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The Big Story: J.P. Morgan increases security for 2025 conference

“The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last month at the insurer’s investor day in New York left the healthcare industry and company executives on edge.”

Business as usual?

By David Jarrard
3-minute read

With clockwork consistency, the business side of healthcare gears up for another year with the start of the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this week. Once-again leaders will gather at “one of the world’s largest and most heavily attended health care conferences,” to discuss big trends, money challenges and investment opportunities.

In short: It seems like it’s back to business as usual for the nation’s biggest industry.

Or is it?

Better asked, should it be?

This 43rd JPM conclave – which launches the well-monied healthcare conference season – opens in the shadow of convulsive political change and a shocking assassination.

Eight weeks ago, Donald Trump was elected U.S. president as an agent of change by voters frustrated with the institutional status quo. His nominations of industry critics Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and Dr. Mehmet Oz as head of CMS have brought that disruptive energy to healthcare’s front door.

The spirit is alive in Congress, too. See the headlines generated this week by the bipartisan report released Thursday by the Senate budget committee: “Private equity reduces patient care while enriching investors, Senate report finds.

Outside of electoral politics, five weeks ago UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on the streets of New York City in a horrific act of protest rage. The shooter had etched his bullet casings with the insurance industry language of “delay,” “deny” and “depose.”

Beyond the murder, it’s the public’s reaction that must grab us by our lapels. Many felt – and still feel apparently – that killing a healthcare CEO “was justified,” In fact, a new poll of college students found that half view the suspect “extremely or somewhat favorably,” and nearly half (48%) believe “the crime was justified.” Another poll of young adults (18-29) found 41% said the murder was “acceptable.”

Unrest. Anger. Murder. No surprise, then, with healthcare industry leaders “on edge” that JPM organizers are working hard to increase security at this week’s conference.

What can JPM attendees expect? Higher fences? More guards? Barbed wire?

What time is it?

There’s an old saying in politics about the importance of knowing how to tell the time well. It’s a metaphor for savvy situational awareness. Which is the political sister of reading the room.

So, what time is it in the healthcare industry?

“Business as usual” may be the most reasonable answer, given what we know today. While it’s TBD exactly how the new administration will impact care delivery, we do know that D.C. is a long way from implementing significant change in healthcare.

Assuming that’s the case, being a good reactor might be the best play in our lumbering and necessarily risk-adverse industry. Healthcare’s structure is byzantine and frustrating, but it’s the devil we know. So, steady on. Run out the clock. Let others make the first move.

Or, maybe, there is an acknowledgement that the time for change has come.

There is an opportunity – even a first-mover advantage – to evolve (to any extent) the delivery of care from today’s broken model. Into something, well, different.

Over the last few years, we’ve tracked closely the erosion of trust Americans hold for hospitals and the healthcare industry. These days, nearly seven in 10 Americans say hospitals put profits over patients. Barely half trust hospital and health system leaders to develop good healthcare policy –compared to nearly nine in 10 who trust nurses.

It wasn’t so long ago that healthcare was the home of national heroes, not villains. But those times feel very long ago and far away. Over the last few years, we’ve watched the needle turn south as more people say they think healthcare organizations care more about making money than providing patient care. Profits over patients. The finding seems befitting – even predictive – of the great frustrations with healthcare being expressed elsewhere today.

The Ernest Hemingway quote about bankruptcy comes to mind: “How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

Healthcare may be in an age of “suddenly.”

With clockwork consistency, JPM kicks off the healthcare year again.

But what time is the clock striking?