Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Chris Bradbury, CEO of IHCS, and Ashish V. Shah, Founder and CEO of Dina

Transcript

Chris Bradbury, CEO of IHCS, and Ashish V. Shah, Founder and CEO of Dina · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - Every health system executive right now is being
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  - upper right.
• 1:01
  - This is Laura Dierdo with the Becker's Healthcare
• 1:04
  - podcast.
• 1:05
  - I'm thrilled today to be joined by Chris
• 1:06
  - Bradbury, CEO of Integrated,
• 1:08
  - and Ashish Shah, founder and CEO of Dina
• 1:11
  - and chief product and technology officer of Integrated.
• 1:14
  - Chris, Ashish, thank you so much for joining
• 1:16
  - us on the podcast today.
• 1:17
  - Thanks for having us.
• 1:20
  - Absolutely. Now I'm excited for our conversation. I
• 1:23
  - know we'll be digging into some really, you
• 1:25
  - know, important things that you've both been doing
• 1:27
  - in in the past, year or so. I
• 1:29
  - know Integrated
• 1:31
  - recently acquired Dina, and, we'll talk a little
• 1:34
  - bit about that as well as your plans
• 1:36
  - for the future. But before we dive in,
• 1:38
  - we'd love to have you both introduce yourself
• 1:40
  - and just tell us a little bit about
• 1:41
  - the organization. So, Chris, we'll start with you.
• 1:43
  - Can you tell us about yourself and and
• 1:45
  - a bit about Integrated as well?
• 1:47
  - Sure. I'd love to. You know, joined integrated
• 1:50
  - a little over four about four years ago.
• 1:52
  - Prior to that, spent a lot of time
• 1:54
  - in national health plans
• 1:56
  - as well as the pharmacy benefit management business.
• 1:59
  - And I was drawn to integrated for for
• 2:01
  - a few reasons.
• 2:02
  - One, just through through family and friend and
• 2:05
  - neighborhood experiences,
• 2:07
  - saw how people,
• 2:09
  - wanted to access care in the home,
• 2:11
  - saw where it worked really well, saw where
• 2:14
  - it didn't, and the carnage that could have
• 2:16
  - on the family,
• 2:18
  - in their own personal care.
• 2:20
  - And also saw within integrated it was just
• 2:23
  - a really interesting time,
• 2:25
  - both in terms of its growth opportunity, but
• 2:28
  - also
• 2:29
  - trying to solve some major problems for health
• 2:31
  - plans that are under increasing pressure, being asked
• 2:34
  - to do more with less,
• 2:36
  - and wanna be part of an organization that
• 2:38
  - was incredibly passionate about,
• 2:40
  - serving patients,
• 2:42
  - providing high quality of care,
• 2:44
  - providing and driving more affordability and ease,
• 2:47
  - for all. And that's how I came to
• 2:49
  - integrated,
• 2:50
  - which has been built over the last, fifteen
• 2:53
  - plus years, but really goes back to thirty
• 2:56
  - plus years of in its roots as a
• 2:58
  - provider of care,
• 2:59
  - in the DME and home health space. And
• 3:01
  - then more recently, thrilled to have a chance
• 3:03
  - to get to know Ashish and his team
• 3:06
  - and welcome them into the integrated family.
• 3:11
  - That's amazing. Thank you so much for that
• 3:13
  - foundational information, and it truly helps us understand
• 3:16
  - exactly, the journey integrated has been on. And
• 3:19
  - now, Ashish, could you tell us a little
• 3:21
  - bit about yourself and Dina as well?
• 3:23
  - Yeah. Thanks, thanks again for the opportunity. And,
• 3:26
  - you know, just to build on, Chris's introduction
• 3:29
  - there, she's CEO of, Dina and and now
• 3:31
  - the chief product and technology officer for Integrated.
• 3:35
  - You know, Dina was started a little over
• 3:36
  - ten years ago,
• 3:38
  - with the sole central focus of improving access,
• 3:41
  - reliability, and transparency
• 3:43
  - to any type of home based care.
