HITshow Daily: October 9, 2025 (Thursday)

Today on HITshow: A new Medicare analysis raises tough questions about spine surgery appropriateness and what comes next for hospitals and surgeons. We pivot to strategy as Atlantic Health and Saint Peter’s walk away from a two-year merger effort, then zoom into the bedside with Connecticut’s evolving maternal-care model—midwifery integration, postpartum rehab, and safety-bracelet monitoring. After the break, Harvard Medical School’s content licensing to Microsoft hints at an AI-era “knowledge fabric,” and we spotlight momentum in Parkinson’s monitoring startups. HOST: Steve Daily 📍 Quality & Safety — Anika ShahMedicare flags nearly 200,000 spine surgeries as “low-value,” spotlighting 1.9 billion dollars in questionable spend. Hospitals push back on the data’s nuance, while CMS hints at future prior-auth pilots and quality-alignment initiatives. 📍 Finance & Strategy — Logan StokesThe planned Atlantic Health–Saint Peter’s merger collapses after two years of work, underscoring federal scrutiny and signaling a shift toward partnership models over full consolidation in regional care networks. 📍 Patient Experience — Teresa VaughnConnecticut hospitals expand maternal-care models statewide—integrating midwifery programs, postpartum rehab, and wearable safety bracelets—to cut severe maternal complications and boost continuity of care. 💥 Break — EY Sponsor Tag“Building a world of better health — EY helps healthcare leaders accelerate transformation, from AI adoption to workforce resilience.” 📍 Digital Health — Nate CollierHarvard Medical School licenses portions of its vetted clinical content to Microsoft, embedding authoritative data into Copilot and Bing Health Answers. The partnership reframes accuracy and accountability as AI becomes the front door to consumer health information. 📍 AI & Machine Learning — Jade RomeroStartups including Rune Labs and Kneu Health secure new funding for Parkinson’s monitoring tech that bridges home wearables with clinical documentation — a step toward continuous neurology care at scale. 🎧 Subscribe here or wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you like our show, please follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/hit.show. HITshow is made possible by HLTH 2025.