{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Health Tech Nerds Radio","title":"AI & organizational realities, rising labor costs, and specialty care as the next wave of virtual care and VBC: insights from 150 payer & provider execs | Ezra Mehlman (HEP) and Tom Cassels (Manatt)","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1652,"description":"Kevin is joined by HEP Managing Partner, Ezra Mehlman, and Executive Partner, Tom Cassels, to discuss findings from Health Enterprise Partner’s annual LP survey of ~150 health system and health plan executives. They highlight widespread but shallow AI adoption which has the potential to widen gaps between best-in-class organizations that redesign processes, and laggards that “slap on” tools. They also discuss the finding that nearly 90% of providers expect labor costs per discharge to rise in 2026, driven by slow human/organizational change and persistent clinical labor pressures. They also discuss virtual care’s “next wave” as operationally embedded by specialty (e.g., behavioral health, OB/GYN, orthopedics), and growing payer-provider collaboration via specialty-focused risk/shared-savings models (e.g., kidney, cardiology) and improving interoperability as a path out of adversarial “bot vs bot” dynamics.For more from Health Tech Nerds, subscribe to our weekly newsletters: https://www.healthtechnerds.com/subscribe","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/y84Rj-3Zru2TSHB3gg7QPKSw1QK5xTylJGdWYgSYt5g/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS85MmYw/N2JiYjk1MjQ4NTAy/YzJiZDg1NzYyY2E2/NmI0ZS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}