Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Chris Wasel, President of Marketing & Strategic Partnerships at Vantage Healthcare

Transcript

Chris Wasel, President of Marketing & Strategic Partnerships at Vantage Healthcare · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
• 0:02
  I'm Mariah Muhammad, writer and moderator with Becker's
• 0:05
  Healthcare, and I'm thrilled to have with me
• 0:06
  today Chris Wassel, president of marketing and strategic
• 0:09
  partnerships at Advantage Healthcare. Chris, welcome to the
• 0:12
  podcast. We're very excited to have you, join
• 0:14
  us yet again.
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  To get us started, would you mind please
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  introducing yourself and telling us a bit about
• 0:19
  your background and or, organization?
• 0:23
  Yeah. Sure. Glad to be here. So,
• 0:25
  yes, again, my name is Chris Wassel. I'm
• 0:27
  the
• 0:28
  president of marketing and strategic partnerships for Vantage
• 0:32
  Healthcare.
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  Vantage is the largest physician practice of its
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  type in New England, providing services to
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  skilled nursing facilities
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  and assisted living communities.
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  My background, I have over twenty years experience
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  in health care operations,
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  development, value based payment consulting and network
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  development, and
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  technology
• 0:57
  development as well.
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  Prior to Vantage, I was co managing partner
• 1:02
  for post acute care planning services.
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  It was an organization that provided
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  post acute care management and consulting services to
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  ACOs
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  seeking to build
• 1:14
  and operate post acute care provider networks.
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  And I was also a cofounder of Accounticare,
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  an information technology company that
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  provides systems and services to physician practices
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  and various organizations
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  participating
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  in value based payment arrangements
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  around
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  the care of older
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  adult,
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  patient populations.
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  Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing that
• 1:42
  background with us. So, Chris, so what are
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  some of the biggest issues you're following in
• 1:46
  health care,
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  for 2025?
• 1:50
  Yeah. So 2025 is a busy year for
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  us, I'm sure, for a lot of other
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  organizations.
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  But at Vantage,
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  we're
• 2:00
  launching several
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  initiatives this year,
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  and there's really four initiatives that we're working
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  on
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  that are major undertakings for us this year.
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  So the first is,
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  we're participating
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  in a new
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  MSSP
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  ACO, sound physicians
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  ACO,
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  and that ACO so we're expanding our patient
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  population that we're covering. We in the past,
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  we participated in an ACO that
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  covered our skilled nursing facility patient population
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  and now we've added our assisted living population
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  to that. So we have well over 4,000
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  patients in the ACO. So that's
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  a big undertaking.
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  Secondly,
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  we are preparing
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  for
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  CMS'
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  new
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  model rollout, which is the team episode
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  model.
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  In our market,
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  most of the hospitals in the markets that
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  we serve
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  will be mandated to participate.
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  And so
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  given
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  we have an extensive network across
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  New England,
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  we're very well positioned to
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  help those hospitals,
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  manage those
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  episodes
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  as patients
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  mile the hospital on the post acute care
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  side.
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  So
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  we're targeting
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  those hospitals
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  to work with them in the coming year
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  on that initiative and also
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  working with other
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  network partners, home care agencies and
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  rehab groups
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  and such.
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  And then there's a couple of other CMS
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  programs that we're starting this year,
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  one being the
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  CMS Guide program, which is focused on
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  dementia patients and in our case, dementia patients
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  that reside
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  at home in assisted living communities.
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  So we have a partner that we're launching
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  that with,
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  so that's exciting as well. And then lastly,
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  CMS
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  in the last year announced
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  the new advanced primary care management
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  program,
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  which and, kind of replaces chronic care management,
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  which we
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  have launched on a limited basis. And so
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  we're going
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  to launch that this year as well
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  in both the skilled nursing facility and assisted
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  living
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  environment. So
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  with all that going on, I think
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  for us,
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  with any of these initiatives, but with so
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  many
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  going on this year,
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  I'd say our number one challenge is,
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  with all these programs is collaboration
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  with
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  our skilled nursing facility and assisted living partners
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  and home care groups and rehab groups, trying
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  to bring
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  all those stakeholders together,
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  bring them up to speed,
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  bring them on board,
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  and develop
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  and integrate with them. So it's a pretty
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  major undertaking.
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  So I think I feel really
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  I think we feel very comfortable
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  managing these different programs.
