Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Advancing Value Based Care and the Future of Optum Health with Krista Nelson

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Advancing Value Based Care and the Future of Optum Health with Krista Nelson · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:02
This is where health insurance leadership comes together.
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Becker's fourth annual spring payer issues roundtable brings
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together over 400
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payer and health plan executives and more than
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100 speakers to Chicago April.
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This year's event includes keynote conversations with the
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industry's top leaders and former president George w
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Bush. For the full 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. We're looking forward to hosting you
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here in Chicago.
0:33
Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
0:36
Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
0:37
Thrilled today to be joined by a really
0:39
special guest. Krista Nelson serves as the CEO
0:43
of Optum Health. Krista, thank you so much
0:46
for taking the time to be with me
0:47
on the podcast today. Well, thank you, Jacob,
0:50
for having me. It's great to be here.
0:52
Absolutely. It's a pleasure to get to talk
0:53
with you, Krista. And before we dive into
0:55
everything we wanna talk with you about today
0:57
and all the special work going on under
0:59
your leadership at Optum Health, can you first
1:02
fill in our audience on,
1:04
your health care career background and what it
1:07
is that you do today at Optum Health?
1:10
Of course. So,
1:12
today at Optum Health, I I lead the
1:14
organization. And prior to this role, I was
1:17
the chief operating officer for Optum Health.
1:20
And really before that, I have a broad
1:23
background in health care
1:25
both on the,
1:27
Optum side in our, you know, data analytics
1:31
and consulting organization,
1:33
but also,
1:34
extensive background on the payer side at UnitedHealthcare,
1:38
leading operations,
1:40
in our Medicare business, and then also,
1:43
leading our Medicaid and duals business
1:46
as well as operations on the UnitedHealthcare
1:49
side.
1:50
But I'm, you know, delighted to be
1:52
in, this role and really honored to be
1:55
leading this organization
1:57
through what is a, really incredible time in
1:59
health care.
2:00
Absolutely. So you've been with the broader company
2:03
for a long time now and serving in
2:05
different divisions of UnitedHealth and Optum.
2:08
And now you've stepped into this role leading
2:10
Optum Health during, as you know, a really
2:13
important period, a strategic shift
2:16
for this part of the company overall,
2:19
moving from rapid network expansion toward a more
2:22
focused direct employment model. We heard from Optum
2:26
CEO publicly,
2:28
last year talking a little bit about,
2:31
how how in the past, the the company's
2:34
rapid expansion maybe didn't align with clinically oriented
2:38
value based models.
2:39
So
2:41
given all of that, what's your vision now
2:43
moving forward for what Optum Health looks like
2:46
on the other side of this major transition?
2:50
Yeah. You know, when I joined Optum Health,
2:52
we, you know, we quickly assessed
2:55
the business and the capabilities
2:57
and and our contracts
2:59
and our, you know, our work with our
3:01
payer partners.
3:02
And it was, you know, clear right away
3:04
that we needed to make the
3:06
necessary shift
3:08
to your point, you know, moving from what
3:10
was really a rapid period of expansion and
3:12
growth just back towards our core model.
3:16
You know, before I answer your question on
3:18
our vision,
3:19
I just I thought I would share just
3:20
three things that,
3:22
really stood out to me from the very
3:24
beginning. Please.
3:27
You know, first and foremost is
3:29
we have just incredible capabilities inside OptumHealth. You
3:33
know, our primary and specialty care, behavioral health
3:37
care,
3:38
home health, hospice,
3:40
palliative care, as well as surgery centers.
3:44
You know, we care for people in clinic
3:46
as well as in their homes and in
3:47
their community,
3:49
and we still also support,
3:51
you know, transitions of care.
3:53
And, you know, our model is anchored in
3:56
primary care. And when we employ
3:59
and deeply partner
4:01
across these various service lines
4:03
with an aligned payment model, you know, our
4:06
value based care model delivers superior outcomes
4:10
at a lower total cost of care
4:13
while we see improved patient experiences
4:16
and provider satisfaction.
4:19
And, you know, maybe just give one example.
4:21
One of our markets, Houston,
4:23
where we serve
4:25
almost a million patients
4:27
across more than 50 different clinical settings.