• 3:46
  - And, you know, what what led us to
• 3:48
  - start the company, you know, prior to that,
• 3:49
  - I was the CTO and had a product
• 3:51
  - for a large interoperability business that ultimately,
• 3:54
  - joined forces with Aetna.
• 3:56
  - And although in that business, we were doing
• 3:58
  - a wonderful job,
• 4:00
  - connecting hospitals to manage care organizations
• 4:02
  - and labs and primary care,
• 4:05
  - the missing link was really the growing,
• 4:08
  - continuum of care at home,
• 4:10
  - whether that's skilled services like physical therapy or
• 4:13
  - skilled nursing in the home or delivery of
• 4:15
  - critical durable medical equipment,
• 4:18
  - now down to home modification,
• 4:19
  - many other services.
• 4:22
  - What Dina has been doing over the last
• 4:23
  - ten years has really become
• 4:26
  - a building a a market aggregator, a single
• 4:29
  - easy button
• 4:30
  - for health plan coordinators to be able to
• 4:32
  - coordinate any multitude of home based services.
• 4:37
  - We've done that largely from a technology perspective
• 4:39
  - and
• 4:40
  - increasingly over the last eighteen months to two
• 4:43
  - years,
• 4:44
  - started to introduce services,
• 4:46
  - many of which the integrated organization offers today
• 4:49
  - that I think are critical to really doing
• 4:51
  - a wonderful job here in this space. You
• 4:53
  - know, whether that's building networks,
• 4:56
  - contracting with providers in a value based
• 4:59
  - care model,
• 5:01
  - you know, credentialing, recredentialing, but ultimately
• 5:04
  - coordinating that care fulfillment,
• 5:06
  - follow-up,
• 5:06
  - making sure that members really get the best
• 5:08
  - possible experiences,
• 5:11
  - available.
• 5:12
  - And so, we're we're thrilled and delighted to
• 5:14
  - be a part of the integrated family now.
• 5:17
  - And, as as I've gotten to know Chris
• 5:19
  - over the the last year,
• 5:22
  - you know, the organizations
• 5:23
  - share
• 5:24
  - the same belief structure, the same mission and
• 5:26
  - vision.
• 5:28
  - We've gone about the market from two different
• 5:30
  - perspectives, and I think the combination is something
• 5:32
  - that we're, we're quite excited about.
• 5:36
  - Yeah. It's really cool to hear and especially
• 5:38
  - thinking through how the health care landscape has
• 5:40
  - changed and really
• 5:42
  - having more and more evolution of technology and
• 5:45
  - the ability to,
• 5:46
  - connect patients with the best,
• 5:48
  - services
• 5:49
  - in in settings that that makes sense for
• 5:51
  - their care, is truly beneficial.
• 5:53
  - Now, Chris, can you talk about the strategic
• 5:56
  - vision behind building Dina? And what is the
• 5:59
  - gap with the home based care market, that
• 6:01
  - you were originally trying to solve?
• 6:03
  - Yeah. Thanks thanks, Laurie. You know,
• 6:06
  - our mission when we look at it, we're
• 6:08
  - trying to unlock the full potential of care
• 6:10
  - in the home.
• 6:11
  - And we believe in order to do that,
• 6:14
  - it's critically important
• 6:16
  - that you're easy,
• 6:18
  - you're efficient,
• 6:19
  - you're integrated. And by that, I mean, many
• 6:21
  - of the people,
• 6:23
  - that receive care in the home have multiple
• 6:25
  - needs.
• 6:27
  - They have durable medical equipment need. They have
• 6:30
  - home health needs. They have home infusion needs.
• 6:33
  - They have personal care needs,
• 6:36
  - and it's surprising the percentage of people
• 6:40
  - that need multiple services in the home. And
• 6:43
  - what health plans have been historically challenged with,
• 6:46
  - it's
• 6:47
  - how to find one partner versus many partners
• 6:51
  - to serve these needs across all of their
• 6:54
  - population, whether it's Medicare Advantage, whether it's commercial,
• 6:57
  - ACA,
• 6:58
  - or managed Medicaid. And so for us as
• 7:01
  - a company, we've been building the organization
• 7:04
  - over these years with how do we become
• 7:07
  - that one partner that can support a health
• 7:10
  - plan or other risk bearing entities
• 7:13
  - across their entire population
• 7:16
  - as well as across all of, we call
• 7:18
  - them service lines,
• 7:20
  - home health, home infusion,
• 7:22
  - DME,
• 7:23
  - personal care.
