At HLTH 2023, I had dozens of conversations with providers, digital health investors, startup CEOs and other players in the healthcare industry. When I got home, I compiled seven refreshingly honest takes I heard from them while at the conference.

To address the growing physician shortage, some people argue that the scope of practice should be expanded for skilled healthcare professionals like nurse practitioners and pharmacists. American Medical Association President Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld said this is a “terrible idea.” He argued that throwing other professionals into physicians’ roles will have poor ramifications of patient safety. In his view, the industry should focus on uplifting strong interprofessional care teams.

Over the past decade, a significant percentage of the country’s physicians have shifted from working in private practices (defined as those owned wholly by physicians) to working in bigger, health system-owned practices. The ability to negotiate higher payment rates with insurers when working at a larger practice is a crucial factor causing this trend, according to a new AMA analysis.

CMS recently revealed its proposals to raise reimbursement rates for hospital outpatient departments and cut payments for physicians. Next year, the agency is planning to decrease physicians’ pay by 1.25% and increase outpatient payment rates by 2.8%. Provider groups are unhappy with the news — AMA President Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld said the new physician fee schedule will be “almost biblical in its impact.”

Providers often have a checklist of requirements they use to determine whether they should bring new technology into their organization. Digital health startups would be wise to learn about these criteria when taking their products to market, said Meg Barron, the AMA’s vice president of digital health strategy, at a recent conference. That way, startups can build their products around meeting providers’ needs.

The director of psychological services at Amwell said that the report from the American Medical Association entitled “Accelerating and Enhancing Behavioral Health Integration Through Digitally Enabled Care: Opportunities and Challenges” represent a solid starting point for engaging multiple stakeholders in this effort.

About 73% of health insurance markets are highly concentrated, and in 46% of markets, one insurer had a share of 50% or more, a new report from the American Medical Association shows. The report comes a few months after President Joe Biden directed federal agencies to ramp up oversight of healthcare consolidation.

The government’s proposed changes to HIPAA aim to provide guardrails against data breaches and misuse, but some of the modifications may not work as intended. Three healthcare experts delved into the ways in which certain proposals could provide inappropriate access to health data during a recent panel discussion.

Recent efforts to improve transparency haven’t made much of a difference, one author noted. But earlier reforms made a dent the “most egregious” practices.

The American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association are asking Congress for $100 billion in funding to offset hospital costs related to Covid-19, saying it could make a difference in health systems’ response to the pandemic.

The House Education and Labor Committee advanced a bill to protect patients from surprise medical bills. A separate, rival bill from the House Ways and Means Committee is backed by hospitals and provider groups.

The health plan hopes to better address the needs of underserved populations through community-based teams that can understand and overcome social barriers to care.

Called the AMA Ed Hub, it includes educational information on topics like hypertension, oncology, professional well-being, patient care, ethics, health disparities and lifestyle behaviors.

The duo is supporting the creation of nearly two dozen new ICD-10 codes related to social determinants of health.

PatientPoint will give patients and physicians AMA-developed educational material to help them identify the risks for the diseases and encourage them to take action.

In a letter addressed to the CEOs of Facebook, Pinterest, Amazon, Google, Youtube and Twitter, AMA executive vice president CEO James Madara wrote about the medical community’s concern about the spread of misinformation on vaccines.

With $2 million in seed funding, the company, First Mile Care, is utilizing a coaching and support model in an effort to reverse prediabetes.

The organization believes the deal would cause an increase in premiums, a reduction in competition in health insurance markets and a rise in drug spending and out-of-pocket costs for consumers.

The competition seeks solutions that show how patient health data can be captured by mobile devices, sent to a physician and turned into actionable information used to improve health outcomes.

New research from Accenture and the American Medical Association found that more than four in five doctors have had some type of cyberattack in their practices. More than half of surveyed respondents indicated they’re very or extremely concerned about future cyberattacks.

Physicians and healthcare entrepreneurs have a new way to meet and engage in meaningful dialogue: the Physician Innovation Network, a new online platform out of the American Medical Association.

The American Medical Association has founded the Integrated Health Model Initiative, a collaborative that brings the healthcare and technology sectors together around a shared data model. Organizations such as Cerner and IBM have already signed on as participants.

A new study published in the Annals of Family Medicine found family physicians spent 5.9 hours out of their 11.4-hour workday in the EHR, completing tasks ranging from documentation to inbox management.

A worldwide effort, it is creating an online system that leverages joint knowledge and machine learning to map the best steps for a given patient.

As the healthcare debate continues in Washington, a number of patient, provider and consumer advocate organizations — including AARP, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association — have banded together to encourage the Senate to consider the impact of the AHCA on patients.

The letter, signed by AMA Executive Vice President and CEO Dr. James Madara, warned against throwing millions of people off the insurance rolls. Follow the money.

Price belongs to a far-right group called the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons that has expressed anti-vax viewpoints and is listed on a site called Quackwatch.

Responses were mixed, which probably isn’t that big of a deal, given that Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt said Friday that MACRA was a “living, breathing rule” intended to change over time.