The ASHHRA Podcast

10,000 Nurses on the Edge, a Union Decertification & the GLP-1 Benefit Bomb Landing July 1Three stories in one week that cut across labor relations, trust, and total compensation strategy. Bo, Luke, and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier break down what every healthcare HR leader needs to act on before July 1st — with ASHHRA26 in Savannah just days away.🔥 Corewell Health: 90% Strike Authorization Nearly 10,000 registered nurses across nine Corewell Health East hospitals voted 90% to authorize a strike — the clearest possible signal that trust has collapsed. Nurses voted to unionize in November 2024, defeating a $1.7M anti-union campaign. Nearly a year into first-contract negotiations, management terminated the nurse student loan repayment program and eliminated pool pay. The union calls it retaliation. The vote confirms it landed that way. HR Takeaway: A 90% authorization vote doesn't mean 90% of nurses want to walk. It means 90% are frustrated enough to use the most powerful tool they have. Culture is what happens when the lawyers aren't in the room. The time to build credibility is every day before negotiations start — not during them.🔄 GWU Nurses Try to Vote Their Union Out On the opposite end: nurses at George Washington University Hospital filed a decertification petition with the NLRB just two years after voting the union in 310-207. The nurses leading the effort say promises weren't kept and the union drove a wedge between coworkers. Decertifications are exceedingly rare — employees must self-fund and self-organize with zero employer support while the union retains full resources. That 30% got there at all is telling.💊 Medicare GLP-1 Coverage at $50/Month Starts July 1 CMS announced Medicare Part D will cover GLP-1 weight loss medications for a $50 monthly copay beginning July 1st. Qualifying criteria: BMI of 27+ with a cardiovascular condition, or BMI of 35+. The bridge program runs through December 31st, 2027. GLP-1 spending has risen 500% since 2018 and now represents 14% of all US prescription drug spending. Your Medicare-eligible employees are already reading about this. Your non-Medicare employees will ask why their plan charges $300. Action: Pull your current GLP-1 coverage language. Ask your broker for a cost exposure analysis. Build a one-page FAQ for your HR team before July 1 — the questions are coming.See you in Savannah.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

How Parkland Health Grows Its Own Workforce — And Why You Should TooFeaturing Stephanie Speights, PhD, SHRM-SCP, Senior Vice President of Talent Development, Parkland HealthWhat if the answer to your most pressing workforce shortage is already inside your building? Stephanie Speights has been proving that thesis for nearly seven years at Parkland Health — one of the most respected health systems in the country — by building a talent development engine that grows clinical staff from the inside out.🌱 Start With Your Highest Turnover Role Stephanie's counterintuitive advice: don't start with your hardest-to-fill clinical role. Start with the role that churns the fastest. Identify the volume you hire annually, calculate first-year turnover, and build your apprenticeship pipeline there. The transporters, PCAs, and dietary staff cycling through your revolving door are often your best candidates for the next clinical role they never knew existed. But first — address why they're leaving. Drop people into a broken environment and they will still leave.🤝 Commit Operations Before You Launch The most common failure point: workforce development teams that build great programs but can't get operations to hire the graduates. Stephanie is direct — before you build the cohort, get the commitment. Leaders must agree to hire from the program and to be active participants in shaping the experience, the clinical rotations, and the matchmaking that puts the right person in the right service line.🎓 Day One Is Not Too Early Parkland starts the development conversation at orientation with a gallery walk — posters on ERG leadership opportunities, tuition programs active on day one, and career navigator resources for anyone who wants to explore what's next. The message is clear: you don't have to wait, and you don't have to leave to grow.🤖 AI Won't Replace the Heart — It'll Require More of It Ambient documentation, predictive scheduling, and clinical AI are already reshaping what healthcare workers do. Stephanie's response isn't a technology roadmap — it's a human one. Build agility. Develop leaders who create psychological safety around change. And make sure your senior leaders are wise enough not to chase every shiny object at the expense of core mission.The pipeline you need is already in your building. Your job is to open the door.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

What a VP of Clinical Efficiency Needs HR to UnderstandFeaturing Katie Abebe, Vice President of Clinical Efficiency, Upstream RehabilitationIf you have ever wondered what it feels like to run clinical operations across 800 clinics in 25 states — and what that VP actually needs from HR to make it work — this is the episode. Katie Abebe took an unconventional path from construction to community college to a doctorate in physical therapy from Chatham University, and now builds systems for clinical quality and efficiency at one of the top five largest outpatient rehab providers in the country.⚙️ What Clinical Efficiency Actually Means Clinical efficiency is not just operational throughput. It is eliminating waste, aligning what payers require with what is best for the patient, and delivering high-quality care within insurance-constrained reimbursement models where margins are already thin. One missed clinician can eliminate an entire week's margin at a single clinic. The math is not forgiving.🧑‍⚕️ What HR Can Do for a Clinical Workforce Right Now Katie's direct answer: flexibility and compensation. Clinical staff carry a unique burden — when they cannot show up, real patients go without care and real revenue disappears. Systems that have built flex clinician pools are absorbing that risk. For PT specifically, reimbursement has not kept pace with inflation, meaning highly credentialed clinicians are often financially stressed. Performance-based earning opportunities — not just productivity bonuses — are a meaningful retention lever.🤖 AI in the PT Space: The Promise and the Guardrails Upstream is already using AI to reduce documentation burden — the number one reason Katie says she left the clinic. On the horizon: AI-assisted triage at the front of the funnel, helping route patients to providers most likely to deliver results. But Katie draws a clear line. AI for notes and scheduling? Embrace it. AI making the final clinical call without a human in the lead? Not yet.🔎 The HR Takeaway Build the flex pool. Create performance-based earning paths. And when a clinician's attendance pattern shifts, don't go straight to corrective action — go to the conversation. It is almost never a work problem.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

April 27th, 2026. Three policy hits in the same week, all with direct workforce consequences. Bo, Luke, and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier break down what HR leaders need to do before July 1st.💉 RFK Jr. Defends $15.8B in HHS Cuts — His Own Word: Painful After seven congressional hearings, HHS Secretary Kennedy called the FY27 cuts painful and acknowledged his department does not want them: $5B in NIH funding, elimination of the National Institute on Minority Health, $923M in HIV/AIDS reductions, and deep cuts to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Bipartisan pushback was visible — Republican Senator Tom Tillis called the NIH cuts handing China our lunch. These are not Washington cuts. They flow directly to hospitals, universities, and health systems. Action: Identify every federal grant, research partnership, and workforce development program your organization depends on through NIH, HRSA, or HHS. Build that list this week. Contingency planning starts now, before FY27 makes the cuts real.🩺 Nursing Was Excluded From the Definition of a Profession Effective July 1st, graduate nursing students lose access to $50,000/year in federal loans — capped instead at $20,500 — because nursing was excluded from the Department of Education's professional degree definition. Law, medicine, and dentistry made the list. Nursing, PT, OT, PA, and social work did not. 59% of nurses say they are now less likely to pursue a graduate degree. Action: Audit your advanced practice nursing vacancies. Evaluate whether your tuition assistance and loan repayment programs can close the new gap. Connect with academic partners now before fall enrollment is affected.📋 Medicaid Work Requirements: 80 Hours a Month, Starting Late 2026 HR1 Medicaid work requirements are becoming operational — 80 hours per month of documented work, school, or community service or enrollees lose coverage. 65% of Medicaid recipients already work. Those most at risk are the low-wage frontline workers staffing your EVS, food service, PCA, and security roles. Action: Map your lowest-wage workforce against Medicaid thresholds in your state. Brief your CHRO on your exposure before a coverage gap destabilizes the frontline workforce you cannot afford to lose.Every story this week lands on HR's desk. High five to every practitioner still standing.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

Featuring Ricky Price, Founder, Game Ready Skills & Development | McDonald's All-American | Duke University | NBA VeteranHealthcare HR professionals spend their days building cultures where people can do their best work under extraordinary pressure. Ricky Price has lived that challenge at the highest level — growing up in Compton, earning a spot under Coach K at Duke, competing professionally for nearly a decade in the NBA, and now translating every lesson from that journey into leadership development for organizations that refuse to settle for average.This one hits different.🏀 Visualize First, Then Do the Work Ricky's number one pillar: visualize and imagine your success before it happens. He visualized game-winning shots, big-time college basketball, and a professional career — and when those moments arrived, they felt like deja vu. For healthcare leaders, the application is direct: if you cannot see where your team is going, you cannot build the culture to get there.⏭️ The Next Play Mentality Coach K's most transferable lesson: when you make a mistake, you cannot wallow in it. Get to the next play. For clinicians who carry the weight of high-stakes errors, this is not a dismissal of accountability — it is the framework that makes continued high performance possible. The leaders who model this give their teams permission to recover and keep moving.🏆 Assign Roles. Build the Team. When Ricky arrived at Duke, every player was the number one recruit in their state. Coach K's solution: assign clear roles and hold everyone accountable to theirs. High-performing healthcare teams fail the same way athletic teams do — when stars refuse to subordinate individual brilliance to collective purpose. Role clarity is not a limitation. It is the architecture of a championship culture.🎉 Celebrate Your Wins — Strategically The goal is not the only moment worth celebrating. Daily discipline, weekly consistency, small process wins — these compound. Teams that only celebrate outcomes miss the habits that produce them.📖 Resource Celebrate Your Wins by Ricky Price (Foreword by Coach K): https://amzn.to/4mCr874 Connect with Ricky: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricky-price-1a242438You do not need a wicked jump shot. You need the mindset behind it.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

Hospital M&A Hits a 6-Year High, a 42,000-Worker Strike Looms & a Rural Hospital Has 56 DaysApril 20th, 2026. More than 1,000 hospital leaders are in Washington, DC for the AHA Annual Meeting. The urgency they are carrying into that building has never been higher. Bo, Luke, and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier break down three stories hitting simultaneously.📉 Hospital M&A Is Back — But It's a Survival Story Kaufman Hall's Q1 2026 report: 22 hospital transactions, highest Q1 total since 2020, $14.5B in transacted revenue. The marquee deal is Sutter Health's proposed acquisition of Allina Health, creating a $26B nonprofit spanning 39 hospitals. But 68% of Q1 deals were divestitures — systems shedding underperforming assets before distress makes them less attractive. HR 1 Medicaid cuts are explicitly driving independent hospitals to seek partners now. Action: Share the Kaufman Hall Q1 report with your CHRO. Know where your organization sits on the risk-to-resilient spectrum. Build your M&A integration playbook if one doesn't exist. If your board is in partnership discussions, HR should already be at the table.🏠 UC's 42,000-Worker Strike Is About Housing, Not Wages Local 3299 representing 42,000 UC service and patient care technical workers announced an open-ended strike beginning May 14th. The central grievance: UC refused to bargain over housing aid and unilaterally imposed higher health premium rates during negotiations. Workers are being priced out of the communities they serve — many commuting two hours each way. This is not a California story. The affordability gap exists in every major market. Action: Assess your own affordability exposure. What your lowest-paid workers spend just to get to work is a labor risk hiding in plain sight.🏚️ A Mississippi Rural Hospital Has 56 Days A rural Mississippi hospital announced possible closure by June 15th after laying off 86 employees and eliminating service lines. The driver: a Medicaid clawback — $2.5M already recouped, another $5M in dispute. This hospital is not one option for its community. It is the only option. And it is not alone. Action: If you operate or support rural or critical access facilities, conduct a billing documentation audit now — not after a clawback notice arrives.When the whole system is under pressure simultaneously, HR leaders already at the table make the difference.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

