DNP, was appointed CEO of Dominion Hospital in Falls Church, Va.

19. Robert Sabina was appointed CEO of HCA Houston Healthcare Medical Center.

20. Elias Armendariz, MSN, RN, was appointed CEO of HCA Houston Healthcare Pearland (Texas).

21. Joe Hernandez was appointed CEO of Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville, Texas.

22. Sean Kamber was appointed CEO of Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kan.

The post 22 CEO moves at HCA appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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Charlottesville, Va.-based UVA Health is expanding its Stay in the Game initiative, a targeted prostate cancer screening program aimed at boosting early detection among Black men.

Speaking with Becker’s, Thomas Loughran, MD, director of the UVA Cancer Center, shared how the health system fosters successful partnerships with community organizations to help implement screening programs like Stay in the Game.

Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Question: How is UVA Cancer Center measuring the clinical and operational effects of Stay in the Game?

Dr. Thomas Loughran: Stay in the Game has recently launched in the community, so evaluation is in its early stages. However, we are committed to tracking both clinical and operational outcomes as the program progresses. 

Key evaluation metrics will include increased awareness of prostate cancer, engagement with our patient navigators and completion rates of prostate cancer screening among high-risk populations, especially among those who are provided navigation. Through our navigation efforts combined with our educational campaigns and events, we will be able to measure how many men complete screening, and assess changes in knowledge, attitudes and patient-provider communication around prostate cancer. Over time, we expect the program to contribute to reducing disparities in prostate cancer.

Q: What lessons has UVA learned from partnering with community leaders that could inform other health systems looking to replicate a similar grassroots approach?

TL: The UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center partners with the communities we serve. The practice of engaging with community partners requires investment of time and resources. In addition, identifying this type of partnership is a priority. Some key lessons for others looking to replicate a similar approach to reduce cancer disparities include listening, sharing power in decision-making and committing to long-term relationships. 

Some of the most impactful programs begin with a conversation with community members, even before developing a plan. The Stay in the Game program was developed after the Cancer Center identified higher prostate cancer mortality in certain communities. Instead of designing a solution in isolation, we brought data to the community and asked for their perspective. Through these listening sessions, we learned that prostate cancer was often a taboo topic that many men only heard about in the context of late-stage diagnoses and poor outcomes. This insight shaped our entire approach and enabled us to develop a responsive plan.

Effective community engagement means elevating community voices beyond consultation to true collaboration. Following the listening sessions, the Cancer Center partnered with local leaders to co-create Stay in the Game. A diverse steering committee of community representatives was established to guide the initiative’s design, messaging and implementation. These members not only helped shape the program, but also served as trusted messengers, expanding the reach and credibility of Stay in the Game within their networks.

Trust is foundational, takes years to build, and both communication and commitment to maintain. UVA Cancer Center’s community partnerships are rooted in sustained engagement, not “one-off” programs. By consistently showing up, supporting partners through challenges, and celebrating shared successes, the Cancer Center has cultivated relationships that make initiatives like Stay in the Game possible. Long-term investment in people and partnerships is critical to meaningful, community-driven change.

Q: What should hospital and health system leaders understand about shifting the narrative around men’s health, particularly the stigma that prevents men from seeking early screening and care?

TL: Hospital and health system leaders need to recognize that shifting the narrative around men’s health involves more than education. It also requires addressing stigma, cultural norms and systemic barriers may sway men from seeking cancer screenings. Initiatives like Stay in the

Game help counter existing barriers by normalizing conversations around cancer screening and sharing real stories from local men. Our educational materials often feature familiar faces from the community, along with personal quotes about their screening journeys, helping to build trust and relatability.

Many men are unaware of their increased risk for prostate cancer, particularly Black men and those with a family history, who are at the highest risk. Providers play a critical role in communicating this risk, offering guidance on when to get screened, and ensuring that shared decision-making is standardized and accessible.

Finally, reaching men may require messages delivered through multiple, trusted avenues. While conversations with healthcare providers are ideal, some men may not engage in routine care.

Partnering with trusted community voices, such as peers, barbers or faith leaders, can be key to delivering health messages in a way that feels relatable.

The post UVA Cancer Center asks men to ‘stay in the game’ appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, MD, said the agency may fast-track new drugs from pharmaceutical companies that equalize the cost of their medicines between the U.S. and other countries, Bloomberg reported July 11. 

“We can issue a national priority review voucher for companies that are promising to equalize the price,” Dr. Makary said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Wall Street Week”. “We want to incentivize good behavior in the marketplace, and these priority vouchers are worth a lot of money.”

The new vouchers would cut review times to one to two months, down from an average of about 10 months to one year, the agency said.

HHS has asked drugmakers to price therapies that don’t have generic competition at the lowest level offered to any member country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that has an economy at least 60% of the size of the U.S.

Rachel Sachs, a law professor and expert in health law, food and drug regulation and innovation at Washington University in St. Louis, said more detail is needed before the program could be taken seriously. 