• 7:24
  - And that's what we built, right, and the
• 7:26
  - journey that we've been on.
• 7:28
  - Because when somebody's coming out of a hospital,
• 7:30
  - coming out of the facility, or coming out
• 7:32
  - of the doctor's office,
• 7:34
  - they have many, many things going through the
• 7:36
  - their head. And what they need is a
• 7:38
  - trusted ally
• 7:39
  - that helps make a very complex and scary
• 7:42
  - process
• 7:43
  - of receiving this intense care and transitioning to
• 7:46
  - the home easy
• 7:48
  - and does all of this coordination,
• 7:51
  - which is enormous
• 7:52
  - behind the scenes.
• 7:54
  - And so we are that that one entity
• 7:57
  - has these that has these capabilities
• 7:59
  - across
• 8:00
  - all lines of business
• 8:02
  - and all service lines. And as we started
• 8:05
  - to look at where and how we could
• 8:07
  - continue
• 8:08
  - and strengthen this integrated approach, what we also
• 8:11
  - saw
• 8:12
  - were some technology services
• 8:15
  - that were critically important to many of our
• 8:17
  - health plan clients.
• 8:19
  - Because each of our health plan clients is
• 8:21
  - challenged with how do I make care more
• 8:23
  - affordable?
• 8:24
  - How do I make it more efficient and
• 8:26
  - effective? And how do I do it with
• 8:29
  - less administrative expense,
• 8:31
  - right, each and every year? And what we
• 8:33
  - found with many of our health plan clients
• 8:35
  - is some of them wanted and many of
• 8:38
  - them wanted to delegate,
• 8:40
  - a whole host of these services to us.
• 8:42
  - Others wanted to keep these, the management of
• 8:45
  - these services in house, or some wanted a
• 8:48
  - hybrid approach somewhere in between. And so when
• 8:51
  - Ashish and I had a chance to get
• 8:52
  - to know each other and I and our
• 8:54
  - team got a chance to to further understand
• 8:56
  - the the technology platform that they had built,
• 9:00
  - right, which is a digital first platform,
• 9:02
  - it allowed us
• 9:04
  - to then expand the services that we offer
• 9:07
  - to our health plan clients,
• 9:08
  - where some of them may want us to
• 9:10
  - supercharge,
• 9:12
  - their in house or internal teams
• 9:15
  - through network management, through
• 9:18
  - referral management, and care coordination. And so the
• 9:21
  - combination
• 9:22
  - of integrated in in Indena
• 9:24
  - really extends that unlocking the full potential of
• 9:27
  - care through,
• 9:29
  - hey. We can be your partner on the
• 9:30
  - technology side to supercharge what you wanna do
• 9:33
  - in your house. You can we can be
• 9:35
  - the partner of choice for certain services that
• 9:38
  - you delegate to us. Or if you wanna
• 9:41
  - delegate the entire
• 9:42
  - in home benefit management from utilization management all
• 9:46
  - through claims processing, we're able to do that
• 9:48
  - as well. And so it really allows us
• 9:51
  - to tailor and meet each and every health
• 9:53
  - plan where they are
• 9:55
  - in their transformation strategy for care in the
• 9:58
  - home.
• 10:02
  - I love that. That's so helpful to understand,
• 10:03
  - you know, and and really a great concept
• 10:05
  - and strategy, especially when you're thinking about patients
• 10:08
  - who wanna be in their home and wanna
• 10:11
  - be,
• 10:12
  - there as long as possible.
• 10:14
  - Now, Ashish, what made this acquisition the right
• 10:17
  - next step for you, both for Dina's platform
• 10:19
  - as well as the broader mission of transforming
• 10:21
  - in home benefit management?