90% of Healthcare Organizations Missed Their Hiring Goals Last Year. Here's Why.Featuring Casey Marquette, Founder & CEO, Covenant HR, which is an active member of the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program (AP3).Hundreds of open reqs. Inboxes flooded with applicants. And somehow nine out of ten healthcare organizations still missed their hiring targets last year. Casey Marquette, founder of Covenant HR and creator of the AI recruiting platform Scout, joins Bo and Luke to talk about why the problem isn't the talent pool — and what an AI-native solution actually looks like in practice.⚡ Scout: From Application to Interview in Under Five Minutes Scout evaluates a candidate in 2.2 seconds and sends an interview invitation in under five minutes if they score high enough. All 500 applicants for a role are considered — not just the 50 a recruiter had time to open. The video interview format pressure-tests candidates technically, catches identity fraud, and eliminates the ghosting problem that has plagued candidates for years. Covenant's recruiters went from working 8 requisitions at a time to 20 — with better results and more time for the human conversations that matter.🔐 Fraud Is Already Here — and Getting Worse 20% of Scout's candidates are currently flagged as suspicious. Gartner projects that by 2028, one in four candidates will be fraudulent. Casey's background in cybersecurity shaped Scout's architecture: video interviews, ID verification, and tab-tracking all work together to surface the candidates who won't engage with the platform because they know their resume won't hold up under questioning.🤖 What a Bad AI Implementation Looks Like Not all AI recruiting tools are equal. Bolted-on AI from legacy platforms performs differently than purpose-built solutions. When evaluating vendors, ask to see the live environment — not a demo video. Ask how performance is measured at scale. And look for end-to-end solutions that reduce steps rather than add them.🔎 The HR Takeaway AI is not going to eliminate the need for great recruiters. It is going to separate the ones who use it from the ones who don't. The organizations that put these tools in their people's hands — and hold them accountable for using them — will outperform those still running a 2026 problem on a 2010 playbook.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

Luke Carignan and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier take a deliberate step back from the doom and gloom to look at what is actually working in healthcare HR right now — and the data is genuinely encouraging.🩺 Ambient AI Is Ending Pajama Time A randomized controlled trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirms what many have suspected: ambient AI scribe software that passively listens to patient visits and auto-drafts clinical notes is producing a highly significant decrease in work exhaustion. Clinicians are saving hours per week. Notes are grading out more thorough and accurate than manually entered ones. This is not a vendor claim — it is peer-reviewed evidence from one of the most trusted sources in medicine. Action: Pull the NEJM data and send it to your CMO this week. Frame ambient scribing not as a cost play but as your 2026 burnout and retention strategy. Software is cheaper than replacing a burned-out physician.📱 Internal Gig Scheduling Is Collapsing Nursing Turnover The AHA's 2026 Healthcare Workforce Scan shows voluntary turnover is actively dropping at systems that have embraced mobile scheduling — letting nurses bid on shifts, swap days, and control their hours from their phones. Reliance on expensive last-minute incentive pay has dropped by millions at early adopters. Flexibility also reduces corrective action and intermittent FMLA dependency. Action: Ask your CNO what percentage of nursing staff currently self-schedule via mobile app. If the answer is zero, make it your Q3 HR tech priority.🌱 The Apprenticeship Boom Is Building Pipelines From Within Health systems are no longer waiting for the market to solve their clinical pipeline problem. By fully funding zero-out-of-pocket apprenticeships for EVS staff, patient transporters, and admin assistants, organizations are graduating their own CNAs, MAs, and sterile processing techs. ASHHRA's apprenticeship program, built in partnership with Dallas College, is available nationally at low cost and is ready to implement. Action: Audit your tuition reimbursement data. If it is mostly benefiting management, flip a portion of those funds toward entry-level apprenticeships. Visit ashhra.org to access the Dallas College program — the wheel has already been built.The organizations healing fastest are the ones investing in their people before the crisis forces it.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

When the Real Problem Is Identity, Not SkillFeaturing Dr. Marcia Reynolds, Master Certified Coach, Former Global President, International Coaching FederationWhat if the leader on your team who keeps struggling isn't missing a skill — they're missing a clear sense of who they are becoming? And what if the most powerful thing you could offer your workforce right now isn't another wellness app, but a thinking partner who helps them see themselves differently?Dr. Marcia Reynolds brings 30 years of neuroscience-informed coaching practice and a perspective shaped by working in 47 countries to one of the most underutilized conversations in healthcare HR: the transformative difference between coaching and mentoring, and what it costs organizations that confuse the two.🧠 How Coaching Actually Changes Behavior Coaching works differently than training because it triggers genuine discovery. When someone sees something new about themselves — not because they were told, but because they arrived there — the brain literally encodes the change differently. Dr. Reynolds calls this identity-level coaching: helping people move toward who they are becoming, not just what they need to do. Behavior follows identity. That is the sequence leaders keep getting backwards.🔄 Coaching vs. Mentoring — Know the Difference Mentors navigate the organization. Coaches belong to the person, not the company. The most effective leadership development programs use both — internal mentors for organizational context, external coaches for the conversations people will not have with anyone inside. If your organization calls mentoring coaching, you are getting half the result.🏥 The Healthcare Application Middle managers in healthcare are carrying 80–200 direct reports in some systems. The answer is not more performance reviews. It is identifying the 10% who want to lead, developing them without needing a title or a promotion, and delegating meaningful work to them. That is how you multiply your capacity and build loyalty simultaneously — and it costs far less than hiring new leaders.📖 Resource Coach the Person, Not the Problem by Dr. Marcia Reynolds: https://amzn.to/3Q3FFwqYour organization's leadership pipeline is only as strong as the identity your current leaders are building in the people behind them.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

April 6th, 2026. Three separate policy shocks, all landing at the same time. Bo, Luke, and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier break down what may be the most consequential week of news healthcare HR has faced all year.🏥 446 Hospitals at High Risk of Closure A Public Citizen analysis of CMS data identified 446 hospitals at high risk of closing or cutting services due to roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts under HR 1. Criteria: at least 20% Medicaid revenue and currently operating at a loss. Trinity Health has already cut 10.5% of its billing staff. St. Mary's Sacred Heart in Georgia has closed its maternity unit. The deepest HR 1 cuts don't land until 2027 and 2028 — making 446 the floor, not the ceiling. Action: Pull your Medicaid revenue percentage. If you're at or above 20% with thin margins, model workforce implications of 10%, 20%, and 30% revenue reductions and bring that to your CFO this week.🩺 The $100,000 Visa Fee Is Hollowing Your Physician Pipeline The AHA surveyed more than 1,000 health systems on the new $100,000 H-1B visa petition fee — up from $3,500. 64% of hospitals have already paused or limited recruitment. More than 70% expect direct patient care impact. 57% of H-1B roles in healthcare are clinical. Pain is sharpest in rural and underserved markets where foreign-trained physicians fill gaps domestic pipelines cannot reach. Action: Audit your H-1B-dependent clinical roles by specialty and geography. For each, identify your contingency — J-1 waiver programs, GME partnerships, rural scholarships, grow-your-own pipelines. Lawsuits are pending. The pipeline gap is not waiting.📦 Tariffs Hit the Supply Chain — Hospitals Can't Pass the Cost Along A 10% baseline tariff took effect April 5th. China supplies 94% of US hospital plastic gloves, most N95s, and the majority of anesthesia instruments. 82% of healthcare experts expect costs to spike 15% within six months. Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement is fixed. Hospitals at 3-4% margins have no room. Action: Meet with your CFO and supply chain leadership. Know your tariff exposure by category. Model what a one- and two-point margin compression does to your workforce budget before Q3 forces that conversation.When revenue is cut, the physician pipeline narrows, and supply costs spike simultaneously — HR leaders not at the table will find out about the decisions in a memo.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

Strike Over, Margins Up & AI Saving Lives at Advocate HealthThe final Monday News Drop of Q1 2026. Luke Carignan and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier close out the quarter with three stories that are actually moving in a positive direction — and one significant asterisk on each of them.🤝 Kaiser Strike Is Over — Now the Hard Part Starts 31,000 UNAC/UHCP nurses and healthcare professionals at Kaiser Permanente have ratified a new contract, ending the largest open-ended healthcare work stoppage in US history. The union secured historic wage increases, ironclad patient safety protections, mandatory staffing minimums, and strict limits on floating. The contract is signed. But HR leaders are not done. HR Action: Do not walk in like it is business as usual. Returning staff worked next to managers who hired agency travelers across their picket lines for two months. Expect friction between union members and management. Expect agency staff who crossed picket lines still on units. Expect post-strike turnover within 90 days if you do not address it now. Cancel your meetings, be on the units, and give staff a safe place to vent.📊 Travel Agency Costs Have Plummeted — Capture the Momentum Q1 2026 AHA and AMN Healthcare data shows hospital reliance on external contract labor has dropped to a five-year low, essentially returning to 2019 levels. Health systems are winning by building internal gig models — app-based float pools where nurses pick up shifts directly from their phones at premium rates. HR Action: Pull your Q1 contract labor spend. Show your C-suite the savings and pitch a pilot internal scheduling app. If you make picking up a shift as easy as ordering from Uber, your staffing shortages will follow.🤖 Advocate Health Just Called 15,000 Patients at Once Advocate Health used AI to contact 15,000 hypertension patients in 12 days. Result: 1,200 patients confirmed normal blood pressure, 274 with abnormal readings connected to care immediately, and 400 more flagged for non-hypertension issues. That is nearly 700 people directed toward care who may not have been found otherwise — saving an estimated 1,250 hours of clinical staff time. HR Action: Stop framing AI only as an efficiency play. Ask where AI can drive better outcomes for your people and your patients, not just savings.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

What AI Can and Can't Fix About Healthcare Worker BurnoutFeaturing Dr. Rich Safeer, Chief Medical Director of Employee Health & Well-Being, Johns Hopkins MedicineTwo in five healthcare workers say their jobs feel unsustainable. AI is sitting right in the middle of the burnout crisis, the staffing shortage, and the well-being conversation. The question isn't whether it will change healthcare work — it already is. The question is whether your organization uses it to squeeze more out of your workforce or to finally give them their lives back.Dr. Rich Safeer returns to the ASHHRA Podcast to answer that question with clarity, nuance, and a perspective shaped by decades at the intersection of medicine, leadership, and workforce well-being.🤖 AI as a Well-Being Tool — If Leaders Choose It AI-powered ambient documentation is already reducing clinician "pajama time" — the hours spent charting after shift instead of resting. Dr. Safeer is direct: these tools should help healthcare workers live more normal, balanced lives — not unlock capacity to load more patients onto already strained providers. Healthcare workers can vote with their feet. If your system adopts AI to extract more, they will go to the one across the street that uses it to give back.👁️ Shadow AI as a Workforce Signal 62% of healthcare IT leaders have observed staff using unsanctioned AI tools. Dr. Safeer reframes this not as a compliance failure but as a signal — employees finding relief where their organization hasn't provided it yet. Treat it like that before you treat it like a policy violation.💊 HeartMath, EAPs & Getting to Root Causes 80% of healthcare workers say existing well-being solutions are ineffective. Dr. Safeer connects that failure to programs that don't address root causes — autonomy, flexibility, purpose, and trust. Johns Hopkins has integrated HeartMath, a research-backed breathing and mindfulness practice, directly into the workflow. The lesson: meet people where they are.📖 Resource A Cure for the Common Company by Dr. Rich Safeer: https://amzn.to/4bOFTPtWell-being is not a perk. It is the infrastructure that makes every other healthcare workforce strategy possible.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

