Startups are no longer just for tech bros in Silicon Valley—they’re playing an increasingly important role in the US healthcare system, experts say.

Health systems are looking for solutions to complex issues, including financial strain, healthcare inequities, and widespread staffing shortages. Startups have the potential to provide systems with resources they wouldn’t otherwise have to tackle such challenges, as well as some much-needed revenue, according to Joseph Moscola, EVP of enterprise services at Northwell Health, New York’s largest health system.

“Without [startups], it puts us at very much a disadvantage for our patients and even our revenue diversification,” he told Healthcare Brew. “Ultimately, we’re looking for these opportunities to invest in these ideas—one, because we need them, and then, two, the amount of revenue we get from just patient care continues to decline each year.”

How Northwell Health works with startups

Health systems work with startups in a variety of capacities, from investments to program pilots to direct partnerships.

At Northwell Health, Moscola said the system partners with existing startups and develops its own from scratch to help the health system save costs, boost efficiency, and increase opportunities for innovation.

Keep reading here.—MA

This year’s Climate Week NYC—the largest annual climate-related event of its kind, according to its site—was the first to feature a dedicated healthcare panel, and a recurring theme was how to create a healthcare industry that’s properly prepared for the effects of extreme heat.

Extreme heat can not only lead to heat stroke, dehydration, and heat exhaustion, but it can also have negative long-term impacts on patients living with asthma, kidney issues, and high blood pressure, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Specifically, older adults, pregnant people, people of color, people who earn lower incomes, and people with preexisting conditions like diabetes, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease are all at increased risk of developing a heat-related illness.

Heat is a major topic on healthcare experts’ minds, and they want to find solutions to better treat patients. On September 23, one of the healthcare panels—which featured experts from the nonprofits SWLA Center for Health Services, Americares, and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), and was moderated by Paulette Frank, Johnson & Johnson’s chief sustainability officer—discussed how health systems can prepare for the effects of climate change, as well as how providers can navigate and respond to extreme heat-related illnesses.

“I look at [patient vulnerability] from two points of view: one, those who have conditions that put them at greater risk for human existence, and secondly, where you live in an environment,” Victor Dzau, president of NAM, a nonprofit that advises on health and science, said during the panel.

Keep reading here.—NO

Employers and health plans that cover mental health and substance use benefits must meet certain requirements to ensure this care is as easily accessible as other types of medical care under a set of final rules issued by the Biden administration on September 9.

The rules clarify responsibilities under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), a 2008 law that requires group health plans and health insurance issuers offering mental health or substance use disorder benefits to do so “in parity with medical and surgical benefits, without imposing greater restrictions on mental health or substance use disorder benefits as compared to medical and surgical benefits,” according to a joint statement from the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury.

People with insurance are often made to pay out-of-pocket when they seek care for a mental health condition, said Neera Tanden, President Biden’s domestic policy advisor, on a September 6 call with reporters. She alluded to one KFF analysis that found privately insured adults who were treated for depression and/or anxiety averaged more than $1,500 in out-of-pocket spending in 2021, almost twice as much as those who weren’t treated for a mental health condition.

“People are really not getting the care they need because they have to spend so much of their own money,” Tanden said. “And that’s really the problem we’re trying to tackle.”

Keep reading here on HR Brew.—CV