By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

From his vantage point at the helm of one of healthcare’s biggest IT infrastructure companies, Change Healthcare’s President & CEO, Neil de Crescenzo, has an unrivaled perspective at how covid19 has impacted hospital systems and payers. His business builds the “connective tissue” that not only supports the administrative management and patient engagement aspects of “Big Healthcare,” but it also literally helps those organizations make money, processing about $1.5 Trillion in claims each year. So, what’s he seen so far in 2020? And what’s ahead for 2021? Neil stops by to talk about current challenges facing healthcare provider orgs and payers — and what’s ahead in the “new” healthcare economy where “change” is the only constant. From HHS’s new interoperability rules to telehealth and the more dispersed healthcare system it will inevitably create, we dive into all things future of health including the details behind Change’s two recent health tech acquisitions (each over $200M), what Neil thinks about the Teladoc-Livongo merger, and how digital health startups have an unprecedented opportunity to help expand the healthcare system beyond its traditional footprint.