3,400 Layoffs, No Staffing Floor & Nurses Walking Out — And It's Only MarchMarch 23rd, 2026. California hospitals have already cut more than 3,400 healthcare workers in six weeks. CMS just erased the federal minimum staffing standards for long-term care. And this morning, two separate nurse strikes began — one in Massachusetts, one in Maine. Bo and Luke break down what each story means for healthcare HR leaders right now.📉 California's Layoff Wave Is Your Early Warning Pomona Valley, Alameda Health System, and Children's Hospital LA are among the systems cutting staff tied directly to Medi-Cal and HR 1 funding reductions. A second wave is already being signaled by hospital executives. California's higher Medicaid concentration means it hits first — not only there. The same legislation is rolling out across every state on a delayed timeline. Action: Pull your Medicaid payer mix by department and model your workforce under 10%, 15%, and 20% revenue reduction scenarios. Bring that to your CFO this week as a planning document, not a crisis response.🏥 CMS Pulled the Long-Term Care Staffing Floor The 2024 federal minimum staffing rule for nursing homes has been repealed via HR 1. No enforceable federal minimums until at least 2034. This is not a minor regulatory update. It is a fundamental shift in the compliance landscape. Action: Do not lower your standards because the government lowered the floor. Document your internal staffing commitments in writing and communicate them directly to your frontline workforce. Organizations that hold the line will differentiate themselves in recruiting and retention for the next eight years.🚨 Nurses Aren't Striking for Money — They're Striking for Safety A poll of 1,000+ nurses found safe staffing ratios are the number one driver of strike activity. Wages ranked a distant second at 18%. You can lead the market on compensation and still watch nurses walk. Action: Skip the engagement survey. Block one hour this week and walk the floor in your highest acuity units. Ask charge nurses two questions: What is the one thing making your job harder right now? And do you feel like you have what you need to keep your patients safe? What you hear is your early warning system.The human part of human resources is irreplaceable. Get out from behind your desk.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

The $6 Billion Influence Machine Targeting Your Benefits PlanFeaturing Kyra Hagan, Senior Vice President of Marketing, RxBenefits.Six billion dollars. That is what pharmaceutical companies spend every year marketing high-cost, high-profit prescription drugs directly to your employees — and the clinical and financial consequences are landing squarely on your health plan.Bo sits down with Kyra Hagan, a 25-year healthcare industry veteran and SVP of Marketing at ASHHRA Platinum Sponsor RxBenefits, to unpack the direct-to-consumer advertising machine and why healthcare HR leaders need to understand how it works.📺 How DTC Advertising Shapes Member Behavior Pharma spends heavily to drive patients to ask for brand-name drugs by name. Studies show 7 in 10 consumers will request a drug by name after seeing ads. About 40% of those scripts get filled — often with no clinical necessity and no cost comparison. Prescribers, motivated by compassion, frequently write the script for the asking.💊 GLP-1s, Biologics & the Highest-Risk Therapeutic Classes Chronic conditions — diabetes, autoimmune disorders, mental health — are the primary targets. GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy have exploded into a projected $60B market by 2030, creating significant plan exposure. One branded arthritis drug costs $2,800/month. The two over-the-counter equivalents it combines cost $17.🏥 The HR Leader's Dilemma Plan sponsors live in a bifurcated world: contain costs for the CFO while protecting the benefits that recruit and retain top talent. Without a partner actively managing formulary, step therapy, and clinical utilization, one new hire or one new drug to market can create a catastrophic claim.🔎 What HR Leaders Should Do NowAudit your PBM relationship — misaligned incentives may be driving spend, not containing itEnsure your pharmacy partner uses independent clinical rigor, not rebate-driven decisionsLeverage plan data analytics to identify trending therapeutic classes before spend spikesEducate members on DTC advertising and the cost and clinical value of alternativesYou are always one diagnosis, one new drug, one new hire away from a catastrophic claim. The right pharmacy advocate changes that equation.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams. Support the show

Agentic AI Is Already in Your Building — Do You Know Where?HIMSS 26 just closed in Las Vegas with 24,000 healthcare technology leaders sending one unmistakable message: agentic AI has moved from the exhibit hall into your operations. Meanwhile, the largest nurse strike in US history ended at Kaiser Permanente with a 21.5% wage deal — and that number is now living in the institutional memory of every union organizer in the country. Bo, Luke, and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier break it all down.Also — happy Healthcare HR Week! March 16th through Friday. Head to ashhra.org to celebrate the HR leaders keeping healthcare running.🤖 Agentic AI: From Pilot to Operations Epic announced 85% of its customers are now using AI and debuted an agent factory — a no-code tool for building custom AI agents inside the EHR. Amazon entered the market with Amazon Health Connect. The vendor conversation has shifted from capability to ROI, governance, and implementation ownership. HR Action: Be the AI maestro. If HR is not at the table when these decisions get made, you will find out in a budget meeting six months from now.👁️ Shadow AI: The Canary in Your Coal Mine Healthcare IT leaders at HIMSS were direct — 2026 is the year organizations must formalize AI governance or face HIPAA, compliance, and liability exposure they have not planned for. Your staff is already using unapproved tools to cope with documentation burden. Shadow AI is not a discipline problem. It is an operational signal. HR Action: Before you enforce, investigate. Find out what staff are using and why — then build governance around real workflows.💰 Kaiser's 21.5%: Everyone's Benchmark Now 31,000 nurses ended the largest open-ended work stoppage in US history with a 21.5% wage increase over four years — roughly 5.5% annually. That number is now public and referenced in every upcoming negotiation nationwide. HR Action: Run your comp data for clinical staff now. Your nurses already know this number.🔎 This Week's 3 Mission-Critical MovesMap your AI governance gap before a compliance event forces your handFind your shadow AI — treat it as a signal, not a threatBenchmark against Kaiser — know where your clinical compensation stands todayThe organizations that thrive will be the ones where HR leads the AI transition and stays ahead of the labor curve.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

When the CHRO Has Never Worked in Healthcare Featuring Margie Zyble, SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer, UC HealthMargie Zyble came to UC Health by way of GE and a vertical farming startup. That unconventional path is exactly what makes her perspective on healthcare HR worth listening to.🏥 People Leader Enablement Is the Priority At UC Health, the most fragile piece of workforce strategy right now is middle management. Spans of control in clinical environments — sometimes 100 to 150 direct reports — are unlike anything Margie encountered at GE or in startup life. Her answer isn't to hire more. It's to use technology to help leaders prioritize who gets their time and energy.AI is being used to surface which employees need the most attentionThe goal: make every 30 minutes a leader spends count🤖 AI in Talent Acquisition — The Results Are Real UC Health is using an AI voice agent to handle high-volume candidate screening. The results have been strong: candidates prefer the flexibility, can interview at 2 a.m. if they want, and completion rates have exceeded expectations. Luke shared data from another deployment — 68% completion rates and a jump from 4 screened candidates per req to 34.Transparency matters: UC Health tells candidates upfront they're speaking with AIThe goal is not a faster process — it's a better use of people leader time on the back endMachine learning and contextual fit scoring will become the real competitive differentiator⚖️ Freedom Within a Framework Centralizing HR processes doesn't mean ignoring local needs. Margie's model: standardize the foundation, then double-click with site-specific input. UC Health built a talent advisory board and deliberately includes naysayers — not just advocates — in redesigning processes like performance management.⚠️ The Risk No One Is Talking About Moving too fast with AI isn't just an adoption problem. It's a pipeline problem. Entry-level, repeatable-task roles are often where talent gets developed and pipelines get built. Automate those roles without a succession strategy, and you'll feel it in five years.Healthcare HR is at an inflection point. The leaders who get AI right won't be the ones who adopt the most tools — they'll be the ones who adopt the right tools at the right pace for their people.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

March is here, and healthcare HR is staring down three stories that cut straight to the core of organizational trust, workforce safety, and labor vulnerability — all in one week.⚖️ LeapFrog's Credibility Collapse A federal judge ruled that LeapFrog deliberately assigned artificially low safety grades to hospitals that declined to participate in its voluntary survey. Five Florida hospitals were affected. This isn't a data dispute — a court found deliberate punishment of non-participants credible enough to act on.The HR takeaway is urgent: every external rating your organization amplifies — LeapFrog, U.S. News, Magnet — carries reputational weight with nurses, recruits, and your community. When a rating agency's methodology is found to be punitive rather than objective, the credibility problem belongs to you, not them. Audit your ratings dependencies now.🔒 When Protocol Fails, HR Pays A Milwaukee hospital shooting left two people wounded after security staff reportedly skipped the wanding step required by their own protocol. The entire security team was fired. Bo and Jeremy break down the HR dimensions: hiring standards, training frameworks, and accountability structures that either reinforce or erode compliance. Complacency is the enemy. Secret shopper-style protocol audits may be your best preventive tool.🤝 Henry Ford's Six-Month Strike: No One Is Immune The nurse strike at Henry Ford Genesis Hospital has crossed the six-month mark under the watch of CEO Bob Riney — a former ASHHRA board member and lifelong people-first executive. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. The gap between what leadership believes about its workforce and what frontline workers actually feel — that's where organizing campaigns take root. AI won't close that gap. HR leaders who build real trust with frontline staff will.🔎 This Week's 3 Mission-Critical MovesAudit your external ratings — understand the methodology behind every grade you publishReview your security protocol accountability chain and consider compliance testingRun a labor relations gut check — pull turnover, engagement, and exit data by unitHealthcare HR is not just operational support. It is your organization's early warning system.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

We are living in what one CHRO recently called “an era with no destination.” Jobs are evolving, technology is accelerating, and the rules of career progression are being rewritten in real time.In this forward-looking conversation, executive recruiter and career strategist Becky Heidesch joins us to unpack what AI, automation, and digital acceleration really mean for the workforce, especially for leaders and ambitious professionals trying to stay relevant.Becky opens with a bold reality: over the next five years, millions of jobs are projected to change or disappear. Is this a crisis moment or a reinvention moment?Her answer: both.For those who lean in, upskill, and embrace the tools, it is an unprecedented opportunity. For those who resist or delay, it can quickly become disruptive.We explore:• Why AI is coming for tasks, not people • How automation can elevate human interaction instead of replacing it • The growing digital skills divide across generations • Why learning must become continuous, not episodic • How leaders can prepare teams for roles that do not yet existBecky shares her STEEP Qualifications Framework, focusing on Skills, Tools, Education, Experience, and Personal qualifications as a practical way to manage career growth. Her message is clear: you must get in the driver’s seat of your own career.One of the most compelling ideas in this episode is her “three-career strategy.” Instead of betting your future on a single lane, she encourages professionals to stack skills and think in phases. What you want in your 20s may not serve you in your 50s. Building multiple streams of income and developing adaptable capabilities creates resilience in uncertain markets.We also tackle education reform, corporate training, and the need to shift from memorization to comprehension. In a world where information is instantly accessible, competitive advantage shifts to adaptability, curiosity, and execution.This episode is not about fear. It is about agency.If you want to future-proof your career in the next 90 days, Becky’s advice is simple and powerful: get clear on your direction and start aligning your resources accordingly.AI is accelerating change. The question is not whether disruption is coming. The question is whether you are preparing for it.Be sure to check the show notes for Becky’s book, The Career Masterclass for Women.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

In this week’s News Drop, we unpack three developments that could directly impact provider compensation, skilled nursing operations, and your employee benefits strategy.💸 CMS Efficiency ShockwaveThe 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule is now hitting balance sheets, and the fallout is real.CMS finalized a 2.5% efficiency adjustment cut, alongside major practice expense reductions for facility-based specialists. According to AMA analysis, hospital-employed oncologists could see revenue drops of 10–20%, with infectious disease physicians facing 5% cuts for performing the same work.The federal push is clear: shift care away from hospital-owned settings toward independent practices.HR Risk: If specialist compensation models are tied strictly to wRVUs or gross revenue, Q1 bonuses could trigger unexpected pay reductions.⚠️ RN Optional: Skilled Nursing DeregulationA major federal shift quietly went live in February: the repeal of the 24/7 RN mandate in skilled nursing facilities.While operators argue this expands access in rural markets, the on-the-ground reaction has been anxiety and resistance. LPNs and CNAs now face overnight shifts managing high-acuity residents without RN support. Some are threatening to quit rather than risk license exposure.Legal permission does not equal market permission.Action: If you operate post-acute facilities, do not let finance dictate overnight staffing. Pulse check your night shift teams immediately and market RN coverage as a competitive differentiator.📉 The Death of the Wellness AppQ1 2026 utilization data tells a clear story: fragmented wellness apps, generic EAPs, and point solutions are dramatically underused. Meanwhile, medical trend rates are rising nearly 10%.The era of benefit expansion is ending. The new mandate is intentional design.You cannot fix burnout with a yoga app if the nurse has unsafe staffing ratios and poor leadership.HR Strategy Shift: • Audit vendor utilization now • Cut solutions with sub-5% adoption • Reallocate spend to scheduling tools, AI-driven admin relief, and frontline leadership trainingFix the work, not the worker.🔎 This Week’s 3 Mission-Critical MovesAudit specialist compensation projections.Reassure LPNs and CNAs about staffing models.Review wellness vendor utilization and reallocate funds strategically.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