“There have been concerns raised that this pathway, because it is vaguely defined, would be a mechanism to dole out political favors,” she said. “This adds to that concern.”
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If hospital and health system CIOs had unlimited resources, where would they place their biggest technology bets?

Becker’s asked several IT leaders: If you had a blank check to invest in one technology tomorrow, what would it be and why?

Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Eric Daffron. Vice President of Information Systems and CIO at Southeast Alabama Medical Center (Dothan, Ala.): If I had a blank check to invest in one technology tomorrow, it would be ambient listening for clinical documentation. I frequently hear from physicians that they are tired of spending too much time interacting with a computer and not enough time conversing and collaborating with their patients. Ambient listening with generative AI has the ability to increase the engagement and longevity of our caregivers, as well as create a clinically relevant note that contributes to the ongoing care of the patient.

Luis Taveras. Senior Vice President and CIO at Jefferson Health (Philadelphia): Choosing a favorite technology is akin to picking a favorite child, but if I had to choose, it would undoubtedly be data. Data serves as the cornerstone for enabling all other technologies. Without a robust data foundation — which includes governance, security, architecture and a comprehensive data dictionary — we cannot fully harness the benefits promised by AI and other advanced technologies.

Data is essential for driving innovation, making informed decisions and optimizing processes across various domains. It provides insights to understand our patients’ behavior, improve operational efficiency and develop new products and services. In essence, data is the lifeblood of modern technology, and investing in it ensures that we can leverage the full potential of emerging technologies to drive growth and success.

Mark Albright. CIO at Tri-City Medical Center (Oceanside, Calif.): A top priority for our facility is digital transformation, and as such, AI solutions are considered to be the most transformative technologies to improve efficiencies, reduce waste and increase the quality of care. For those reasons, I would prioritize AI solutions to invest in.

Specifically, I would invest in AI-driven documentation tools like generative AI scribes. These tools have demonstrated an immediate impact on both provider efficiency and satisfaction. Automatically generating structured medical notes from a provider-patient conversation dramatically reduces documentation time — a top complaint of most providers. Giving providers time back will improve throughput without sacrificing documentation quality, reduce documentation fatigue and burnout, and potentially enable providers to see more patients without increasing hours.

AI-fueled decision support platforms would be a close second for me. At the end of the day, these AI tools deliver immediate, measurable results in workflows, outcomes and efficiencies and represent a long-term strategic win.

Muhammad Siddiqui. CIO of Reid Health (Richmond, Ind.): If I had unlimited resources tomorrow, I’d invest in an AI healthcare platform that predicts, prevents and personalizes care before patients even realize they need it.

Here’s why: Healthcare is going through a major shift. We’re moving past AI as a one-off tool. Now, it’s about AI helping manage the entire care journey — from booking an appointment to recovery.

Imagine a platform where AI pulls together everything about a patient: their genetics, lifestyle, environment and family history. In seconds, it flags hidden risks and builds custom prevention plans. Doctors wouldn’t just get data — they’d get clear, actionable insights for each patient.

This isn’t about taking the human out of healthcare. It’s about giving physicians more time to focus on what they love: connecting with patients, making thoughtful decisions and truly caring.

Looking ahead to 2025, healthcare leaders want more than just smarter tech. They’re looking for speed, precision and personalization. A platform like this wouldn’t just check those boxes — it would raise the bar entirely. This wouldn’t be a small step forward. It would be a true leap into the future of care.

Tom Bartiromo. Senior Vice President and CIO of Tower Health (West Reading, Pa.): If I had a blank check to invest in one technology tomorrow, it would be in adaptive, responsible AI infrastructure that spans the full healthcare enterprise — clinical, operational and financial. Not just a chatbot or decision-support bolt-on, but a foundational layer where AI augments care delivery, automates administrative friction and enables precision resource allocation in real time.

The reason: The future of healthcare isn’t more tools — it’s fewer, smarter ones. We are sitting on oceans of underutilized data, constrained by legacy workflows and fragmented systems. A truly integrated AI platform would unlock that data for proactive insight, personalized care and system-level resilience. The ROI wouldn’t just be financial — it would be a return on people, future, community and experience.

If I had the check, I’d make sure we don’t just buy more or faster tech — but a better system… one that creates the conditions for a healthier (and responsible) future.

Zafar Chaudry, MD. Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer and Chief AI and Information Officer at Seattle Children’s: If I had a blank check, I’d pour it all into AI-powered cybersecurity platforms. Why? Because the pace of cyber threats is escalating incredibly fast. Traditional defenses are often reactive. AI, however, offers the ability to be truly proactive and predictive — detecting and neutralizing threats in real time, even anticipating new attack vectors. A major breach can be catastrophic, so investing heavily here isn’t just about protection; it’s about business continuity and trust. Security underpins everything we do.
The post CIOs’ tech wishlist: What IT leaders would buy with a blank check appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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