• 10:24
  - It's, it's a wonderful question. I guess, you
• 10:27
  - know, if we had more time and money
• 10:29
  - and resources
• 10:31
  - in building our business, I think we would
• 10:33
  - eventually end up where where Chris and I
• 10:35
  - are today with integrated.
• 10:37
  - But this was a
• 10:39
  - just an unbelievable opportunity to jump way into
• 10:41
  - the future for both of our companies
• 10:44
  - and really serve the market at such a
• 10:46
  - critical time. And so it was really a
• 10:48
  - no brainer for us to to team up
• 10:50
  - quickly, especially because we were aligned on mission,
• 10:53
  - vision, and values. And that was sort of
• 10:55
  - the first priority. But then as we started
• 10:57
  - to dig deeper and deeper, there was just
• 10:59
  - incredible alignment across the board in terms of,
• 11:02
  - complimentary capabilities. You know, I think the service
• 11:04
  - infrastructure at Integrated
• 11:06
  - is top notch. And I think being able
• 11:09
  - to marry our technology first approach into that
• 11:12
  - service culture,
• 11:14
  - is, is really a unique and differentiated,
• 11:17
  - platform for the industry. So, this was an
• 11:20
  - opportunity to jump into the, into the future.
• 11:22
  - You know, I think independently, we were both
• 11:24
  - serving roughly
• 11:25
  - 10 to 11 states on a combined basis.
• 11:27
  - Now we're serving 20,
• 11:29
  - 20 plus states, including Puerto Rico.
• 11:31
  - And so, you know, when we talk about
• 11:33
  - really developing national scale, I think we're,
• 11:36
  - to use, Chris's phrase here,
• 11:39
  - supercharged. We're really supercharging the opportunity here for
• 11:42
  - health plans and giving them an opportunity
• 11:46
  - to meet them where they are on their
• 11:48
  - journey. Some as as,
• 11:51
  - Chris outlined,
• 11:53
  - may want to start with their existing assets
• 11:55
  - and technology to get started on the journey.
• 11:58
  - And others may say, we have other priorities
• 12:00
  - inside of our organization like specialty pharmacy or
• 12:02
  - dealing with a
• 12:04
  - specialist network.
• 12:05
  - And and they really need a partner that
• 12:07
  - they can trust and hand
• 12:09
  - off, the home based continuum too. And that's
• 12:12
  - I I think,
• 12:13
  - we're we're meeting the market where they are
• 12:15
  - in terms of their needs. So,
• 12:17
  - the opportunity was just something that we couldn't
• 12:19
  - pass up. And,
• 12:20
  - again, as we got to know the integrated
• 12:22
  - team and family,
• 12:24
  - much more, it just it felt more and
• 12:26
  - more like a no brainer for us. And
• 12:28
  - we know we're we're thirty days into this.
• 12:30
  - And, every day that goes by,
• 12:33
  - I think our entire team's conviction goes up
• 12:35
  - and up that we we absolutely made the
• 12:37
  - right decision here.
• 12:41
  - That makes a lot of sense. You know?
• 12:42
  - And it is really cool to hear,
• 12:45
  - how this all came about and then what
• 12:47
  - you're, becoming together. I know you've described the
• 12:50
  - combination
• 12:52
  - of the platforms as the industry's benefit management
• 12:54
  - infrastructure layer. What does that actually look like
• 12:57
  - in practice for a health plan or a
• 12:59
  - risk bearing organization?
• 13:01
  - Yeah. That's
• 13:02
  - an awesome question.
• 13:05
  - Let's just take one service line for, for
• 13:08
  - a moment, safe home health.
• 13:10
  - When a health plan partners with an organization
• 13:13
  - or is managing a service line on their
• 13:15
  - own, There are many different building blocks here.
• 13:18
  - You know, there's
• 13:19
  - the starting with the member level, what members,
• 13:23
  - what are the needs of a particular member
• 13:24
  - and determining,
• 13:26
  - what that need is and what the coverage
• 13:28
  - may look like. The next step in that
• 13:30
  - process is often,
• 13:32
  - matching that with the provider network and who
• 13:34
  - are the best available providers that meet that
• 13:37
  - member's needs that can do a wonderful job.