Recorded live at AdventHealth, this episode explores what it truly means to operationalize employee wellbeing at scale — and why it cannot live inside a single benefits line item.Kristin Duquaine, Executive Director of Employee Wellbeing, and Sarah Hawkins, Senior Manager of Employee Wellbeing, share how AdventHealth embedded wellbeing into its brand promise of “Feel Whole,” translating it into strategy, structure, and measurable impact.Wellbeing Is Not a Program — It’s a SystemIn many healthcare organizations, wellbeing is folded into an EAP or buried in the health plan. At AdventHealth, it has dedicated leadership, executive visibility, and cross-functional integration.Kristin, a nurse with nearly three decades at AdventHealth, explains how her clinical experience shaped her belief that holistic wellbeing — mind, body, and spirit — drives long-term outcomes. That philosophy now informs systemwide workforce strategy.Measuring What MattersWellbeing ROI rarely shows up in Year 1.The team is building a centralized data strategy to evaluate engagement, health risk movement, chronic condition outcomes, mental health impact, and differences across workforce segments. The goal is not participation alone — it is bending long-term workforce stability curves.The Health Champion MultiplierA cornerstone of the strategy is the Health Champion Network: 2,800 volunteer team members advocating for wellbeing within their departments.Key insight: volunteers, not “voluntold.”Champions are culture carriers and influencers. Departments with champions show significantly higher engagement in wellbeing programs.For smaller hospitals without dedicated FTEs, this offers a scalable model: build a grassroots network, equip them with tools, and multiply impact without adding headcount.Advice for Smaller HR TeamsIf you only have a few hours a week:• Make communication consistent, not episodic.• Tap natural influencers inside departments.• Integrate wellbeing into daily leader messaging.Wellbeing is not about marathons or meal plans. It is about helping people see themselves in the solution.This episode proves scale and humanity can coexist — when leadership commits to both.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

In this episode, we track three major developments shaping healthcare HR strategy right now: a catastrophic escalation in the Kaiser strike, a growing middle management collapse, and a new IRS benefit that could fast-track your workforce into the AI era.🔥 Segment 1: The Engine Room WalkoutKaiser Permanente’s strike has entered week four — and it just escalated again.More than 500 licensed operating engineers have joined the 31,000 nurses already on the picket line. These are not bedside roles. These are the professionals who run high-pressure boilers, electrical grids for life support, and HVAC systems that keep surgical suites sterile.Travel nurses can backfill clinical gaps.You cannot easily replace licensed engineers.Many require state-specific credentials, meaning you cannot simply “fly someone in.” When facilities teams walk out, hospitals face an operational single point of failure.HR takeaway: Go to the basement. Meet your facilities leaders. Ensure wages are competitive. Build relationships before leverage shifts.⚠️ Segment 2: The Middle Management VacuumA new report highlights an alarming trend: nurse managers, directors, and VPs are resigning at unprecedented rates.Some nurse managers are carrying 200+ direct reports. That is not leadership — that is survival mode.At the same time, younger generations are signaling less interest in traditional leadership roles. Organizations face a critical question:Do we defend outdated management structures — or reimagine them?AI may remove administrative burden. But span-of-control audits and leadership redesign must happen now.HR takeaway: Pull a report this week. Identify your most overburdened managers. Schedule 15-minute check-ins. Rebalance before collapse forces your hand.🤖 Segment 3: The IRS AI SubsidyHere’s the quiet headline of the week: the IRS just expanded guidance allowing employer-provided AI literacy and skill development to qualify as tax-free working condition fringe benefits (Publication 15-B).Translation:You may be able to subsidize AI training for your workforce — tax-advantaged.In a world where payers are deploying AI to accelerate claim reviews and denials, providers must move just as fast.HR takeaway: Audit your tuition and fringe benefit programs. Explore AI skill development as both a retention tool and recruitment differentiator.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

Building Your Personal Brand Without Losing Your Professional Edge, featuring Susie Jamerson, Chief People Officer of Corporate Services, AdventHealthRecorded live in Altamonte Springs, Florida, this episode brings real energy, real conversation, and real leadership insight.Susie Jamerson returns to the podcast, and this time, the conversation goes deep into something every healthcare leader is navigating right now:How do you show up authentically online without compromising your professional brand?🌟 Authenticity vs. Professionalism – Is It Really a Debate?Social media has evolved. LinkedIn is no longer just a digital résumé. It’s becoming a conversation, a window into values, motivation, and leadership style.Susie shares how she intentionally built a public-facing social presence rooted in growth, inspiration, and positivity—while staying mindful of her executive role. Her guiding principle?Show your whole self. Just do it with intention.She opens up about:Balancing personal expression with career responsibilityLetting team members choose whether to connect on social mediaWhy authenticity builds trust instead of eroding authorityHow leaders can reduce generational anxiety by being more human🔥 Why This Matters for Healthcare LeadersHealthcare HR professionals often carry the reputation of being “stuffy” or rule-driven. Susie challenges that narrative.By allowing people to see the human behind the title, leaders can:Build deeper trust with teamsStrengthen psychological safetyImprove connection across five workforce generationsEnhance engagement without sacrificing professionalismLuke adds a powerful perspective from talent acquisition: Younger generations do not separate personal and professional identity the same way previous generations did. Trying to force that separation can create unnecessary tension and anxiety.💡 Final ReflectionIf you want to grow as a leader in today’s healthcare environment, consider this:What is your creative outlet?What consistent thread defines your brand?Are you showing up the same way everywhere—or hiding parts of yourself?Authenticity, when done intentionally, strengthens leadership. It does not weaken it.Recorded live. Real conversation. Real leadership.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

This Monday News Drop covers three developments that should be squarely on every healthcare HR leader’s radar.📉 Segment 1: NCLEX Pass Rates DipThe 2025 NCLEX pass rate dropped to 69.1%, down from 69.7% in 2024. On paper, that’s a 0.6% decline.In reality? Nearly 100,000 nursing graduates did not pass.In a nation already facing a nursing shortage, even fractional declines matter. The exam is the entry gate into practice. Fewer passes = fewer nurses entering the workforce pipeline.Additional concerns:First-time pass rate: 86%Repeat pass rate: 52%International repeat pass rate: 30%The question isn’t whether the test should be rigorous. It should. The question is how we support those who fall short and how we preserve the pipeline.HR takeaway: Monitor your license-pending hires closely. Retesting timelines matter. Retention of near-pass candidates matters even more.✊ Segment 2: Kaiser Strike ExpandsOver 3,000 pharmacy techs and clinical lab scientists have joined the 31,000 nurses already on strike.Hospitals can run painfully with travel nurses. They cannot function without pharmacy and lab.This expansion underscores a core truth: every role in healthcare is part of the same operational chain. Break one link, the whole system strains.HR takeaway: Don’t ignore ancillary departments. Schedule listening sessions with lab and pharmacy leaders. Engagement in those groups may be the difference between stability and operational gridlock.⚖️ Segment 3: Scope Snapback & Payer PressureNew Jersey’s pandemic-era practice flexibilities for APNs and PAs have expired.Advanced practice clinicians must now return to formal collaborative agreements with supervising physicians. Autonomy walked forward during COVID. It just walked backward.Simultaneously, Cigna announced 2,000 global layoffs, while PeaceHealth cut hospice nurses and clinical staff.🚨 This Week’s Three PrioritiesAncillary Check-In: Visit lab and pharmacy teams. Listen early.Scope Audit: Verify collaborative agreements and compliance.Denial Prep: Prepare billing teams for potential payer shifts.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

In this episode, Luke Carignan sits down with Kelly Trummer, AVP of Talent Acquisition at Wellstar Health System, to unpack what’s next for healthcare recruiting in a rapidly evolving workforce landscape. With prior experience at Yale New Haven Health and Southcoast Health, she brings a national perspective on what’s changing—and what must change—inside healthcare TA. For Kelly, talent acquisition in healthcare is about direct impact. Every hire affects patient care. That purpose continues to fuel her work and leadership approach. The Post-Pandemic Reality The workforce challenge has shifted. We are no longer hiring our way out of shortages in nursing, imaging, and therapeutic roles. Instead, organizations must rethink strategy: • Develop internal pipelines• Engage future talent earlier• Reduce friction in recruiting processes• Compete in an increasingly tight labor market AI Is Not Replacing Recruiters One of the most powerful themes of the conversation: AI is not eliminating recruiters—it is elevating them. By removing administrative burdens, automation allows recruiters to focus on what matters most: relationship building, intentional conversations, and strategic workforce planning. However, adoption requires balance. Healthcare organizations must bridge generational divides in comfort with AI while ensuring candidate experiences remain human-centered and frictionless. The recruiter of the future? Agile, relationship-driven, and technologically fluent. Differentiation in a Crowded Market For Wellstar, competitive advantage comes down to how the organization treats its people. Total rewards, wellbeing programs, and individualized career paths are not just benefits—they are differentiators. Kelly reinforces that talent acquisition leaders must invest in their own teams and build peer networks across the industry. Collaboration, not isolation, will define success in the years ahead. Final Advice for TA Leaders • Plug into your national healthcare TA network • Invest in your people • Build internal pipelines early • Stay agile • Embrace change proactively The future of healthcare talent acquisition will belong to leaders who move early, think long-term, and bring others with them. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

Healthcare HR leaders finally get a moment to exhale, but the work is far from over. In this week’s Monday News Drop, Bo Brabo, Luke Carignan, and ASHHRA President & CEO Jeremy Sadlier break down three critical developments shaping workforce strategy, compliance, and recruiting right now. Segment 1: The 11th-Hour Telehealth Save Congress narrowly avoided the telehealth cliff. The Healthcare Access and Modernization Act of 2026 has been signed, extending Medicare telehealth flexibilities through December 31, 2027. Patients can continue receiving care from home, but new guardrails are in place. Starting in Q2, CMS will conduct quarterly audits of providers billing more than 50% of visits via telehealth. HR takeaway: Release February 1 claims, but immediately flag high-volume telehealth providers and refresh documentation protocols to prepare for increased scrutiny. Segment 2: Kaiser Strike Enters Week Two The Kaiser Permanente labor dispute continues to escalate. With more than 2,000 travel nurses deployed to maintain operations, unions have filed unfair labor practice charges, arguing replacement workers are being paid double what staff nurses requested. Tensions are rising, and public perception is becoming a key pressure point. HR reality check: The hardest work comes after the strike ends. Rebuilding trust, preventing “us vs. them” culture, and aligning leadership, HR, and labor relations will define long-term outcomes. Segment 3: The Visa Surprise The State Department’s February 2026 Visa Bulletin delivered unexpected good news. EB-3 priority dates for nurses from the Philippines and India advanced nearly nine months, opening a rare window to accelerate international hiring. Strategic guidance: Speed matters, but ethics matter more. Vet international recruitment partners carefully, ensure compliance with ethical standards, and invest in structured onboarding and community integration to support long-term retention. This Week’s Priorities: • Green-light telehealth billing while preparing for CMS audits • Monitor labor activity and cultural risk inside union environments • Accelerate international nurse pipelines with integrity and structure Healthcare HR is no longer reacting to disruption. It is shaping what comes next. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN HealthCare Associates Credit Union partners with healthcare organizations to offer a no-cost financial wellness benefit for employees. Built specifically for healthcare professionals, HACU provides everyday banking, loans, mortgages, and financial education - all with no added administrative burden for HR teams. Learn more at HACU's Human Resource Benefit or email directly at [email protected] and we are happy to take you through the process whether it's opening a membership for yourself or bringing us on as your employee benefits partner. HealthCare Associates Credit Union — a healthier benefit for healthcare HR leaders and their teams.  Support the show