4:30
We offer that full suite of services that
4:32
I mentioned, you know, primary care, labs, imaging,
4:36
specialty care, surgery,
4:38
care coordination.
4:40
You know, in this market, we have a
4:41
four and a half star health plan,
4:44
total cost of care that is 15 to
4:47
30% lower than the alternative,
4:50
patient satisfaction scores
4:52
in the nineties,
4:54
and
4:55
really low provider turnover.
4:57
So, you know, again, first, it's just this
4:59
incredible
5:00
set of capabilities inside Optum Health. You know,
5:03
second thing I wanna call out is just
5:05
well, we have a number of really
5:07
strong
5:08
examples like I just mentioned, like Houston.
5:11
You know, we have seen and we've discussed
5:13
this publicly. There's we do have some variation
5:16
in our performance across our markets.
5:18
And, you know, whether it's attributed to some
5:20
of the funding headwinds from b twenty eight
5:23
or, you know, consistently
5:24
elevated medical trends
5:26
and really just that significant growth in our
5:29
risk membership.
5:31
You know, our operating performance is, you know,
5:33
is inconsistent
5:34
across employed and contracted providers.
5:37
It's also, you know, we have some opportunity
5:39
in our current contracts with our payer partners,
5:42
and with our network providers. And so that
5:44
is really
5:45
creating a lot of opportunity
5:47
for us.
5:48
And, you know, the third thing I would
5:50
just say is
5:52
the culture,
5:53
the mission, the passion
5:56
for value based care
5:59
is still,
6:00
you know, alive and well and just really
6:02
deeply rooted in the organization. So those three
6:05
things are really incredible signals
6:08
that, you know, have helped me think about
6:10
kinda what could the other side of this
6:11
look like.
6:12
And I guess to answer your question now,
6:16
you know,
6:17
you should expect Optum Health,
6:20
you know, on the other side of this,
6:21
to really more consistently
6:23
deliver
6:24
market leading integrated value based care.
6:28
A system that is anchored with our employed
6:31
groups,
6:32
but with the help of technology
6:35
and, you know, operational improvements,
6:38
more scale,
6:39
and a more tightly managed network to help,
6:43
enhance that scale.
6:45
So we will have a much stronger base
6:47
to grow on whether that's in our existing
6:50
markets
6:51
or in new service lines
6:53
and in new markets.
6:55
And, you know, what does that mean?
6:58
You know, what does that mean for patients?
6:59
It means
7:01
improved health status and quality of life.
7:04
You know, for example, today, even with those
7:07
challenges I mentioned that we're navigating,
7:10
our Medicare Advantage patients
7:12
served by our model have,
7:14
you know, twenty one percent fewer hospitalization
7:17
admissions overall.
7:19
You know, our patient outcomes
7:21
improve
7:22
and care coordination increases
7:25
and really patients
7:27
should continue to expect
7:29
a high quality experience when they come to
7:31
Optum Health.
7:33
For clinicians and care teams that that work
7:36
here and and partner with us,
7:38
it means we'll have more technology enabled
7:41
improved
7:42
workflows
7:43
that are focused deeply on reducing administrative burden.
7:48
We talk a lot about reducing pajama time,
7:50
improving
7:51
the consistency
7:53
in our clinical excellence and our clinical workflows.
7:56
And then, you know, last, I would just
7:58
say for payers and and health system partners,
8:01
you know, more reliable,
8:03
execution,
8:04
deeper
8:05
reach in our existing markets,
8:08
so we can serve more patients across more
8:10
service lines
8:12
and continue to ex execute,
8:15
really the promise of value based care and
8:18
the outcomes that we continue to generate.
8:22
Understood. So, really,
8:24
building on and improving that base to deliver
8:26
more market leading care, that's your vision for
8:29
the other side of this, Christa. And, of
8:31
course, you know, as you know, at the
8:32
center of that is your clinicians, and you
8:35
mentioned just the the incredible,
8:37
abilities of OptumHealth all over the country with
8:40
primary and specialty care, home health, palliative, surgery
8:43
centers, behavioral.
