The Future of Healthcare Is Here: AI Sessions at IHA Leadership Summit
Applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare are vast, from clinical decision-making to hospital operations. The
2025 IHA Leadership Summit will parse out where the greatest potential in AI lies during two sessions at the Sept. 25-26 signature event in Oak Brook.
“AI Leadership Roundtable: What’s Working and What’s Not Working (Yet)” will feature healthcare leaders discussing AI opportunities and its current shortcomings in managing the complexities of data-driven care. Newsweek’s healthcare editor Alexis Kayser will moderate the conversation with:
- Abel N. Kho, MD, MS, FACMI, Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine and Founding Director, Institute for AI in Medicine (I.AIM), Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago;
- Jonathan Handler, MD, Senior Fellow for Innovation, OSF HealthCare, Peoria; and
- Cheng-Kai Kao, MD, Chief Clinical Informatics Innovation Officer and Associate Professor of Medicine, UChicago Medicine and University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division, Chicago.
- Additional panelists will be announced soon.
“AI Lessons From Across the Industry” will detail innovative ways AI is enhancing operations and improving patient outcomes. Two industry experts will lead the session: John League, Managing Director, Digital and Ambulatory Strategy Research, Advisory Board; and Carol Chouinard, Vice President, Provider Technology Strategy Lead, Optum Advisory.
The Summit, “
Unity Amid Uncertainty,” will take on other consequential issues, including trust and resilience among healthcare workers and the impact of political forces on financial viability. You’ll also hear from peer hospitals in the new “Member Innovation Showcase.” See our
program webpage for registration discounts, the complete agenda, speaker bios and more.
Register today.
Federal Executive Order Targets Institutionalization and Homelessness
On July 24, President Donald Trump issued an
Executive Order that highlights the increasing number of individuals facing homelessness and criticizing federal and state programs “that address homelessness but not its root causes.”
The intent of the order is largely to shift homeless individuals with behavioral health needs into long-term institutional settings and increase the use of civil commitment, or involuntary hospitalization. This action reverses decades of federal policy that has sought deinstitutionalization and increased access to community-based mental health centers, which largely began with advancements in pharmacotherapy in the 1950s and the
Community Mental Health Act of 1963. The order requires the Attorney General and an array of federal agency leaders to carry out the following, but is not limited to these actions:
- Seek reversal of federal or state judicial precedents and the end of consent decrees that impede the use of civil commitment for homeless individuals with mental illness who are a risk to themselves or others;
- Provide assistance to state and local governments to implement policies that encourage civil commitment, institutional treatment and “step-down” treatment standards for individuals with mental illness who pose a danger to others or are homeless;
- Assess programs and determine whether grant priority may be given to grantees in states that enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, and enforce standards that encourage assisted outpatient treatment and institutionalization using civil commitment for individuals who are a danger to themselves or others and suffer from a behavioral health condition or who are homeless;
- Ensure homeless individuals arrested for federal crimes are evaluated to determine whether they are sexually dangerous and certified for civil commitment;
- Assess resource availability to ensure detainees with serious mental illness are not released into the public because of a lack of forensic bed capacity;
- Ensure grants do not fund “harm reduction” or “safe consumption” efforts;
- Ensure funds for Federal Qualified Health Centers and Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics support comprehensive services for behavioral health needs, including crisis intervention;
- Prioritize funding to expand drug and mental health courts; and
- Increase accountability and requirements in grants for homelessness assistance and transitional living programs.
The order to increase mandatory hospitalization follows significant Medicaid cuts in
H.R. 1 that are designed to take effect in 2026 and 2027, which is anticipated to reduce Medicaid coverage for the order’s targeted population.
Resources: Updated SAFER Guides Improve Safety and Usability of EHRs
The
Safety Assurance Factors for Electronic Health Record Resilience (SAFER) Guides help healthcare organizations routinely assess and improve their electronic health record (EHR) systems, and are a required annual attestation by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The SAFER Guides include checklists and recommended practices designed to help healthcare providers and the organizations that support them assess and optimize the safety and safe use of EHRs, which is a high priority area because of the enormous impact EHRs have on patient safety.
A new study
published in the
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association outlines updates to the 2025 guidelines that reflect current evidence and clinical practice. A multidisciplinary team of researchers implemented changes that include new guidance on artificial intelligence and medical device data, strategies to reduce clinician burden, and real-world implementation examples. The revised guidelines streamline content, reduce the number of recommended practices by 40%, and make it easier for healthcare teams to assess and improve EHR systems.
IMPORTANT: Medicaid IMPACT Revalidations Due July 31
The Illinois Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) is currently conducting IMPACT Medicaid provider revalidations. Providers in the July cohort must complete IMPACT revalidations by this Thursday, July 31. Completing this information is necessary to continue receiving Medicaid reimbursement. If you are in this revalidation cycle and do not submit your revalidation information by July 31 you will be disenrolled from the IMPACT system and cannot receive retroactive enrollment. IHA urges all providers to check their revalidation cycle due date—including physicians and physician groups affiliated with your hospitals—and to check for any incomplete revalidations. NOTE: If a physician providing services at your hospital does not revalidate, your hospital will not receive payment for those services provided by that physician.
To check your revalidation due date, search the basic information page of your IMPACT enrollment. HFS has provided IHA with step-by-step instructions to check the status and due date of servicing providers that you can access
here. The
IMPACT Provider Revalidation website includes step-by-step instructions, a frequently asked questions document and townhall webinar recording.