Healthcare HR leaders are heading into one of the most consequential weeks of the year. In this episode of the ASHHRA Monday News Drop, Luke Carignan, Bo Brabo, and ASHHRA President & CEO Jeremy Sadlier unpack three fast-moving developments that demand immediate attention from HR, finance, and executive teams. Segment 1: A Tale of Two Coasts While New York nurses return to work after securing historic staffing protections, the West Coast is waking up to a massive escalation. More than 31,000 healthcare workers across California and Hawaii, including nurses, pharmacists, and imaging professionals, have launched an open-ended strike over staffing ratios and wages tied to inflation. HR reality check: The contagion effect is real. Enforceable staffing guarantees are now the most powerful organizing and recruiting tool in healthcare. Union or not, organizations that fail to visibly address staffing risk becoming the next target. Segment 2: The Telehealth Hail Mary With just days remaining before the January 30 deadline, the House has passed a two-year extension of Medicare telehealth flexibilities. The Senate still must act. A lapse, even for 48 hours, could trigger denied claims and major revenue disruption. Actionable guidance: Do not dismantle telehealth infrastructure. Instruct revenue cycle teams to hold telehealth claims from February 1–3 until Senate confirmation is secured. This single step could prevent a costly billing crisis. Segment 3: The “Great Healthcare Plan” and PBM Reform The White House has released a new healthcare framework emphasizing aggressive PBM reform and price transparency, while notably stepping away from enhanced ACA subsidies. Premium pressure for employees is likely to persist. HR opportunity: PBM reform is not just a finance issue. Use this moment to demand transparency from your benefits partners, audit rebate structures, and identify savings that can help offset rising employee costs. This Week’s Focus: • Monitor West Coast labor activity and prepare for patient surges • Protect telehealth revenue during legislative uncertainty • Reassess staffing strategy, benefits cost exposure, and PBM risk Healthcare HR is no longer adjacent to strategy. It is central to it.  From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN  Support the show

Healthcare HR is entering a pressure point week. In this Monday News Drop, Bo Brabo, Luke Carignan, and Jeremy Sadlier break down three converging forces that are already reshaping labor strategy, care delivery, and executive decision making. Segment 1: The “Peace Treaty” Hangover The New York City nurses strike has officially ended at NewYork-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai, but the real impact is just beginning. The tentative agreement sets a national precedent: a 19% wage increase over three years paired with an ironclad staffing enforcement clause. If staffing ratios are missed, nurses receive automatic premium pay with no arbitration and no delay.HR takeaway: This is not just a labor story. It is an operational and financial risk signal. HR leaders should immediately calculate their staffing miss rate and model what automatic penalties would have cost last month. If you wait for the union to raise this, you are already behind. Segment 2: The Telehealth Countdown Extended Medicare telehealth flexibilities expire in 11 days, on January 30, 2026. Without Congressional action, the geographic originating site rule snaps back on February 1, limiting reimbursement for home based telehealth visits outside rural areas. HR takeaway: Do you know which providers in your system would be out of compliance on February 1? If not, why not? This is a data and workforce planning problem, not just a policy issue. Patient access, provider schedules, and employee time off will all be affected if telehealth abruptly contracts. Segment 3: The Efficiency Wave Moves West Following Alameda Health, Providence announced cuts of approximately 450 non clinical roles across Washington and Oregon, while CVS Health and its subsidiary Oak Street Health are closing clinics and reducing headcount. Growth at all costs is giving way to margin preservation. HR takeaway: This is not panic. It is a phase change. Expect continued role consolidation, automation, and redeployment. The best organizations will reskill and redeploy talent with integrity, transparency, and real choice, not force disguised as opportunity. The Bigger Picture Labor contracts, care delivery models, and financial discipline are converging fast. If you are in healthcare HR and still see yourself as adjacent to strategy, it is time to step forward. The teams who engage now will be shaping enterprise decisions a year from today. 🎧 Listen in, get ahead, and lead from the center. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN  Support the show

In this week’s Monday News Drop, hosts Bo Brabo, Luke Carignan, and Jeremy Sadlier unpack the critical workforce, policy, and compensation trends shaping healthcare HR as we move deeper into 2026. From labor risk to pay strategy to the expiration of ACA subsidies, this episode delivers practical insight leaders can act on immediately.Key Topics Covered:Nurse Strike Risk & Staffing Ratios With New York City facing potential large-scale nursing strikes, the conversation highlights how staffing ratios are shifting from policy language to enforceable labor contract terms. The takeaway for HR leaders is clear: transparency, staffing communication, and proactive workforce planning can reduce strike risk faster than wages alone.Medicaid Cuts & ACA Subsidy Expiration The team explores the real-world impact of Medicaid funding reductions and the expiration of ACA premium subsidies. Hospitals are already seeing layoffs, rising uncompensated care, and growing emergency department utilization. HR leaders are urged to prepare for budget volatility, workforce redeployment, and increased pressure on frontline staffing.Workforce Redeployment Over Layoffs Rather than defaulting to layoffs, this episode reinforces the case for redeploying and upskilling existing employees. From patient access to revenue cycle roles, proactive retraining can stabilize operations while preserving institutional knowledge and morale.2026 Pay Strategy Reality Check National merit increases have stabilized around 3–3.5%, but healthcare remains an outlier with sustained wage pressure. The hosts discuss why across-the-board increases no longer work and why differentiated pay strategies are essential to retain top clinical talent and manage wage compression.The HR Imperative This episode reinforces a core message: workforce shortages are now structural, not cyclical. Burnout is an organizational risk, not an individual failure. And HR leaders play a central role in navigating labor relations, compensation strategy, and policy-driven disruption.Actionable Takeaways for This Week: • Run a strike-risk audit with nurse leaders • Audit per diem and part-time coverage options • Review telehealth compliance timelines • Identify redeployment and upskilling opportunities🎧 Listen now to stay ahead of the workforce, policy, and compensation shifts redefining healthcare HR in 2026.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN Support the show

We made it to Episode 200, and this milestone edition of The ASHHRA Podcast could not be more timely.Kicking off 2026, co-hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan are joined by Jeremy Sadlier for a wide-ranging Monday News Drop that examines the forces reshaping healthcare HR, workforce strategy, and hospital operations right now—and what leaders must prepare for next.What’s Inside Episode 200:Workforce Shortages Are Structural, Not Cyclical The conversation opens with a hard truth: healthcare workforce shortages are no longer temporary. Leaders must move beyond short-term hiring fixes and focus on long-term workforce redesign, redeployment, and internal talent mobility.Burnout Is an Organizational Risk Burnout is no longer framed as an individual resilience issue. The team discusses why burnout is increasingly viewed as a system failure—one that impacts safety, engagement, retention, and financial performance across health systems.Upskilling Is the New Retention Strategy Degree pathways, certifications, and employer-funded education are emerging as the most powerful retention tools. Developing internal talent is no longer optional—it’s essential to sustainability.AI in Healthcare HR Is Moving Faster Than Governance From recruiting and scheduling to workforce analytics and productivity modeling, AI adoption is accelerating. The challenge? Governance, bias controls, and leadership readiness are lagging behind the technology.The Expiration of ACA Subsidies and Its Ripple Effects One of the most urgent discussions centers on the recent expiration of ACA subsidies. The group breaks down what this means for hospital finances, emergency department utilization, workforce planning, and HR budgets in 2026 and beyond.Why This Episode MattersThis isn’t just a look back—it’s a clear-eyed look forward. Episode 200 challenges healthcare HR leaders to think systemically, plan strategically, and step confidently into their role as operational leaders during a time of unprecedented change.Whether you’re focused on workforce planning, employee engagement, AI strategy, or healthcare policy impacts, this episode delivers perspective you can use immediately. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN Support the show

In this returning episode of The ASHHRA Podcast, co-host Luke Carignan sits down with Jeff Knapp, for a timely and candid conversation about artificial intelligence, workforce transformation, and what it truly means to lead with humanity in an age of rapid automation.Jeff brings a rare and powerful perspective to the discussion. With a career spanning roles at Aramark, Walgreens, PE-backed organizations, nonprofits, and large public companies, Jeff frames AI not as a threat to HR, but as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to refocus the profession on what humans do best.Key Themes Explored:AI in Human Resources: Why generative and agentic AI are best used to eliminate repetitive, transactional tasks so HR leaders can focus on strategy, leadership development, and culture.From Deskilling to Reskilling: Jeff challenges the fear-based narrative around AI, arguing instead that HR is entering a reskilling era that demands curiosity, adaptability, and courage.The New Role of the CHRO: Today’s HR leaders must be part strategist, part technologist, and fully human. Jeff explains why fluency in AI, data, and change management is now essential for executive relevance.Preserving Humanity at Scale: As automation increases, empathy, compassion, and authentic leadership become more valuable, not less. AI should amplify the human experience, not replace it.Workforce Planning & Learning Innovation: How AI-driven insights can enable real-time learning, personalized development paths, and smarter workforce decisions.Throughout the episode, Jeff and Luke emphasize a core truth: the future of HR is not about replacing people with machines, but about freeing leaders to lead more deeply, thoughtfully, and humanely.Whether you are an HR executive, business leader, or someone navigating organizational change, this episode offers clarity, reassurance, and practical insight into what’s coming next—and how to lead confidently through it.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN Support the show

In this week’s Monday News Drop, Bo Brabo, Luke Carignan, and Jeremy Sadlier tackle two headlines that should have every healthcare HR leader paying close attention: reported job eliminations at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and a new survey showing more than half of U.S. healthcare workers are considering leaving their roles.The conversation cuts through headlines and focuses on what HR leaders need to understand, question, and act on.🔍 Topics Covered in This EpisodeVA Job Cuts: What’s Really Happening? Reports indicate the VA plans to eliminate up to 35,000 healthcare positions. Bo, Luke, and Jeremy question whether these are true workforce reductions or long-standing vacant roles finally coming off the books. The discussion highlights why transparency matters, especially for veterans, clinicians, and HR leaders trying to understand the real impact on access to care and workforce planning.55% of Healthcare Workers Considering a Job Change A new survey reveals 55% of healthcare workers plan to switch jobs, while 84% feel underappreciated and only 20% believe their employer is invested in their long-term growth. The hosts break down why this isn’t just a retention issue—it’s a leadership and engagement problem hiding in plain sight.Why Surveys Aren’t Enough Annual engagement surveys alone aren’t fixing the problem. The episode emphasizes the importance of frequent, real conversations, visible follow-through, and leaders being willing to share results transparently and act quickly before employees disengage or leave.HR Visibility Matters With HR teams shrinking and more roles moving off-site or remote, Jeremy underscores the risk of losing connection to frontline staff. When HR isn’t present, stress signals are missed—and engagement declines.AI Is Already Reshaping Work The hosts discuss real-world examples of AI in healthcare, including ambient clinical documentation and coding. While AI can reduce administrative burden and improve patient care, it also raises urgent questions about workforce redeployment, career pathways, and change management.💡 Key TakeawayWorkforce challenges are converging—burnout, perceived lack of appreciation, structural cuts, and rapid technology change. The solution isn’t software alone. It starts with listening, acting, and treating employee engagement as a strategic priority tied directly to patient experience and organizational sustainability.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN Support the show