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  But again,
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  I think
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  the probably the thing that we are most
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  concerned about is making sure that
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  all of the rest of
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  key players and stakeholders
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  that we're able to
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  get them on board and all working,
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  you know, together
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  towards the same same goal. So it's a
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  it's a pretty,
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  you know, major challenge for us, but I'm
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  I'm sure we'll we'll get there.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Thank you so much for
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  giving us that that background. Is there anything
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  that you're,
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  seeing in the news or anything that you're
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  doing at Advantage Healthcare,
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  that's making you a little bit excited for
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  this year or anything that's making you nervous?
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  Yeah. I'd say so,
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  you know, for this this year, we're
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  we're excited about the greater acceptance and interest
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  in seeing in the senior living space around
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  value based care and CMS
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  programs.
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  In the past, a lot of the
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  most part, the ACOs
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  have focused on patients in the community, not
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  in long term care.
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  A lot of
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  the programs, whether
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  you talk about chronic care management and so
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  forth, were developed for
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  ambulatory care and patients, again, in the community.
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  But
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  now
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  we're launching those programs in
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  skilled nursing and assisted living. So we're excited
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  about that. But
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  that being said,
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  there are a few things that
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  do make us nervous.
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  And
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  so
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  stability with CMS
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  is important in the short term.
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  If there are any changes to these programs,
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  the time and effort that we are investing
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  will be
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  at risk. So again, we're
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  investing our time and resources in multiple programs
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  and there's
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  obviously with
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  potential
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  changes
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  at CMS and then obviously, there's a lot
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  going on
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  politically and so forth where
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  we have some concerns. So hopefully, things,
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  in the short term will remain stable
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  and then we'll continue to move forward as
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  we invest our time and effort into
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  launching these programs. So but it makes us
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  nervous.
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  In the long term,
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  we hope that CMS
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  can
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  begin to move from voluntary
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  and pilots to mandatory
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  programs and models
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  that are in place for the long term.
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  We
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  feel that there have been enough
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  there's been enough experimentation
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  around
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  various
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  value based payment initiatives and it's
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  really time to settle permanently on
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  payment models that will be
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  that will operate under going forward, so make
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  the full
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  shift from fee for service to value based
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  payment.
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  These models have been
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  different models have been
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  tried out and piloted
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  and such
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  now for almost fifteen years.
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  And so again, the stability is important.
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  Some of these models are put in place
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  and they run for five years and then
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  they sunset and
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  it would be from our perspective, it would
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  be
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  good to
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  settle in
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  on certain models and make that ship. So
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  it's a little concerning that
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  so it's unclear when that's going to happen.
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  So that makes us us a little bit
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  nervous too because it
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  just you just get concerned around further changes
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  in the future. Again,
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  I think all
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  us and
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  organizations
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  in this space
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  are looking for as much stability as possible.
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  So we know what the rules are that
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  we're operating under, so that
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  all the work that we're putting into this
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  really has
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  you know, we're able to run for the
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  long term.
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  Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Thank
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  you for sharing that. And, Chris, before I
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  let you go, the last thing I want
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  to ask you is, in your opinion, what
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  would the most effective health care leaders need
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  in order to be successful in the next
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  two to three years, do you think?
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  Yeah. I think I think the the thing
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  that will impact all of us the the
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  most,
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  and what I think healthcare leaders
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  really need to
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  focus
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  their attention on
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  is
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  this time into understanding how AI will impact
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  their organizations and how
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  the right strategy they can gain a competitive
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  advantage and avoid
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  falling behind. I think
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  this is
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  moving pretty fast.
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  I think
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  there may be some folks out there that
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  underestimate
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  how this is going to impact things
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  and may fall behind. And so I think
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  health care leaders really need
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  to get on board now,
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  invest more time in research and looking at
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  this and how it's going to impact their
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  organization
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  and again, how
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  as an
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  organization
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  we can,
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  really use this to
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  gain a competitive edge.
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  So I think that by far is
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  the number one thing that is out there
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  that we need to pay attention to.
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  Yeah. Definitely. I definitely agree there, and thank
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  you so much for those final thoughts. It's
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  definitely been very informative. So, again, I wanna
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  thank you so much for coming back on
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  Becker's HealthCare.
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  And I look forward to connecting with you
• 11:19
  again soon.
• 11:20
  Alright. Thank you. Thank you.