• 13:39
  - There's a
• 13:40
  - a whole network management function that goes into
• 13:42
  - that. There's
• 13:43
  - authorization,
• 13:45
  - eligibility, and access workflows,
• 13:48
  - that often come in next. And then there's
• 13:50
  - fulfillment,
• 13:51
  - which, is so much more than just a
• 13:53
  - referral. It's it's making sure that not only
• 13:55
  - does the request
• 13:57
  - get placed with the right provider, and it's
• 13:59
  - a highly fragmented provider market, space out there.
• 14:02
  - So just actually trying
• 14:04
  - to organize and connect those dots is quite
• 14:06
  - a challenge, but fulfillment's
• 14:08
  - a pretty big deal. And then there's a
• 14:10
  - lot of follow-up that comes in there. Is
• 14:12
  - the care actually being delivered? Is it being
• 14:14
  - delivered on time? Is there transparency and data
• 14:16
  - flowing back in a way that allows us
• 14:18
  - to identify
• 14:19
  - ongoing needs?
• 14:21
  - And then beyond that, there's reconciliation
• 14:23
  - to
• 14:24
  - payments and claims and a whole other, host
• 14:27
  - of things that are really critical to making
• 14:29
  - sure that our provider ecosystem is healthy
• 14:32
  - and active and excited about serving members at
• 14:35
  - home. And so these are just some of
• 14:37
  - the core,
• 14:38
  - building blocks within that infrastructure layer for one
• 14:40
  - service line.
• 14:42
  - Making sure that all of those things work
• 14:45
  - in an efficient,
• 14:47
  - frictionless manner that flows through end to end
• 14:50
  - is quite critical.
• 14:52
  - Prior to our partnership with Integrated, we were
• 14:54
  - able to
• 14:55
  - consistently
• 14:56
  - match,
• 14:57
  - members to a provider of home based services
• 15:00
  - within sixty minutes or less. And actually for
• 15:02
  - some clients, it's less than twenty minutes with
• 15:05
  - care opening within the next day or shortly
• 15:08
  - thereafter.
• 15:09
  - That's the experience that
• 15:11
  - we are unlocking with an infrastructure layer. What
• 15:14
  - I think makes this opportunity with integrated so
• 15:17
  - special
• 15:18
  - is not only are we doing that for
• 15:20
  - one service line,
• 15:21
  - but we're doing this for multiple service lines
• 15:24
  - in a coordinated manner. And so we think
• 15:26
  - the infrastructure layer is mastering that first service
• 15:29
  - like home health, but also
• 15:32
  - many of the members have multiple needs like
• 15:35
  - durable medical equipment that needs to be delivered
• 15:37
  - or sometimes personal care attendants that need to
• 15:39
  - coordinate
• 15:40
  - with a home health staff or infusion as
• 15:42
  - as Chris mentioned.
• 15:44
  - So integrating all of those services into one
• 15:47
  - seamless experience
• 15:49
  - is the power of what I think an
• 15:50
  - infrastructure layer,
• 15:52
  - needs to look like and and what we're
• 15:54
  - doing here at Integrated.
• 15:56
  - Yeah. Hey, Laura. If I if I could
• 15:57
  - add, what what surprised me four years ago
• 15:59
  - when I, joined Integrated and just looking across
• 16:03
  - what our clients were experiencing
• 16:06
  - is I was stunned by the variation
• 16:10
  - in quality
• 16:11
  - and service and affordability
• 16:14
  - by providers of care, whether that was DME,
• 16:17
  - whether that was home health, whether that was
• 16:20
  - personal care and home infusion
• 16:23
  - with that.
• 16:24
  - And that variability
• 16:26
  - was something
• 16:27
  - that continues to be a major challenge for
• 16:31
  - many, many, many health plans across The United
• 16:34
  - States
• 16:35
  - that haven't
• 16:37
  - gone down the path of finding a partner
• 16:40
  - like Integrated
• 16:41
  - that specializes
• 16:43
  - in in home benefit management
• 16:46
  - and in home benefit management and enablement.