In this week’s Monday News Drop, Co-hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan, along with ASHHRA Executive Director, Jeremy Sadlier, break down the biggest healthcare HR trends and policy changes shaping the road to 2026—what HR leaders need to watch, prepare for, and take action on now. From telehealth reimbursement cliffs to workplace violence standards and double-digit benefit increases, this episode arms you with a strategic playbook for the year ahead.🔍 Key Topics Covered1. The 2026 Telehealth Cliff Major Medicare telehealth flexibilities expire on January 31, 2026, unless Congress acts. HR teams must evaluate which roles, programs, and services rely on telehealth revenue and prepare contingency plans. Telehealth remains essential for rural healthcare access, care continuity, and patient convenience—making this deadline one of the most urgent risk points for 2026.2. New Workplace Violence Prevention Standards Coming California’s OSHA will finalize its workplace violence prevention standard by December 31, 2026, setting the stage for national adoption. Even if you’re not in California, expect other states to follow. HR leaders should begin preparing now, focusing on safety protocols, staff training, and readiness for tighter regulatory oversight.3. The Coming 10% Benefits Cost Surge Employer benefit costs are projected to surpass 10% increases, driven by GLP-1 medications and catastrophic claim trends. Traditional cost-shifting to employees has reached its limit. HR must pivot to precision benefit design, using data to tailor plan eligibility, target high-cost categories, and protect affordability.4. Physician Payment Cuts & Retention Challenges CMS’s 2026 rule includes a 2.5% “efficiency adjustment,” triggering tension between rising admin burden and lower physician compensation. HR will need to rely on non-monetary strategies—flexible scheduling, administrative relief through AI, and culture improvements—to retain clinical talent.5. Hospital at Home Stability Through 2030 With a five-year extension secured, HR should stop treating Hospital at Home roles as pilots and begin building permanent job codes, staffing models, and career pathways for home-based acute care teams. This is now a core component of the care delivery ecosystem.6. The Employer Network Problem As healthcare delivery narrows into high-performance networks, employees increasingly report, “I can’t find a doctor in my network.” HR must ensure access aligns with the organization’s own employee health plans and proactively manage communication around provider availability.🎧 Why Listen?This episode gives healthcare HR professionals a clear, actionable forecast of what’s coming—and how to build a strategy before the pressure hits. If you’re preparing budgets, workforce plans, or leadership updates for 2026, this is your essential Monday briefing.From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN Support the show

In one of our most eye-opening conversations yet, Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan sit down with clinical pharmacist Langley Kyle to unpack the truth behind GLP-1 medications—Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound, tirzepatide, and their compounded counterparts. Whether you're an HR leader, benefits strategist, or simply trying to understand why GLP-1s dominate workplace conversations, this episode breaks it all down with clarity, expertise, and a surprising amount of laughter.From skyrocketing utilization to social-media-driven demand, Langley reveals what she’s seeing across employer plans nationwide…and what’s coming next.💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:1️. Why GLP-1 Coverage Is So Complicated Only 20–30% of self-insured employers currently cover weight-loss GLP-1s. Langley explains why cost, demand, and new FDA indications (sleep apnea, cardiovascular risk reduction, MASH) are forcing employers to rethink their approach.2️. Compounded GLP-1s: Benefits, Risks, and the FDA Crackdown With compounding pharmacies filling the gap during shortages, Langley outlines the regulatory gray zones, quality concerns, and why the FDA is beginning to tighten oversight.3️. The Retention Strategy No One Expected Luke and Bo share firsthand experiences using compounded tirzepatide—and reveal why GLP-1 coverage may soon become a powerful recruitment and retention tool, particularly in healthcare organizations competing for scarce talent.4️. The Real Problem: Maintenance vs. Cure Most members stay on GLP-1s long-term. Langley discusses behavior change, wellness integration, and why employers must pair medication access with coaching, nutrition, and lifestyle programs to create sustainable health outcomes.5️. The Future of Pharmacy Costs From oral GLP-1s to AI-accelerated drug development, the trio explores how innovation—and litigation—may reshape pricing, access, and plan design over the next decade.💬 Quote to Remember: “GLP-1s aren’t going anywhere. The conversation just keeps getting louder.”🎧 Why This Episode Matters GLP-1s are no longer a fringe benefit topic. They are transforming employee expectations, affecting plan costs, and reshaping how HR leaders think about population health. Langley’s insights provide a roadmap for making smarter, more sustainable decisions in 2025 and beyond. From Our Sponsor(s)...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZN Support the show

In this week’s Monday News Drop, co-hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan dive into one of healthcare’s most persistent and pressing issues — the national nursing shortage. But this time, they go deeper than headlines to ask the hard question: Is it really a “trend,” or just a long-term problem we keep failing to solve?Bo and Luke trace the roots of the shortage through decades of reports and research, revealing that the so-called “hot topic” isn’t new — it’s been part of America’s healthcare conversation for years. Together, they unpack why solutions haven’t stuck and explore how operations, education, and compensation must all evolve to make a real difference.💡 In This Episode You’ll Learn:🩺 Why the Nurse Shortage Isn’t New: Bo uncovers 15 years of headlines proving this workforce crisis has been ongoing, highlighting how awareness alone doesn’t equal progress.⚙️ The 28% Problem: Luke references a past guest’s insight — only 28% of a nurse’s time is spent on direct patient care — and discusses how operational inefficiencies continue to drive burnout and turnover.🎓 Workforce Innovation at VCU Health: A spotlight on Virginia Commonwealth University’s proactive model for workforce development, where over 90% of nursing graduates stay and work in-state. Bo and Luke explore how academia and healthcare systems can collaborate to close workforce gaps.🤖 The Role of AI in Talent Strategy: The hosts discuss how artificial intelligence can accelerate recruitment, improve retention, and help hospitals compete for top nursing talent — if used strategically.💬 A Thought-Provoking Takeaway: “You can’t fix the national nurse shortage alone, but you can control your organization’s piece of the puzzle.”And because it’s Thanksgiving week, the duo keeps it light too — reflecting on gratitude, football rivalries, and what the world might look like if humans really could live 200 years. From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

We're thrilled to share the highlights from a mind-expanding episode featuring Cliff Jurkiewicz, VP of Global Strategy at Phenom, alongside our hosts Luke and Bo. Dive Into Reality: Are We Living in a Simulation?The episode kicks off with a wild question: What if there’s a 50% chance we’re living in a simulation, according to Columbia astronomer David Kipping? Cliff explores quantum physics, simulation theory, and how particles defy our ability to understand reality—making us ponder humanity’s limits and possibilities.AI, Quantum Computing, and the Race for SupremacyYou’ll hear about the jaw-dropping advances in quantum computing: Microsoft’s major leap with their Marjoram chip and how whoever wins the “quantum race” could reshape economies, healthcare, and society itself. Cliff notes that China is currently outpacing everyone due to its aggressive, regulation-free approach. What does this mean for global healthcare? The stakes couldn’t be higher.Healthcare HR Transformation: Tech Is Here to HelpForget the fear of robots taking jobs—AI is here to streamline tasks, not replace our humanity. The hosts and Cliff walk through how ambient listening, virtual nursing, and AI-driven medical coding are set to eliminate administrative “bloat” and free up clinicians to focus on meaningful patient care. Expect drastic reductions in cost and a move toward decentralized, personalized healthcare.Curiosity Is Your SuperpowerIf you’re wondering how to keep up, Cliff offers sage advice: stay curious, ask questions, and don’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know. Whether you’re an HR leader shopping for new tech or a clinician adjusting to AI-powered tools, an “elementary school mindset” is key—embrace curiosity, set your ego aside, and actively participate in this transformation.The Future of Work and Life: Shorter Workweeks, Longer LivesImagine working 20 hours a week—productively—and living for 200 years! With AI and medical innovation, the podcast explores how future generations may move past industrial-age thinking, toward more leisure and true human enlightenment. It’s a bold, optimistic vision for what comes next.Listener Takeaways:AI and Tech are not science fiction—they’re here, now, and reshaping healthcare HR.Embrace change and be part of the conversation, or risk being left behind.Think big. The possibilities for improving patient care, operational efficiency, and even personal longevity are staggering.Be curious. The next era starts with asking the right questions.Thanks for listening, subscribing, and being curious with us!From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

Welcome to The ASHHRA Podcast! In this episode, hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan sit down with Keith Sorgius, a dedicated hospital advisor at RxBenefits, to dive deep into the world of pharmacy benefits and cost management for hospitals and health systems. With a rich background in pharmacy analytics, PBM consulting, and 340B in-house pharmacy management, Keith Sorgius shares his practical insights on using data-driven strategies to identify savings opportunities and maximize the value of in-house pharmacy operations.Together, the trio explores the role of predictive analytics in pharmacy plan management, the critical relationship between HR and pharmacy teams, and the importance of transparent communication when rolling out new benefits strategies. You'll learn why benchmarks can be tricky to rely on, how leveraging your own hospital pharmacy can be a game-changer for costs and patient care, and best practices for getting buy-in from employees and their families.Whether you're in HR, pharmacy operations, or just passionate about controlling healthcare costs, this episode is packed with actionable advice and real-world stories to help you navigate the ever-evolving pharmacy benefits landscape. Let's get started! From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

In this week’s Monday News Drop, co-hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan get real about the future of HR — and why the next evolution of workforce planning is already here.From predictive analytics and skills ontologies to workplace flexibility and AI, Bo and Luke dig into what every HR leader should be thinking about as technology reshapes hiring, training, and team performance.This episode isn’t just theory — it’s a candid conversation about how data can help HR move from reacting to predicting, and from managing to truly leading.💡 In This Episode You’ll Learn:1️. Predictive Analytics in Action Bo and Luke break down how predictive analytics is being used to identify top candidates and strengthen workforce pipelines — even drawing parallels to the U.S. military’s use of data to predict Special Forces success rates.2️. Skills Ontologies and Task Proficiency The hosts discuss how modern HR systems are learning to measure performance at the task level, helping organizations understand what employees do best — and where their next role might be.3️. Building Teams Around Strengths, Not Weaknesses Forget the old “fix your flaws” model. Bo and Luke explain why high-performing teams are built by aligning complementary strengths, not trying to make everyone well-rounded.4️. The Human Factor in AI From age and adaptability to personality fit, the conversation explores what AI can (and can’t) measure — and why human intuition still matters in hiring and leadership decisions.5️. Flexibility, Structure, and Leadership Styles In one of the episode’s most relatable moments, Bo and Luke compare their own contrasting work styles — one thrives on structure, the other in chaos — proving that balance drives innovation when teams play to their strengths.💬 “Predictive analytics helps leaders put the right people in the right roles — and that’s where engagement and retention really begin.”🌟 Why Listen: If you’ve ever wondered how AI, analytics, and human behavior intersect to shape better workplaces, this episode connects the dots in a way only Bo and Luke can — insightful, practical, and laugh-out-loud relatable.From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

