In this episode

Jackie Kimmell, who supports research and thought leadership at Rock Health, joined the show to discuss the forces reshaping healthcare in 2025. Kimmel is the author of The Privacy Prescription: Why Health Data Privacy is in Critical Condition and How to Fix It. She shared her perspective on the uncertainty health systems face today, from regulatory and workforce challenges to the fast adoption of AI. Drawing on her background in market intelligence and her personal experiences with health data breaches, Kimmel outlined how health leaders can approach both risks and opportunities in this period of change.

• Health systems are grappling with deep uncertainty across workforce, payment, and regulatory landscapes.
• The adoption of AI in healthcare brings promise but requires careful change management.
• Focusing on what is certain—like workforce shortages and preventative care trends—helps organizations prepare for the future.

“My advice is, focus on what’s certain and then…be braced for changes with everything else.”

– Jackie Kimmell

Key takeaways

Kimmell unpacked why health system leaders feel so much uncertainty right now and offered strategies for navigating it. Here’s what Kimmell covered:

Health systems are grappling with deep uncertainty across workforce, payment, and regulatory landscapes.

Kimmell described how many health system leaders are alarmed about what lies ahead. She referenced what executives call the “oh no slide,” a blunt view of rising patient demand, workforce shortages, and payment shifts. “We don’t have enough of a workforce to meet rising demand, and health systems are not going to have enough money to be able to provide that care into the future,” she said.

Adding to those pressures are new policy questions under the current administration. Kimmell pointed out proposals that could completely restructure payment systems, such as changes to the RVU model. “That could have huge changes to payer mix, to revenue cycle, to financial projections,” she said.

Policy uncertainty also extends to Medicaid, Medicare, vaccines, and other areas. Kimmell’s advice: separate what’s clear from what remains speculative. “What is certain is there’s going to be more of this kind of focus of make America healthy again, and this sense of preventative medicine,” she explained. “Most people are getting the message that they’re going to have to do something around food as medicine, and we know that there is going to be a shift away from broader value-based models to more mandatory specialty bundles.”

The adoption of AI in healthcare brings promise but requires careful change management.

AI is already seeing broad adoption, particularly in ambient listening tools for physicians. “I think every health system has rolled out AI [in some way], at least some sort of ambient listening technology,” Kimmell said. The early results show promise—reducing burnout and improving patient experience. She highlighted a JAMA study on Kaiser Permanente’s use of ambient listening where providers saved hours of work while patients benefited from more face-to-face interactions.

But enthusiasm is tempered by concerns over control and liability. In a Rock Health survey conducted with the American Academy of Family Physicians, “sixty three percent of [providers] said that they felt like they had no control or limited control over what AI would be adopted for them,” Kimmell noted. That lack of agency is creating friction in implementation.

She also pointed to nurses, who often express excitement about AI in surveys but resist adoption when excluded from decision-making. “They don’t have a sense of control,” she said. To capture the benefits of AI, Kimmell emphasized that leaders must apply proven change management strategies, including physician champions and peer-to-peer adoption support.

Focusing on what is certain—like workforce shortages and preventative care trends—helps organizations prepare for the future.

While much is unknown, Kimmell stressed the importance of acting where certainty exists. Workforce shortages are at the top of that list. “Every health system is doing something here. The question is how well is it working, and how well will it scale?” she said. Some organizations are making progress by reworking job descriptions to reduce unnecessary requirements and broaden their hiring pool. She cited Cleveland Clinic’s success, noting they saw fill rates rise by 20–30% after adopting this approach.

Kimmell also underscored the growing role of preventative health and food-as-medicine programs. She observed more payers engaging in this space: “At a recent food as medicine conference, there were double the number of payers there that had been there from previous years.”

Despite the weight of uncertainty, Kimmell ended on an optimistic note. She sees AI as a rare example of rapid, positive change in healthcare. “We’re actually seeing rates of burnout decline for maybe the first time I’ve seen in thirty years,” she said. For Kimmell, anchoring strategy in both what’s known today and the opportunities of tomorrow can help leaders navigate the years ahead.