Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Roger Mitty, MD, MBA, President of Care New England Medical Group

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Roger Mitty, MD, MBA, President of Care New England Medical Group · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
• 0:05
  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
• 0:08
  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
• 0:11
  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
• 0:14
  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
• 0:17
  - And it's why the most effective c suite
• 0:19
  - leaders are deliberate about where do they go
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  - to pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  - podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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  - doctor Roger Mitty, president of Care New England
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  - Medical Group. Doctor Mitty, it's a pleasure to
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  - have you on the podcast
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  - today. It's great to be here. Thank you
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  - for having me, Laura.
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  - Absolutely. Now I'm excited to dig into our
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  - conversation. I know there's some really cool things
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  - you're doing at Care New England that we'll
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  - talk about as well as how you're preparing
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  - for the future. But before we do, can
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  - you tell us a little bit more about
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  - yourself and your background?
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  - Sure. I I'm a gastroenterologist
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  - by training. And, you know, if you ask
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  - me thirty years ago what I would be
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  - doing, it would be out scoping and doing
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  - endoscopy because I loved it. And
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  - I,
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  - as I moved along my career, I got
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  - very interested in the sort of business and
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  - administrative side of medicine. I was with,
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  - Steward Healthcare,
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  - for many years as Steward grew
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  - and was running their medical group nationally
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  - and stopped practicing
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  - as I got busy on the administrative side.
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  - And,
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  - you know, I've been at Care New England
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  - for about three and a half years as
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  - as things were obviously changing at Stewart and
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  - was so excited to be able to be
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  - located near my family,
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  - in the New England area. So I've been,
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  - enjoying my time at Care New England.
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  - Oh, that's great to hear and really fantastic,
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  - to be part of, you know, that and
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  - and continue to grow and develop, on the
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  - administrative side of health care. Now could you
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  - give us a quick state of the union
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  - for, Carenew England Medical Group, what it has
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  - gone well this year, and what you focused
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  - on for the rest of 2026?
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  - Sure. No. That's great. And and,
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  - you know, there is so much evolving in
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  - health care as as I think, you know,
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  - everyone knows. We've
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  - been very, very focused on our ambulatory strategy,
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  - you know, as part of what we're doing
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  - with the larger health system Care New England.
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  - We just opened a
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  - 45,000
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  - square foot
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  - patient center medical home style practice that's a
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  - multi specialty practice
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  - and the first of a few that we're
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  - planning to do over the next five years.
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  - We're also breaking ground on an ambulatory surgery
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  - center,
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  - which is going to be,
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  - partially physician owned. And we think that's a
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  - great way to keep physicians tethered with the
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  - health system by giving them an ownership opportunity,
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  - in something like an ambulatory surgery center. Then
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  - finally, we're gonna build another ambulatory building adjacent
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  - to, you know, Kent Hospital or Med Surg
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  - Hospital. So
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  - really driving that ambulatory platform
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  - is a focus for us. The other one,
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  - I think, like for everyone is
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  - figuring out how we can do a better
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  - job in position satisfaction
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  - and position retention.
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  - You know, again, competitive environment in the position
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  - workforce marketplace.
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  - And, you know, we've done things like we've
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  - provided, ambient listening technology now, prediction for all
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  - of our clinicians within Care New England, including
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  - some of our nursing staff.
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  - We're rolling out some AI enabled inbox management
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  - tools.
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  - And finally, you know, doing other things like
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  - leveraging AI and some of our practices,
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  - agentic,
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  - AI phone answering,
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  - we're rolling out in some of our practices.
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  - So
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  - trying to reduce workload
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  - and and stay at the forefront of the
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  - inventory footprint is is sort of what we're
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  - concentrating on right now. That
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  - That makes a lot of sense. And, you
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  - know, to your point, I know ambulatory has
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  - been,
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  - available and, obviously, growing over the last few
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  - years, but it seems like really exploding in
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  - terms of the strategy for broader health systems
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  - in the last,
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  - several months or so. And so when you
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  - look at, where ambulatory is headed and then
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  - to, how you're bringing in AI,
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  - and and agentic AI into the broader workflows
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  - and organization,
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  - what type of, you know, investment and change
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  - management does that take for you and your
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  - teams as you're,
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  - you know, kind of transforming the way that
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  - health care is, delivered and and thought about?
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  - You know, it's funny. I think that
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  - if you look at twenty years ago,
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  - the change management was all around introducing the
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  - EHR.
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  - And that required a lot of work, to
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  - get folks to be comfortable using the EHR.
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  - So I'd look at this as sort of
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  - the second phase of,
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  - alright, you're comfortable using an EHR.
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  - Now how do you integrate these new AI
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  - tools? And,
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  - you know, like everything else in health care,
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  - and this is so common around physicians,
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  - people get used to using tools
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  - that they are comfortable using
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  - and you ask them to change and it's
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  - like asking someone to give up their favorite
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  - sweatshirt. They they don't wanna do it.