In this episode of The ASHHRA Podcast, co-hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan sit down with Darlene Stone, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Bayhealth, for a powerful conversation about the past, present, and future of healthcare HR.Darlene has seen it all, from the days of typewriters and paper timecards to today’s AI-driven workflows. With over 30 years in healthcare, she’s done every job in HR and brings a uniquely grounded perspective on what truly matters: people.💡 In This Episode You’ll Learn:✅ AI as a Partner, Not a Threat: Darlene shares how artificial intelligence is transforming HR operations, eliminating tedious tasks while enhancing human connection and efficiency. From summarizing reports in seconds to improving candidate and patient experiences, AI is redefining how HR delivers value.✅ Redeploying Talent, Not Replacing It: Rather than fearing automation, Darlene explains how HR leaders can retrain and redeploy employees into higher-impact roles, filling gaps in healthcare’s critical workforce shortages.✅ Bridging the Education Gap: The conversation explores how hospitals and universities must rethink workforce development, from early healthcare academies in high schools to leadership training that replaces rigid degree requirements with real-world skills.✅ The Human Element of HR: No algorithm can replace empathy. Darlene reminds listeners that investigations, coaching, and team connection require compassion… the essence of leadership in healthcare.✅ Building Tomorrow’s Leaders Today: From Bayhealth’s “Emerging Leader” programs to physician leadership development, Darlene shares actionable strategies for succession planning and cultivating informal leaders who drive cultural transformation.💬 “You can’t take the human out of HR — no matter how advanced technology gets.”Whether you’re an HR executive, educator, or healthcare leader navigating transformation, this episode is a reminder that the future of HR isn’t about replacing people — it’s about empowering them. From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

🎙️ Episode 190 – Veterans Day Special: Honoring Service, Saving Lives, and Building Pathways for VeteransIn this special Veterans Day episode of The ASHHRA Podcast, co-hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan pause to honor those who’ve served — and to spotlight a powerful mission that could change the future for Veterans and the healthcare industry alike.This episode is filled with reflection, laughter, and a deep sense of purpose as Bo shares stories from his Army career and the lessons that continue to shape his life and leadership today. From marching cadences and camaraderie to gratitude and sacrifice, the conversation blends warmth and humor with heartfelt appreciation for those who’ve worn the uniform.But it doesn’t stop there. Bo and Luke turn the focus to action — exploring how healthcare organizations can become stronger by tapping into the Veteran talent pool and supporting meaningful post-service transitions.💡 In This Episode You’ll Learn:1️. The True Meaning of Veterans Day Bo reflects on the origins of Veterans Day and the importance of gratitude — not just in words, but in action.2️. Why Healthcare and the Military Have More in Common Than You Think From logistics and leadership to operations and HR, Veterans possess transferable skills that align closely with hospital and health system needs.3️.A Hidden Solution to the Labor Shortage With millions of Veterans in the civilian workforce — and thousands seeking purpose after service — the opportunity for healthcare employers is enormous. Luke and Bo challenge organizations to stop overlooking this highly skilled population.4️. Introducing Valor Path Inspired by the story of Veteran Jon Snider, who transformed his life after nearly losing hope, Bo and Luke share the creation of Valor Path — a nonprofit dedicated to reducing Veteran suicide by supporting successful career transitions. In partnership with Dallas College, Valor Path is developing the first-ever Veteran Success Partner Certification, a national effort to standardize care, training, and support for transitioning service members.🎯 Why This Episode Matters: This episode is a heartfelt reminder that honoring Veterans goes beyond words. It’s about giving purpose, opportunity, and belonging — and about uniting communities, businesses, and healthcare organizations to make a tangible difference.💬 “We don’t want Valor Path to be another Veteran program people forget. We want it to build legacy — to save lives, create opportunity, and strengthen organizations for generations.”From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

In this week’s Monday News Drop, co-hosts Luke Carignan and Jeremy Sadlier dig into a treasure trove of 2025 healthcare HR data points, unpacking what’s really happening across the industry and what the numbers mean for the people on the front lines.From anxiety and depression among nurses to workplace violence and the growing shortage of support staff, this episode shines a light on the challenges healthcare HR professionals must confront head-on. Luke and Jeremy keep it real with practical ideas, tough questions, and even a few laughs along the way.💡 In This Episode You’ll Learn:1️. The Mental Health Crisis in Nursing Recent data shows 74% of nurses report anxiety and 71% report depression—a staggering reality with deep implications for patient care and retention. Luke and Jeremy discussed what HR leaders can do to better support caregivers beyond the shift, from expanding EAP access to creating cultures of genuine happiness.2️. Workplace Violence: The Unspoken Epidemic For every 100 nurses, there are 13 physical assaults and nearly 39 non-physical violent events each year. The hosts explore how hospitals can strengthen de-escalation training, improve safety protocols, and work with policymakers to ensure caregivers are legally protected.3️. The Hidden Staffing Crisis No One’s Talking About It’s not just about nurses and physicians. Hospitals are facing growing shortages in support and ancillary roles… from transporters to EVS techs. These entry-level jobs are often gateways into long-term healthcare careers, making their decline especially alarming.4️. Education Bottlenecks and Workforce Pipelines Despite 95% of hospitals offering tuition reimbursement, over 13,000 qualified nursing applicants were turned away in 2024 due to limited educational capacity. Luke and Jeremy unpack how the system’s “education choke point” is constraining the workforce pipeline, and what HR can do to bridge the gap.5️. The Student Loan Advantage Only 36% of hospitals currently offer student loan repayment. The hosts explain why this is a missed opportunity for recruitment and retention, and how even modest repayment programs could reduce stress, improve morale, and strengthen loyalty.🎙 Quote to Remember: "Reducing financial pressure reduces emotional pressure—and that changes everything for the people caring for others."🌟 Why This Episode Matters: Behind every data point is a story about burnout, resilience, and opportunity. This episode is a wake-up call for HR leaders and executives to think bigger—about mental health, safety, education, and the future of the workforce.From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

In this eye-opening episode of The ASHHRA Podcast, hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan welcome Kinjal Patel and Brady Heiner from RxBenefits to demystify the complex world of pharmacy benefit management (PBMs). As costs skyrocket, driven by specialty drugs accounting for 50% of spend from just 2% of prescriptions, HR leaders face fiduciary risks, hidden contract clauses, and potential class-action lawsuits. Kinjal and Brady reveal how transparent PBMs differ from traditional models, why "transparency" claims often fall short, and how RxBenefits operates as a client-aligned Pharmacy Benefits Optimizer with 3 million members' negotiating power.Discover actionable strategies for hospitals and health systems to leverage in-house pharmacies, avoid rebate pitfalls, and conduct essential market checks and audits. The duo emphasizes the critical fine print in PBM contracts (e.g., CVS, Express Scripts, OptumRx) that can erode savings if overlooked. RxBenefits offers free, comprehensive contract analyses to uncover hidden opportunities and protect your organization.Key takeaways for healthcare HR professionals:Understand true PBM transparency vs. marketing hype… demand bias-free alignment.Specialty drugs dominate costs; optimize high-dollar prescriptions for massive savings.Hospital pharmacies are goldmines; structure contracts to maximize rebates and utilization.Fiduciary duty demands expertise; avoid legal risks with proactive audits.Don't DIY pharmacy benefits; partner with consultants for smarter plan design and pricing.A must-listen for HR managing escalating drug spend and compliance. Take control… request your free RxBenefits analysis today!From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

Hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan sit down with Heather Zarzycki, Director of Total Rewards at Adventist Health, for a candid conversation about what’s really changing in healthcare compensation, why transparency isn’t the enemy, and how HR leaders can adapt to the realities of wage compression, remote work, and AI.💡 In This Episode You’ll Learn:1️. Transparency Is the New Trust Heather shares how public pay scales, wage laws, and cultural shifts are dismantling the old taboo around “talking money.” From pay equity and internal loyalty to the role of transparency in employee retention, she explains why openness is reshaping the employer-employee relationship.2️. Wage Compression and Creativity in Compensation With California’s healthcare minimum wage now at $24 and climbing, Heather walks listeners through the balancing act of raising pay for frontline teams while keeping leadership structures sustainable and why “flattening the top” may soon be unavoidable.3️. The Remote Work Reality Heather, Bo, and Luke tackle the return-to-office debate head-on. Does culture really require proximity, or can flexibility create a stronger sense of trust and productivity? The discussion reveals how outdated mindsets may be hurting recruitment and morale more than helping.4️. Leadership Without Incentives As more professionals shy away from management roles, the trio explores whether merit pay and performance-based compensation could reignite purpose and accountability, or risk driving burnout if not thoughtfully designed.5️. AI, Automation & the Next Era of Comp Strategy From digital twins to AI-driven HR service centers, the conversation turns futuristic. Heather imagines a world where compensation programs adapt in real time and HR leaders must answer the question, “Why shouldn’t AI do my job?”💬 Memorable Quotes:“Transparency isn’t dangerous; it builds loyalty.”“If you think you’re underpaid, you deserve to know the truth.”“AI isn’t coming—it’s already here. Learn it, or be left behind.”🌟 Why Listen: This episode blends humor, hard truths, and forward-thinking ideas to challenge how we view pay, performance, and purpose in the modern workforce. Whether you’re leading compensation strategy, managing talent, or simply rethinking what motivates people to stay, Heather’s insights deliver a masterclass in balancing heart, data, and innovation.From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

In this lively and thought-provoking episode, co-hosts Bo Brabo and Luke Carignan sit down with Elizabeth Babb, System Director of Human Resources at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, for a conversation that blends humor, heart, and hard-hitting insights about modern HR leadership.Elizabeth, a lifelong Spartanburg native and self-proclaimed “hilarious dog mom,” brings her infectious energy and wealth of experience across industries to the table as she dives into the art and science of total rewards. From introducing paid parental leave to strengthening benefits education and employee engagement, Elizabeth reveals how communication, not cost, is often the secret ingredient to driving employee satisfaction and retention.💡 Key Takeaways:Strategy before benefits: How aligning HR and total rewards with organizational strategy ensures every initiative moves the mission forward.Educate before you elevate: Why employees often think a benefit is “bad” when it’s really just misunderstood and how leaders can fix that through consistent, creative communication.Analogies that stick: Elizabeth’s unforgettable “car dashboard” analogy for benefits education will forever change how you think about employee communication.The hidden cost of leaving: How total compensation statements help employees see the real value of their employment… beyond just the hourly rate.Healthcare’s benefits balancing act: Insights into managing self-insured plans, pharmacy programs, and the ever-changing PBM landscape while keeping employees informed and empowered.The conversation takes a fascinating turn as Elizabeth, Bo, and Luke unpack the complexity of the pharmaceutical industry, transparency challenges in PBM contracting, and the growing movement toward more accountable, employee-first healthcare models. As always, expect laughter, candor, and moments of reflection on what it truly means to care for the people who care for patients.🎧 Tune In If You’re:A healthcare HR leader navigating total rewards and benefits education.A communicator who wants to make your message stick.Curious about the intersection of healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and HR strategy.Just here for the laughs because Elizabeth’s analogies are legendary.Listen now to learn how Spartanburg Regional is redefining employee engagement… one benefit, one conversation, and one brilliant analogy at a time. From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

Monday News Drop: Education Reform, Pharmacy Savings & The Future of Healthcare WorkforceThis week on The ASHHRA Podcast, co-hosts Bo Brabo, Luke Carignan, and Jeremy Sadlier tackle three headlines shaking up healthcare HR and workforce strategy: education pipelines, rising benefit costs, and how leadership can get ahead of both.💡 Inside This Episode:1️. Healthcare Education Reimagined With healthcare staffing shortages projected into 2030, the hosts explore how health systems can take education into their own hands. From virtual nursing programs to in-house training pipelines, they discuss how partnering with or even building academic programs could close the supply gap faster than traditional higher education—and at a fraction of the cost.2️. ADN vs. BSN — Rethinking Requirements Are degree requirements unintentionally shrinking your candidate pool? Bo, Luke, and Jeremy debate whether strict BSN-only hiring policies are limiting access to great talent and driving future nurses toward long-term-care roles instead of hospitals. The conversation challenges institutions to create flexible career pathways, such as “hire-now, finish-later” BSN partnerships.3️. Travel Nursing Declines and Telehealth Explodes Travel nursing demand is expected to drop another 20% in 2025, while locum tenens, nurse practitioners, and telehealth roles continue to surge. The team explores what this shift means for workforce planning, retention, and the evolving role of HR in recruiting advanced practitioners.4️. Rising Health Insurance Costs — and How to Fight Back Employer-sponsored premiums climbed 5% this year, averaging $27,000 per family. Bo walks through practical ways to offset these increases, including pharmacy optimization, transparent contract review, and strengthening the partnership between HR and pharmacy leaders. Luke even floats a bold retention idea: What if organizations covered 100% of employee premiums?5️. A Round of Applause for Healthcare Culture Champions The hosts celebrate the newest Most Loved Workplaces list, highlighting top health systems like Parkview Health, Nicholas Children’s, and UCLA Health for setting the bar on employee experience.🌟 Why Listen: This episode blends insight, humor, and actionable ideas for every healthcare HR leader navigating workforce shortages, benefit inflation, and culture transformation. From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

