Contributor: Heather Aspras, WG’08

By the time you read this issue of the Wharton Healthcare Quarterly, we will already have rung in the new year. As 2023 opens, I can’t help but reflect on the journey we’ve all collectively been on over the past 3 years. Though a lot of life has returned to somewhere near normal, one area in which we’re seeing long-lasting impact is in mental health. Read more.

This eclectic standing column features insightful musings, words of wisdom, life lessons, and stepping-stones to business success. This month's philosopher is Katie Ellias, WG’06, Managing Director, JDRF T1D Fund. Read more.

Contributors: Sean Zabaneh and Pat Gavin

Recently, the federal government has applied increased scrutiny to healthcare M&A transactions, and state attorneys general are following. This focus certainly applies to hospitals and health systems, but also other healthcare businesses, including, for example, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacy benefits managers, and other players in the healthcare supply chain. The entire healthcare industry should thus be mindful of these changes, even at the very earliest phases of transaction planning.  Read more.

Contributor: Dan Young

Changing jobs is both exciting and nerve-wracking. Candidates often ask for advice about how to assess whether or not an opportunity is right for them. After nearly two decades in and around healthcare recruiting and executive search, I have guidance which has stood the test of time. Read more.

Contributor: Vidya Murthy, WEMBA’42 

With the healthcare sector remaining a top target for cybercriminal activities, one of the emerging trends over the last few years has been around cybersecurity insurance. To be clear, I’m not a lawyer or an insurance specialist, but as an executive of a small business focused on medical device cybersecurity, I’ve certainly encountered this strategy and observed a few things. Read more.

Contributor: Roy Goldman, PhD, FSA, MAAA, CERA

Most individuals do not make rational economic decisions due to cultural, societal, psychological, and emotional reasons. There are many examples that show how individuals choose to avoid possible, but very unlikely, large losses over more likely but smaller gains. Even among those who are highly educated, there is innumeracy when it comes to understanding statistical thinking, especially problems involving conditional probabilities.  As a result, people tend to choose financially inefficient or suboptimal products. 

During my career as a health insurance actuary, I’ve come across various situations that illuminate the importance of understanding both rational and irrational behavior when designing and pricing health insurance products. Read more. 



Contributor: Jennifer Tomasik

It might be an understatement to say the healthcare field is navigating tremendous change—seismic might be a better descriptor. On the provider side, in particular, the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to strain an already stressed health system. Stories of workforce shortages, employee burnout, inflation, and mounting financial losses are featured in daily headlines. Many organizations are scrambling to rethink their strategies to meet the needs of an uncertain future—but what are the implications for governance? Read more. 

Contributors: Wren Keber, Lisa Soroka, and Z. Colette Edwards, WG’84 MD’85

In Part A of the sixth article in our series, we recapped the current behavioral health landscape, including the rapidly changing framework for behavioral health services: from broader screening and improvements in diagnosis to payment and delivery transformations. 

In Part B, we continue our focus on behavioral health (BH) services. Healthcare providers have many considerations in this period of recovery as the most disastrous waves of the pandemic start to recede. Read more. 

Contributor: Linda Roszak Burton, ACC, BBC, BS

Kicking off a new year brings a sense of renewal and prompts us to look ahead with the hope of being more present and meaningful in our daily activities and interactions with others. One way to further cultivate and sustain renewal and hopefulness is practicing gratitude and creating new mental habits to “hardwire” these new year intentions and benefits. 

Keeping a gratitude journal is one of the most cited practice techniques for experiencing the benefits of gratitude. And yet, we often hear from those who dislike journaling – for various reasons – lack of time or failure to journal (practice) regularly. Read more. 

Contributors: Meghna Dasgupta, WG'23, Jasmine Zhang, WG’23, and Ava Chang, WG’23

Earlier this year, a team of Wharton students, including Harold Agblonon (WG’23), Ava Chang (WG’23), Natasha Ramanujam (WG’23), Blair Seiler (WG’23), Lindsey Sheppard (WG’23), and Billy Thomas (WG’23), had the opportunity to be involved in a pro bono consulting project with Praava Health, a “brick and click” health clinic in Bangladesh, to build out the product strategy for its newly developed virtual care, e-pharma, remote monitoring, and chronic disease management solutions. Read more.