Monday Morning Update 1/19/26

Top News

A McKinsey report predicts that healthcare services and technology will continue as the fastest-growing segment in healthcare. It expects providers and payers to increase outsourcing to tech and platform companies.

McKinsey projects that nearly half of healthcare profits by 2029 will come from software, platforms, data, and analytics, with traditional admin and consulting services growing slowly or shrinking. 

The authors expect federal funding for the Rural Health Transformation Program to drive adoption of telehealth and AI tools.

Payers that saw margins drop due to higher utilization and regulatory actions will face a decline of up to 30% in EBITDA from their ACA and Medicaid segments due to disenrollment driven by ACA subsidy expiration and impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Poll respondents say that hospitals, like all other investors, put their money down primarily because they expect it to grow.

New poll to your right or here: What is the top industry takeaway from Kaiser Permanente’s settlement of Medicare Advantage overbilling allegations? These settlements always make me wonder whether a health system clearly violated the law, or whether vague coding rules come bundled with the unreasonable expectation that health systems will just forgo extra revenue to be responsibly nice. 

The paucity of recent health tech news suggests that everybody is on hold while they digest never-ending federal government changes that affect payments, a shifting regulatory environment, and having thunder stolen by AI froth. I’m not paid by the word or column-inch, so today’s short post gifts you free time.

HIStalk sponsors who are participating in the ViVE conference can send me your information to be included in my online guide. New this year: for more exposure and less work for me, I will post the guide immediately and update it as additional sponsors submit their details, which also creates an incentive to respond early.

Ms. G from Hope Mills, NC sent over this unpacking photo of the science kits that her fifth graders received courtesy of reader donations to her Donors Choose project. She reports, “We have officially received the science kits, and they have already made a huge impact in our classroom. The moment the boxes arrived, my students were buzzing with excitement and could not wait to explore what was inside. As they opened the kits, they eagerly examined the materials, asked questions, and started making connections to what they already know about science … Thank you for helping bring hands-on, joyful science learning into our classroom.”

Sponsored Events and Resources

None scheduled soon. Contact Lorre to have your resource listed.

People

Linus Health promotes Curt Thornton, MBA, MHS to president, Connected Care and names Chief Customer and Administrative Officer Leah Ray to the additional role of president, US healthcare.

Announcements and Implementations

SmartSense by Digi launches SmartSense One, a modular, scalable IoT operations platform that merges the capabilities of SmartSense and its acquired Jolt for unified monitoring, compliance, safety, and workflow management.

Other

Cerner co-founder Cliff Illig and his family sell a majority stake in the Major League Soccer Sporting KC for a record valuation of $700 million. He bought the team in 2006 with a group of six local investors, which also included his Cerner co-founder Neal Patterson, for a reported $20 million.  

Two women who were fired by businesses owned by a Huntsville, AL doctor file a sexual harassment lawsuit, alleging that the doctor forced them on multiple occasions to shave his legs. One of the plaintiffs notes in the complaint that “he was wearing lime green underwear.”

Sponsor Updates

• Altera Digital Health promotes Lindsey Honig to marketing communications manager.
• Black Book Research releases its “2026 Physician Practice Management Solutions Report.”
• Impact Advisors releases a new success story titled “Building a Scalable Quality Reporting Framework.”
• Nordic releases a new “Designing for Health” podcast featuring Steve Peltzman and Tim Woodward.
• ReferWell will exhibit at the Medicare Advantage Leadership Innovations conference January 21-22 in Buena Vista, FL.
• Symplr releases a new case study titled “Health First & Nebraska Methodist: A Blueprint for Value Analysis Excellence.”
• TruBridge will host its National Client Conference April 7-10 in Dallas.
• Waystar will exhibit at EClinicalWorks Day January 21 in Houston.

Blog Posts

• A Guide to the Use of AI in Healthcare: Deploying a Realistic Approach (Med Tech Solutions)
• Power to the people: Why digital healthcare transformations fail without effective change management (Nordic)
• Healthcare PMO Expert Answers Top Project Management Questions (Optimum Healthcare IT)
• The Opportunity Cost of Your Old Hospital Switchboard (PerfectServe)
• Patients Win with Prescription Price Transparency (Surescripts)
• Elevating the patient experience: They’re already telling you how (Cardamom)
• All-payer OASIS documentation & accuracy: What home health agencies need to know (WellSky)
• CEO Letter: Reflecting on 2025 and Building the Infrastructure for 2026 (VectorCare)
• 5 Things Health Tech Leaders Need to Know About ACCESS (Zen Healthcare IT)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates.
Send news or rumors.
Follow on X, Bluesky, and LinkedIn.
Sponsorship information.
Contact us.