From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Tim “Stick” Szczykutowicz, founder of RadUnity.
Szczykutowicz, a professor at UW-Madison, discusses issues with medical imaging that he wants to address through RadUnity. This Madison-based startup recently got FDA clearance for its technology, which aims to reduce inconsistency in medical imaging for radiologists by standardizing formatting and image processing.
He provides insights on what led him to launch the business and details the company’s approach for improving medical imaging.
“You’re going to have a much more uniform way that images are made and presented to radiologists who would eventually interpret them,” he said.
Szczykutowicz says the recent FDA clearance is “huge for the business,” emphasizing the importance of hitting such milestones for startups coming out of academia.
“What that meant for us was that we’re hopefully being seen as a real company, and not just an extension of my laboratory,” he said. “Yeah, we really want to get that patent, that solution into the hands of clinicians around the country.”
The podcast touches on other milestones for RadUnity and its path from the lab bench to market. Looking ahead, the company is seeking to raise a seed investment round of “a few million dollars” to hire dedicated leadership.
“I’m blessed to be in this awesome corridor between Milwaukee and Madison where we have all this imaging expertise from GE Healthcare to the smaller companies, the spin-offs of UW-Madison in this region,” he said, adding “that’s really my next big hurdle as founder … getting the right people on board.”
Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.
— The state Medicaid fund is running about even with projections for how much it will spend in the 2023-25 biennium, according to the latest update from the Department of Health Services.
The agency in September had projected the fund would have a surplus of $29.4 million in general purpose revenue at the end of the two-year period. The latest update now has it coming in $1.2 million ahead of expectations.
In all, the state expects the program to spend nearly $8.7 billion in GPR over the two-year period.
DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson wrote to the co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee the agency now has updated rates for Medicaid managed care programs such as Family Care. Rates for long-term care increased 8%, while it was 5.7% on average for BadgerCare and other programs. In August, the state had expected those rates to go up 3% and 2%, respectively.
She noted those changes were the most significant difference between the September projection and the December update.
Meanwhile, Johnson also noted Medicaid enrollment dropped to 1.18 million in November, compared to 1.49 million in May 2023. That’s due to the end of a federal requirement that states provide continuous coverage to those who qualified for the program during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Even with the drop in enrollment, current Medicaid members have higher average costs compared to when there were more people in the program during the pandemic, according to Johnson.
— Marshfield Clinic Health System and South Dakota-based Sanford Health have officially completed their merger and now operate under the Sanford Health name.
The unified health system recently announced the completion of the merger that was announced in July, forming an organization with about 56,000 employees, 56 hospitals and 4,500 providers. Its patients are located across the upper Midwest region, including Wisconsin.
Dr. Brian Hoerneman, the previous interim CEO of MCHS, is now president and CEO of the Marshfield Clinic region of Sanford Health, the release shows.
“I am excited about the opportunities ahead as our teams learn from each other and combine our complementary strengths, cultures and missions,” he said in a statement.
See the release below.
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