8:45
So
8:46
as the company evolves,
8:48
how are you working to intentionally improve that
8:51
clinician experience? And I know you just touched
8:53
on that a bit, but how are you
8:54
actually on the ground enabling those care teams
8:57
so that they can practice at the top
8:58
of their licenses
8:59
and then ultimately ensure that they feel heard
9:02
and aligned with,
9:04
this massive organization
9:05
across
9:06
markets, individual markets all over the country?
9:10
Yeah. For me, this
9:12
is critically important
9:14
and, you know, improving
9:16
the clinician experience for me starts with listening,
9:20
listening to our clinical teams,
9:22
observing,
9:23
the workflow, the experience,
9:26
and really ensuring that we design our system
9:29
that supports
9:31
how they practice value based care and their
9:34
needs,
9:35
you know, relieving burden,
9:36
like I mentioned, kind of making it easier
9:39
for them to practice that model. And, you
9:41
know, in addition to listening to our clinicians,
9:44
I would also say it's deeply important to
9:46
listen and understand
9:48
how, you know, advanced technology and how rapidly
9:51
technology
9:52
is is changing and making sure we're taking
9:54
advantage of of modernized technology to enable
9:58
that clinician experience.
10:00
But there are other you know, there are
10:01
three other things that come to mind.
10:03
The, you know, the first is,
10:06
what's important to us here is really strong
10:08
dyad models.
10:10
So our physician leaders
10:12
and our operating
10:14
leaders and partners,
10:15
you know, being aligned
10:17
and leading the change really together,
10:21
across our markets
10:23
to make sure we're advancing our models.
10:26
And that dyad partnership at the top of
10:28
the organization
10:29
all the way through the organization at the
10:31
local care delivery level is critically important to
10:35
to enabling
10:37
our care teams to be practicing at the
10:39
top of your license like you mentioned.
10:41
You know, the second thing is
10:43
having strong engineering and product teams
10:47
paired with our dyads,
10:49
to build technology solutions and workflow capabilities that
10:52
actually work and to do that,
10:55
with speed.
10:56
Today, we have,
10:58
you know, really good relationships and partnerships with
11:01
our Optum Insight partners.
11:03
And we've done a lot of intentional work
11:05
to, again, make sure that our engineering and
11:07
product teams are really, you know, colocated
11:11
with our strong dyad partners. Again, so that
11:14
we're we're listening, we're learning, we're actively adapting,
11:16
and we're deploying
11:18
capabilities faster,
11:20
at the market level to get that real
11:21
time feedback and scaling
11:24
quickly.
11:25
And that that really is part of,
11:27
some of what we're doing to improve our
11:29
operating performance is is making some of those,
11:32
scaled improvements happen faster
11:34
across our practices and across our our delivery
11:37
service lines.
11:40
And then third,
11:42
we we just continue
11:44
to remain deeply committed to value based care,
11:48
and that is at the core of our
11:50
mission,
11:51
our purpose,
11:53
and our why.
11:54
And I think to have a really good,
11:57
clinician experience,
11:59
we need to stay rooted in that that
12:02
core, which is really why we exist. You
12:04
know, our clinicians and our care teams are
12:06
passionate passionate about value based care.
12:08
It allows them to deliver holistic care.
12:12
It allows them to spend time with our
12:14
patients
12:15
to avoid
12:17
chronic disease.
12:18
Instead of, you know, rushing through high patient
12:20
volumes, I mean, they they they came and
12:23
they're choosing value based care because it reduces
12:25
burnout and stress and allows them,
12:28
to practice medicine the way they they wanna
12:30
practice it. And so, you know, while we
12:33
stay focused on operational improvements,
12:36
we are certainly not losing sight of why
12:38
we exist,
12:40
in the environment that attracted
12:42
physicians and incredible care teams to work here
12:45
and keeping that core to everything we do,
12:47
you know, to make sure we're bringing value
12:49
based care
12:51
at scale with the appropriate outcomes,
12:54
cost management, and an improved patient and provider
12:57
experience each and every single day.