• 16:50
  - And as Ashish talked about, what we've been
• 16:52
  - building out and what we'll continue to advance
• 16:54
  - on
• 16:55
  - is a highly repeatable
• 16:59
  - experience
• 17:01
  - for the patient,
• 17:02
  - for the doctors,
• 17:05
  - the nurses, the therapists that support the patient,
• 17:08
  - for the hospitals
• 17:10
  - that are supporting the patient,
• 17:12
  - for our health plan clients,
• 17:15
  - their care and case managers that are supporting
• 17:17
  - the patient
• 17:18
  - so that every patient is receiving care
• 17:22
  - from
• 17:23
  - the provider that provides the best service,
• 17:25
  - the best quality,
• 17:27
  - and helps maintain
• 17:29
  - affordability
• 17:30
  - of these really important benefits with that
• 17:33
  - and does it in a way that's easy,
• 17:35
  - that's efficient,
• 17:36
  - right, that's highly repeatable
• 17:38
  - and highly scalable.
• 17:41
  - And as a she shed for us,
• 17:43
  - it's we're able to do that across all
• 17:45
  - service lines in the home,
• 17:48
  - in the entire member population
• 17:50
  - for a health plan, whether it's a national
• 17:52
  - health plan,
• 17:54
  - that is in the medic manage Medicaid, the
• 17:56
  - commercial, the Medicare Advantage, the ACA space, whether
• 17:59
  - it's Blues or your local health plan that
• 18:03
  - might just be in only one line of
• 18:05
  - business.
• 18:05
  - And that's the real key in this area
• 18:07
  - of the healthcare ecosystem.
• 18:10
  - It really has had a generalist approach
• 18:13
  - over the last twenty, thirty years. Right? And
• 18:16
  - I see a lot of similarities of the
• 18:18
  - pharmacy benefit management business twenty to thirty years
• 18:21
  - ago when I entered that area of health
• 18:23
  - care. And so it's really exciting
• 18:26
  - about being able to build a highly repeatable,
• 18:30
  - in home benefit management and technology enablement platform,
• 18:35
  - that is able to drive
• 18:36
  - enhanced levels of care,
• 18:38
  - enhanced levels of service,
• 18:41
  - better affordability,
• 18:42
  - and do it in a way that's easy.
• 18:44
  - Right? Because health care is too complex. And
• 18:47
  - at our core,
• 18:48
  - what both organizations
• 18:50
  - have been doggedly committed to is how do
• 18:53
  - we make care in the home easy for
• 18:55
  - all. And that's probably the most exciting part
• 18:58
  - of this journey as we go forward.
• 19:04
  - That's really exciting to hear and especially
• 19:06
  - knowing, you know, how health care is evolving
• 19:09
  - and looking at health plans, looking at,
• 19:11
  - providers, looking at all the different stakeholders
• 19:14
  - who are coming together and really needing to
• 19:16
  - provide a coordinated level of care for patients.
• 19:19
  - Now I know AI enabled care coordination is
• 19:22
  - central to what integrated and Dina are building
• 19:25
  - together. So where do you see the biggest
• 19:27
  - opportunity for AI to reduce the friction in
• 19:29
  - home care delivery, especially,
• 19:32
  - thinking through what's gonna be coming over the
• 19:34
  - next couple of years?
• 19:36
  - Yeah. I'm I'm happy to jump in here
• 19:38
  - and and just sort of provide our perspective.
• 19:41
  - I think, you know, Laura, as you know,
• 19:42
  - AI is everywhere. And so what does it
• 19:44
  - mean? It you know, taking the time to
• 19:46
  - really define that,
• 19:47
  - I think is critical. And so there there
• 19:49
  - are two sorta areas that we're
• 19:51
  - applying AI.
• 19:53
  - One is on the network management aspects of
• 19:57
  - the job
• 19:58
  - of matching a member or patient to the
• 20:00
  - very best provider and making sure that happens
• 20:03
  - in a frictionless way as quickly as possible.