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  - So there is some change management, but I
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  - think the tools are so powerful and so
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  - effective that, you know, with adequate training and
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  - adequate time to adopt, it's it's actually been
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  - very successful.
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  - That's great to hear and, you know, really,
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  - can make a huge difference, I know, for
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  - the clinicians as well as,
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  - patient care. So that's exciting.
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  - What are some of the big headwinds that
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  - you are have your eye on and are
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  - preparing for today?
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  - You know, certainly,
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  - physician
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  - reimbursement is a challenge. And again, that's not
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  - unique to
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  - to anyone. And I think if you probably
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  - asked
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  - people from all 50 states, they would say
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  - that their state's the worst in terms of
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  - physician
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  - reimbursement. And, and, you know, Rhode Island is
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  - no exception. We feel very
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  - challenged with physician
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  - and truthfully hospital reimbursement too.
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  - You know, I mentioned briefly before the physician
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  - workforce and
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  - there is a physician workforce shortage throughout the
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  - country and it's a supply and demand thing.
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  - So being able to adequately
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  - pay clinicians to recruit them to
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  - Rhode Island has been a challenge and it's
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  - certainly a headwind and, you know, as our
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  - labor costs in general.
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  - The other thing that I think has a
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  - lot of us concerned
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  - is,
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  - HR one, the big beautiful bill. And I
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  - think, you know, Rhode Island is a very
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  - heavy Medicaid state. About 30% of our patients
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  - are on Medicaid in some form.
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  - So we're very, very concerned about what the
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  - impact of HR one's gonna be.
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  - And finally, we we still are spending a
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  - lot of time sort of navigating the state
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  - of risk contracts,
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  - where they're going and and how much of
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  - a, you know, how much of a a
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  - barrier still there is to truly
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  - implement risk contracts successfully across the health system.
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  - So those are some big headwinds that we're
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  - dealing with right now.
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  - Yeah. Absolutely. And some like you said, you
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  - know, really big challenges and issues. And I
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  - think especially,
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  - you know, all hospitals and systems across the
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  - country are
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  - making those preparations for next year when HR
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  - one, and some of the different things that
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  - are happening with Medicaid,
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  - truly go into effect.
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  - When you're planning with your teams around just
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  - what that will mean for access to care
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  - for the broader communities and as well as,
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  - you know, financially for the organization,
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  - What are some of the things you anticipate
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  - might be done differently, or or how are
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  - you thinking about navigating through some of that,
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  - in kind of meeting some of those challenges
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  - ahead?
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  - You know, I think that,
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  - you know, the the baseline
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  - expectation
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  - and, you know, my expectation both as a
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  - physician as, you know, a health system leader
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  - is we've got to take care of the
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  - community. And
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  - so,
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  - you know, again, I think it's working closely
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  - with, you know, both at the state and
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  - the federal level to understand, are there other
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  - funding streams that are available to take care
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  - of these patients who may now
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  - not have any insurance at all.
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  - And then, you know, again, making sure that
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  - we're being, you know, appropriate stewards of our
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  - operations. Are we,
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  - you know, we're spending money correctly.
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  - And I, you know, again,
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  - end of the day, we've got expenses that
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  - are part of doing business, and we've got
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  - to figure out a way to meet them.
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  - So I think it's, you know, a lot
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  - of federal state advocacy to understand how we
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  - can meet those funding needs.
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  - Right. Absolutely. That makes a ton of sense.
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  - You know, takes a variety of people across
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  - the, you know, the spectrum of stakeholders who
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  - really can have an influence and make a
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  - difference on on somebody's policies and then, continuing
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  - to, as you said, keeping that patient in
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  - the community care front and center, is so
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  - critical. So I I appreciate that a ton.
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  - And, you know, when you're looking at the
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  - next couple of years as well, what are
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  - some of the opportunities for growth that you're
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  - seeing?
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  - I
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  - I really am optimistic that there is opportunities
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  - for growth.
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  - And I think, you know, some of the
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  - way
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  - you affect growth is to understand, you know,
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  - at at a health system or even at
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  - a hospital level,
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  - what do you wanna grow and what don't
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  - you wanna grow?
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  - And, you know, that sounds like a fairly
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  - basic concept, but it but it's not. And,
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  - you know, I think
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  - our,
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  - yeah, our three hospitals are all very different.
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  - And I'll take our basic,
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  - you know, our med surg hospital, which is
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  - Kent Hospital,
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  - understanding what we wanna do at Kent Hospital.
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  - We do a lot of complex cardiology procedures,
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  - but we don't do open heart surgery.
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  - And so understanding
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  - that we wanna be really good at what
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  - we do,
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  - complex cardiac surgery,
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  - certain types of of abdominal surgery that we
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  - weren't doing years ago, but also making sure
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  - that we've got effective partnerships
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  - to serve our patients in the areas that
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  - we're not gonna do at that hospital. So
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  - I think
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  - growing what we wanna grow
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  - at the community level, but making sure that
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  - we've got effective partnerships
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  - to take care of those things that we're
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  - not gonna do locally. And again, that's part
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  - of the size of our health system, which
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  - is not a huge one.