In Episode 184 of The ASHHRA Podcast, host Luke Carignan sits down with Amanda Ellis, Vice President of Total Rewards at SSM Health, for an inspiring conversation about her dynamic HR journey and innovative approach to total rewards. Amanda shares her story, from her Florida Gator roots to marrying her high school sweetheart and raising a family while climbing the HR ladder. Starting with an internship in Gainesville, she navigated talent acquisition, benefits, and compensation, leading to director roles at AdventHealth and Adventist Health before joining SSM Health. Her career thrives on mentorship and connections, forged through events like the ASHHRA Executive Summit, where she encourages HR pros to build lasting industry relationships. Amanda’s total rewards philosophy centers on transparency and education, empowering caregivers to understand their compensation, benefits, and retirement plans so they can focus on patient care. She tackles challenges like wage compression and multi-state benefits complexities with a strategic, analytics-driven mindset, advocating for multiyear plans to strengthen offerings. Beyond perks like pizza parties, Amanda’s engagement surveys reveal employees crave growth opportunities over raises, prompting leaders to redefine career development. Trust and collaboration are her leadership cornerstones, driving her rapid rise and impact. Amanda and Luke brainstorm future conference ideas, like a rapid-fire panel on real HR scenarios—let us know if you want this at ASHHRA 2026 in Savannah! A must-listen for HR leaders seeking actionable strategies to elevate total rewards and employee well-being. From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

We’re excited to bring you the latest episode of The ASHHRA Podcast, where host Luke Carignan sits down with Jennifer Law, CHRO of Vail Health, for a truly heartfelt conversation about the realities—and rewards—of working in healthcare HR nestled in the picturesque mountains of Colorado.Here’s what you’ll find inside this episode:Life & Work in “Paradise” Jen kicks off by sharing what it’s really like working in Vail, Colorado—beyond the stunning views and outdoor perks. From the logistical challenges of living in a remote, resort-driven community to the high cost of living and housing shortages, Jen sheds light on unique factors shaping the Vail Health employment experience.Staffing & Recruitment: The Outdoor Draw With Vail Health recruiting for roles ranging from clinical to environmental services, Jen explains why lifestyle fit—and a genuine love of the outdoors—can make or break retention. She also discusses the impact of the local housing market and how creative approaches are needed to attract and retain talent in such a unique location.Culture, Community & Real Retention Jen and Luke dig deep on what it really takes to keep employees engaged beyond salary. Vail Health’s secret? Building authentic community. From book clubs to run clubs, they focus on fostering relationships that help new arrivals find their circle outside of work—for both well-being and improved retention.Lessons on Burnout & Well-being Burnout isn’t just about workload. It’s often about what’s missing, not just what’s excessive. Jen talks mental health, building authentic support systems, and the value in nontraditional “benefits” like flexibility and peer connection.Building Great Places to Work, on Purpose Jen’s guiding principle is all about intentionality: communities, programs, and leadership development that let people bring their best to work. Her passion for HR shines in her belief that work should be a good environment—where anyone can grow, connect, and truly enjoy what they do.A Few Gems for Your Week:"People are people. You know this area, you know the community." — On how local knowledge often outweighs industry experience“Everyone should have to work in hospitality at some point.” — Spot-on advice for empathy and service"We’re intentional about building authentic connections—engagement doesn’t have to be expensive!"If you’ve ever been curious about life and HR work in a mountain community, or you’re seeking inspiration for employee engagement that actually works, you won’t want to miss this conversation.Stay tuned for our next episode…and don’t forget to register for the ASHHRA conference in Savannah this May!From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

Recorded live at the 2025 ASHHRA Executive Summit in Savannah, host Luke Carignan (sans traveling co-host Bo Brabo) sits down with Jaclyn Thomson, Director of Employee & Labor Relations at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN. Jaclyn shares her unique journey from psychology and counseling to HR mastery, blending empathy with strategic ER. Amid talent shortages and operational challenges, she offers practical wisdom on investigations, union avoidance, and fostering positive workplace cultures—reminding us: Appreciate others; it goes a long way.Jaclyn dives into her 14 years at West Virginia University Medicine, where proximity to operations sparked a passion for ER. She emphasizes understanding the "why" behind healthcare functions to better support leaders and staff. For early-career HR pros: Shadow ops, ask questions, and immerse yourself. On tough ER tasks like investigations: Stay neutral, thorough, and empathetic—focus on facts while humanizing the process. Union avoidance? Be proactive: Address issues early, build trust, and engage employees to prevent escalation.Key takeaways for healthcare HR leaders:ER Fundamentals: Merge counseling skills with HR—listen actively, remain unbiased, and prioritize empathy in high-stakes situations like terminations or grievances.Operational Insight: Don't silo in HR; learn hospital ops through shadowing, questions, and cross-departmental exposure to align strategies with real-world needs.Investigations Best Practices: Approach with neutrality; gather facts, document thoroughly, and focus on resolution—avoid bias to ensure fair outcomes.Union Prevention: Foster open communication and address pain points early; proactive engagement reduces union risks in competitive markets.Positive Culture Building: Combat negativity in ER by celebrating wins—simple appreciation boosts morale and retention.Career Growth: For aspiring ER pros, seek diverse experiences; Jaclyn's path from psych to ER highlights adaptability's value.Nashville Shoutout: Check out Rec Fest (Oct 15-16) at Centennial Park—HR's "Lollapalooza" with tents, speakers, and networking.A must-listen for HR navigating ER's emotional demands in healthcare. Jaclyn's insights inspire resilience and positivity—control what you can!Join us at the ASHHRA26 Annual 2026 Conference in Savannah May 17 – 19. Register here.From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

We’re excited to bring you highlights from this week’s “Monday News Drop” episode of The ASHHRA Podcast! Co-hosts Luke Carignan and Bo Brabo were back in the studio to tackle two of the hottest topics shaping healthcare HR today: a shakeup in leadership expectations and the non-stop momentum of AI.Episode Highlights1. No One Wants to Lead! Luke and Bo dove into an eye-opening article on “Conscious Unbossing” – a rising Gen Z trend where employees are opting out of formal leadership roles in favor of deepening subject matter expertise. The big takeaway? People want career growth options that DON’T require managing others!Key discussion points:Rethinking career pathing beyond the “leadership ladder”Lending respect and recognition to subject matter experts (SMEs), even when they choose not to manage peopleBuilding parallel career tracks, lateral moves, and project-based recognition for non-managerial talentHumility in the workplace: Valuing leaders AND non-leader contributors2. AI Isn’t the Future—It’s the Present Every HR article (and podcast!) these days is talking about AI. Bo and Luke stressed the urgency around not just learning about AI, but also actively implementing and adapting to it—especially agentic AI in HR functions like talent acquisition.Organizations that delay AI adoption risk falling dangerously behind the competition—think “flip phone vs. iPhone.”AI is shifting HR from transactional work to strategic ‘people architect’ roles—are you ready to evolve?HR positions won’t disappear, but tasks ARE changing: repurposing roles, reskilling teams, and continuously learning is the name of the game.Don’t be afraid to learn! Even if you’re near retirement, find your AI enthusiast successor and help them lead the charge.3. Trending Topic: Staff Well-Being & the Power of the SME Bo and Luke touched on staff well-being—mental health, burnout prevention, and flexible scheduling—as top priorities for healthcare HR, emphasizing that SMEs in these areas can lead important change without managing teams.Fun FavoritesRedefining generational names (RIP, “Generation PT Cruiser”!).The coming age of affordable AI-powered robots—the Jetsons’ future is closer than you think.What’s Next? ASHHRA's Annual Conference is coming to Savannah on May 17-19, 2026! Check the show notes or ASHHRA website for more info, and join us LIVE on the podcast at the event.From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

In this engaging solo-hosted episode (Bo's out traveling!), Luke Carignan chats with Erica Samalis, Director of HR Business Partners at Tufts Medicine. Erica shares her pivot from pre-med to HR via business school, her 12 years at Children's National in DC, and her return to New England roots. Amid talent shortages and industry shifts, she discusses elevating HRBPs to strategic roles, workforce development, AI's potential, and fostering engagement in a changing healthcare landscape.Key takeaways for healthcare HR leaders:HRBP Evolution: Shift from transactional ER to strategic advising—build trust through rounding and proactive support.Workforce Planning: Focus on succession, internal mobility, and new business lines; partner with operations for talent pipelines.Talent Shortages: Address nursing/tech gaps with education investments, global sourcing, and retention strategies—emphasize culture over perks.AI in HR: Use for efficiency (e.g., chatbots, screening) but preserve human elements; frees time for high-impact work like development.Employee Engagement: Leverage surveys, DEI, and perks (e.g., pet insurance, tuition); prioritize mental health and flexibility.Industry Insights: Innovate amid change—share ideas via networks like ASHHRA for collaborative solutions.A must-listen for HR driving strategic impact in healthcare. Erica's journey inspires adaptability!Join ASHHRA 2026 in Savannah! Register here.From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show

In this lively episode of The ASHHRA Podcast, hosts Luke Carignan and Bo Brabo welcome Michelle Nicholl, CHRO in Las Vegas, NV. With a diverse career spanning call centers, hospitality, banking, and 15 years in healthcare, Michelle shares her unscripted journey—from building and dismantling an HR department during an FDIC closure to tackling talent shortages in Vegas' competitive market. Amid casino perks and nursing gaps, she discusses innovative strategies for recruitment, retention, and employee well-being.Key takeaways for healthcare HR leaders:Talent Competition in Vegas: Battle hospitality giants with flexible benefits like pet insurance and tuition assistance; leverage internal mobility and education partnerships to fill gaps.Nursing Shortages: Address 30-40 open RN roles with targeted sourcing, traveler conversions, and residency programs—focus on retention to combat burnout.Employee Engagement: Implement rounding, "lunch and learns," and DEI initiatives; prioritize mental health and work-life balance to boost morale.AI & Tech in HR: Use AI for efficiency (e.g., chatbots, screening) but maintain human touch; explore tools like Workday for streamlined operations.Diverse Backgrounds: Bring non-healthcare experience for fresh perspectives—adapt hospitality's customer service focus to patient care.Personal Touch: Foster trust through visibility and empathy; celebrate wins with events and perks to build a supportive culture.A must-listen for HR navigating competitive landscapes and shortages. Michelle's real-world wisdom inspires resilience!Join ASHHRA 2026 in Savannah! Register here.From Our Sponsors...Optimize Pharmacy Benefits with RxBenefitsElevate your employee benefits while managing costs. Did you know hospital employees fill 25% more prescriptions annually than other industries? Ensure cost-effective, high-quality pharmacy plans by leveraging your hospital’s own pharmacies. Discover smarter strategies with RxBenefits.Learn More here - https://rxbene.fit/3ZaurZNStreamline HR Compliance with oneBADGEhealthcareSimplify screening, credentialing, and compliance for healthcare HR. oneBADGEhealthcare from ISB Global offers a tailored solution to keep your workforce compliant and efficient. Built for healthcare leaders, it’s your all-in-one compliance tool.Get Started here - https://isbglobalservices.com/onebadgeunitedstates/ashhra/ Support the show