• 20:05
  - It is not uncommon when you are trying
• 20:07
  - to,
• 20:09
  - order
• 20:10
  - arrange a home based service
• 20:12
  - for a patient or member to do that
• 20:14
  - within
• 20:16
  - you you may need to contact ten, twenty,
• 20:18
  - 30 providers. That's how fragmented the market is
• 20:21
  - across the
• 20:23
  - country, to try to make sure that someone
• 20:25
  - can actually see that person and let alone
• 20:27
  - make sure that that visit happens within
• 20:30
  - one to two days.
• 20:32
  - That is the challenge. And so we've,
• 20:34
  - deployed a good amount of AI to help
• 20:37
  - us with that provider network management component that
• 20:40
  - allows us to quickly receive confirmation of service
• 20:44
  - and really drive
• 20:45
  - that perfect match between a member and a
• 20:47
  - provider.
• 20:49
  - That's that's sort of area number one.
• 20:52
  - The second area
• 20:53
  - is we have,
• 20:55
  - invested and started to develop and scale
• 20:58
  - a digital workforce that supports our staff. And
• 21:01
  - so
• 21:02
  - we have AI agents that we've developed,
• 21:05
  - that support us with network design. We have
• 21:08
  - AI agents that we've developed that support us
• 21:10
  - with credentialing.
• 21:12
  - Whether that's credentialing or re credentialing, there's a
• 21:14
  - lot of different regulations to track both locally
• 21:16
  - and at the national level.
• 21:19
  - We have AI agents that
• 21:21
  - really help us,
• 21:23
  - ensure that fulfillment
• 21:25
  - takes place in a timely manner.
• 21:27
  - So our patients getting care when they're expected,
• 21:31
  - Are we collecting visit notes and assessment data
• 21:33
  - back from those home based providers that allow
• 21:35
  - us to ensure
• 21:37
  - that we are doing the best optimal job
• 21:38
  - for them from a quality perspective?
• 21:41
  - And then there's a whole other aspect of
• 21:43
  - our digital workforce that's there to support
• 21:46
  - SLA management,
• 21:47
  - compliance,
• 21:48
  - payments.
• 21:51
  - We've started to support our entire service culture
• 21:54
  - and organization,
• 21:56
  - with AI assistance. And that's the second area.
• 21:58
  - So it's really behind the scenes, but it's
• 22:00
  - part of the secret sauce and magic that
• 22:02
  - really allows us to do an exceptional job
• 22:04
  - here.
• 22:05
  - There's been a lot written and,
• 22:07
  - and published over the years around the shortage
• 22:09
  - of,
• 22:10
  - workers in health care. That's not just providers
• 22:13
  - and physicians. That's at every level of care,
• 22:16
  - including the support staff on the back office.
• 22:18
  - And so,
• 22:20
  - core to our AI strategy is really
• 22:22
  - finding ways to
• 22:24
  - echoes,
• 22:26
  - to echo Chris's sentiment here. To make this
• 22:28
  - easy, efficient, and integrated,
• 22:31
  - we think our digital workforce strategy is central
• 22:33
  - to that.
• 22:37
  - I love it. It's so cool to hear
• 22:39
  - everything that you're working on there and, seeing
• 22:41
  - the AI,
• 22:42
  - being built into that health care and home
• 22:44
  - care delivery chain.
• 22:46
  - Chris, is there anything else you wanted to
• 22:48
  - add?
• 22:49
  - Yeah. And it the
• 22:51
  - digital workforce,
• 22:53
  - critical for for patients, for our health plans,
• 22:55
  - even our business growth.
• 22:57
  - And at one point that Ashish,
• 23:00
  - nailed is in its design to support
• 23:04
  - and enable our human
• 23:05
  - in home benefit management specialists.
• 23:09
  - Because over the years,
• 23:11
  - what we've developed is deep deep deep specialization
• 23:15
  - whether it's by service line
• 23:17
  - whether it's by
• 23:19
  - patient population
• 23:21
  - examples private duty nursing
• 23:24
  - for children that have severe conditions and needs
• 23:27
  - in the home
• 23:28
  - or long term care,
• 23:30
  - patient care supports,
• 23:32
  - particularly for the managed Medicaid population.