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  - You know, other opportunities to grow. Again, we
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  - already talked about the ambulatory footprint. That is
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  - gonna be a a big part of our
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  - growth.
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  - We've got a, you know, world class women's
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  - hospital, one of the largest in the region,
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  - and a world class behavioral health hospital.
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  - Leveraging
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  - the strength of those organizations
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  - at a regional and even national level is
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  - another thing to look at.
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  - You know, how do we take our superb
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  - behavioral health footprint and
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  - leverage it,
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  - through technology
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  - at a national level? So we're definitely looking
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  - at that as opportunities to grow. And then
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  - finally,
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  - you know, there's no lack of discussion
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  - about
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  - more care at home. So we've got a
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  - very robust hospital at home program,
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  - one of the largest in in New England.
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  - And,
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  - you know, how do we take care of
• 11:40
  - patients in settings other than the hospital?
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  - And so continue to grow hospital at home.
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  - We think that's a big area for growth.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - That makes a lot of sense. And, you
• 11:50
  - know, when you think about hospital at home,
• 11:53
  - it's just,
• 11:54
  - you know, it takes a different way of
• 11:57
  - looking at, like, what it means to bring
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  - health care to a person and resources and
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  - all those kinds of things. And so as
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  - you grow that program, what is exciting about
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  - it? What do you think will be possible
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  - in the next couple of years that isn't
• 12:08
  - today just as the technology resources and every
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  - way you do hospital home evolves?
• 12:14
  - Yeah. You know, the the technology thing is
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  - the key word here. And, you know, everyone
• 12:19
  - uses the term RPM, remote patient monitoring, and
• 12:23
  - that's a big
• 12:25
  - wastebasket term. Everything from people wearing, you know,
• 12:28
  - home glucose monitors that transmit data to a
• 12:31
  - central location to
• 12:33
  - home EKG monitors that send a live EKG
• 12:36
  - rhythm to a nurse monitoring,
• 12:40
  - a panel somewhere.
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  - So I think increased technology growth,
• 12:45
  - in that arena, including the use of AI
• 12:47
  - for some of the monitoring work will help
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  - us grow the hospital at home program even
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  - more.
• 12:53
  - I love it. That'll be fantastic.
• 12:56
  - Before we wrap up here, I'm curious. Who
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  - do you admire as a leader really from
• 12:59
  - any industry and why?
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  - Well, you know, I I'm certainly a a
• 13:06
  - nerd, and,
• 13:08
  - I've always been a an Apple computer fan.
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  - And I,
• 13:12
  - was very impressed with Tim Cook and his
• 13:15
  - leadership of Apple. And one of the reasons
• 13:18
  - is he walked into
• 13:19
  - the shoes of Steve Jobs and,
• 13:22
  - you know, continued Apple on their growth trajectory.
• 13:26
  - And he also knew when to say no
• 13:28
  - to things. So, you know, Apple was going
• 13:30
  - down the road developing their own car.
• 13:33
  - And clearly, it was not a project that
• 13:35
  - that made a lot of sense to what
• 13:37
  - their core business was. So that product was
• 13:40
  - stopped. So a leader who can say no
• 13:41
  - to things that don't make sense,
• 13:43
  - also really important. And finally,
• 13:45
  - you know, if you look at Apple, they've
• 13:47
  - got an ecosystem.
• 13:48
  - And,
• 13:49
  - you know,
• 13:51
  - their customers stay within their ecosystem because it
• 13:54
  - all works so well together. I think that's
• 13:56
  - actually a nice parallel to our health system
• 13:58
  - where patients will stay within
• 14:00
  - sorry.
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  - Patients will stay within
• 14:04
  - the health system if the health system works
• 14:06
  - well in an integrated fashion.
• 14:08
  - And so I think there's a parallel between
• 14:10
  - how well Apple works and how a clinically
• 14:13
  - integrated health system should work.
• 14:16
  - That's a fantastic point. I know it makes
• 14:18
  - such a big difference when you look at
• 14:20
  - the patient experience. And as that becomes more
• 14:22
  - sophisticated,
• 14:23
  - you know, you have to keep up in
• 14:25
  - order to keep them engaged within the organization.
• 14:27
  - So, that's amazing.
• 14:29
  - Doctor. Mitty, thank you so much for joining
• 14:31
  - us on the podcast today. This has been
• 14:32
  - a lot of fun, to talk to you
• 14:34
  - and look forward to seeing you as well,
• 14:36
  - in the future. I know you'll be speaking
• 14:38
  - one of our panels at the conferences
• 14:40
  - this fall. So excited about that.
• 14:42
  - It's my pleasure, Laura. Thank you so much
• 14:44
  - for having me.