Joining me now in an exclusive interview is Wayar CEO Matt Hawkins. His company is hosting its True North conference in Nashville this week to spotlight potential new AI solutions in healthcare software. Matt, welcome.Setting the table here a bit. It's interesting to me uh United Health, for example, has been having so much trouble lately in in part because of higher utilization uh and costs. I guess that's transactions and that that hunger for transactions is part of why you've been doing well.>> Well, we' ...

Core Insights - The article discusses various studies related to healthcare economics, focusing on cost transparency, mental health trends, and the impact of social factors on healthcare utilization and outcomes. Group 1: Healthcare Costs - The gradual disclosure of medical procedure prices on a government website led to a decrease in negotiated prices for surgical and radiology procedures by 5.1% and 9.1% respectively, primarily driven by provider-insurer negotiations rather than patient price shopping [9][11] - When primary care physicians (PCPs) are informed about specialist costs, referrals to lower-cost specialists increase by 4.6 percentage points for each rank reduction in costliness, potentially reducing referral costs by 45% in the short term [19][21] - A study on the Female Secondary School Stipend Program in Bangladesh found that it improved full immunization rates by 4.2 percentage points among children of mothers who received stipends for five years [39][40] Group 2: Mental Health - Worsening mental health has contributed to rising mortality rates among certain demographic groups, particularly non-Hispanic Whites, accounting for 9% to 29% of the increase in mortality rates [26][28][29] - Access to high-speed internet has been linked to increased mental health diagnoses and a rise in adolescent suicide rates, especially among girls [30][31] Group 3: Healthcare Demand - Non-clinical factors, such as living alone, significantly affect the length of hospital stays, particularly for elderly patients in public hospitals [36][37] - Rural populations exhibit a higher incidence of depression, with 33% to 39% of the rural-urban difference explained by factors such as income, education, and geographic region [33][34] Group 4: Neonatal Care - Advances in neonatal care have improved survival rates for high-risk newborns, but moderate-risk infants admitted to lower capability units received more intensive care, leading to reduced healthcare use post-discharge [16][18]