• 23:35
  - And so the digital workforce is not just
• 23:38
  - intended to to help things become easier and
• 23:41
  - more efficient,
• 23:43
  - but it's also helped, to get the most
• 23:45
  - out of our deep specialization,
• 23:48
  - for our team members.
• 23:50
  - And it's the combination that we believe,
• 23:53
  - that is gonna help accelerate us towards unlocking
• 23:56
  - the full potential of care,
• 23:58
  - in the home,
• 23:59
  - as well as as we continue to grow
• 24:01
  - rapidly,
• 24:02
  - enables the scalability.
• 24:04
  - It enables scalability with great repeatability
• 24:07
  - of the experience for the patient, for the
• 24:10
  - providers, for the physicians,
• 24:12
  - and the results and the commitments that we
• 24:13
  - make to our health plan partners.
• 24:18
  - That's awesome to hear. Now,
• 24:21
  - last question I have here today is for
• 24:23
  - you, Ashish. As you step into the chief
• 24:25
  - product and technology officer role, what are your
• 24:28
  - priorities for driving the com combined platform forward
• 24:31
  - over the next twelve to eighteen months?
• 24:34
  - That's a it's a great question. I think,
• 24:36
  - you know, a lot of what Chris has
• 24:38
  - shared here,
• 24:40
  - are are really our priorities.
• 24:42
  - The I think we share a vision. We're
• 24:45
  - definitely aligned on mission and values.
• 24:47
  - I I think our
• 24:49
  - my number one priority is to support the
• 24:51
  - business and making
• 24:54
  - Care at Home easy, efficient, and integrated.
• 24:57
  - And, you know, you can walk out of
• 25:00
  - your home and stop anyone on the street,
• 25:02
  - and they're typically dealing with some sort of,
• 25:05
  - either themselves or somebody that they know is
• 25:07
  - dealing with some level of care in the
• 25:09
  - home.
• 25:10
  - And, you know, our experience has been it's
• 25:12
  - never just one service. It's somebody who's had
• 25:15
  - physical therapy or skilled nursing in the home,
• 25:17
  - perhaps a personal care attendant,
• 25:19
  - maybe needs to coordinate,
• 25:21
  - with the DME technician that's dropping off the
• 25:23
  - oxygen or some other type of medical equipment
• 25:26
  - at home. Unfortunately, those things often work,
• 25:29
  - in silos and independent, and that just increases
• 25:32
  - the burden on the patient family
• 25:34
  - experience. And so our
• 25:36
  - our overwhelming priority
• 25:38
  - is to make this easy, efficient, and integrated.
• 25:42
  - And we think that there's a lot of
• 25:43
  - runway ahead of us to do that at
• 25:45
  - an exceptional level,
• 25:47
  - in terms of national scale.
• 25:49
  - As as Chris mentioned, in order to do
• 25:51
  - that, we're really going to be prioritizing
• 25:54
  - where the
• 25:55
  - most
• 25:56
  - logical and responsible ways to deploy AI.
• 26:00
  - We will be very focused on repeatability.
• 26:03
  - We will be very focused on meeting our
• 26:05
  - customers where they are on that journey, whether
• 26:07
  - that's leveraging a lot of their internal capabilities
• 26:10
  - and tapping into our technology
• 26:12
  - and or being their full service partner on
• 26:14
  - a fully delegated model where we can take
• 26:17
  - over that capability area,
• 26:19
  - while they focus on other priorities inside of
• 26:21
  - their organization.
• 26:24
  - You know, our our mission here is to
• 26:26
  - really execute that playbook. And,
• 26:28
  - again, we're we're thrilled to be teamed with
• 26:30
  - integrated on this journey.
• 26:35
  - Fantastic.
• 26:36
  - Ashish, Chris, thank you so much for joining
• 26:38
  - us on the podcast today. This has been
• 26:40
  - a a really amazing conversation. I appreciate you
• 26:43
  - being so candid and going in-depth into where
• 26:45
  - you're headed and look forward to staying connected
• 26:47
  - in the future.
• 26:49
  - Likewise. Thank thanks for the time.
• 26:51
  - Thanks, Laura.