13:00
Absolutely. It's very clear that you see value
13:03
based care as as core,
13:04
as a core model to continue moving towards
13:07
improving,
13:08
certainly not straying away from that as your
13:10
core mission, Christa. And and you mentioned
13:12
Medicare Advantage there in your in your last
13:14
answer. And I wonder if we're talking a
13:16
little bit about what's going on in the
13:17
industry more broadly,
13:20
of course, c CMS put out their proposed
13:23
rates for for Medicare Advantage for next year,
13:28
basically flat funding overall for the program if
13:32
if that proposal
13:33
stands.
13:34
And the federal government received record comments from
13:38
the industry this year about that proposed rates.
13:42
And then it comes as a time, as
13:43
you know, where utilization is up, care costs
13:46
are up for for caring for seniors.
13:48
So everybody is talking about this. You'd be
13:51
hard pressed to find, an insurer that is,
13:54
satisfied with the proposal.
13:56
So from from your perspective and and giving
13:58
your your expertise,
14:00
because of your long career in this industry,
14:02
can you talk to us a little bit
14:04
about how stability in Medicare Advantage policy and
14:08
in funding,
14:09
going beyond the payer perspective and how that
14:11
enables providers like yourself to invest in better
14:15
care models
14:16
and and then ultimately, of course, delivering better
14:18
outcomes and experiences
14:20
over time for for seniors.
14:23
Yeah. This is it's an important topic.
14:26
And,
14:27
you know, I think just to reiterate where
14:28
you started, you know, our deep conviction,
14:32
and belief in value based care being the
14:35
right path forward.
14:37
Maybe I'll just unpack that for for a
14:39
moment and then, definitely wanna get to, you
14:41
know, the question around, you know, the the
14:44
advanced rate notice.
14:46
You know, I think, again, we've continued to
14:49
reiterate this, but I think it's just incredibly
14:51
important to to remember that a major contributor
14:55
to high costs and low value care in
14:57
The US is this
14:59
current systems, you know, reliance on fee for
15:01
service payment models, which
15:03
reward for volume of products and services consumed.
15:07
You know, it's a system that's really built
15:09
on the intensity of treating people when they're
15:11
sick rather than one that's focused
15:13
on proactively keeping people healthy and and keeping
15:16
them cared for.
15:18
And I I mentioned,
15:19
you know, some of the outcomes.
15:22
You know, today, our Medicare Advantage patients served
15:25
by value based care models
15:27
have twenty one percent fewer hospitalization
15:30
admissions overall.
15:32
And those numbers actually grow,
15:35
for members with certain conditions. So for example,
15:38
members with hypertension, it's, you know, thirty five
15:41
percent reduction in hospital admissions and,
15:44
forty four percent reduction in, hospital admissions for
15:47
those with COPD and and asthma and other
15:50
acute and chronic conditions. So
15:52
so,
15:53
you know, we we have
15:55
the data,
15:56
and the support to support value based care
15:59
and why it's it's really needed now more
16:01
than ever.
16:02
And and as we think about the, you
16:04
know, advanced rate notice,
16:07
and what's, you know, kind of just sparked,
16:09
you know, significant discussion
16:11
is, you know, bottom line when
16:14
when there's
16:16
rate pressure and lack of rate stability, it
16:19
does squeeze funding,
16:21
which does, you know, unfortunately, impact value based
16:24
care.
16:25
We've seen that with,
16:27
the changes with, you know, v '28. We've
16:29
seen that with
16:31
the growth rate maybe not keeping up with
16:33
medical cost trends and and that cost trend,
16:36
you know, impacting
16:38
value based care. And and frankly,
16:40
it also,
16:41
you know, payers
16:43
respond in that environment. And and while we're
16:45
all focused on reducing administrative cost and waste
16:48
in the system,
16:50
you know, unfortunately, some of those rate cuts
16:52
do result in,
16:53
benefit
16:54
cuts for seniors.
16:56
And then it also results in
16:59
in in some cases mispricing,
17:01
which that has been a effect of what's
17:03
happened in value based care. And for us
17:05
in particular,
17:06
you know, that mispricing kind of does impact
17:10
downstream value based care providers like us. And
17:12
so, you know, we just believe in stability
17:15
and Medicare Advantage
17:16
funding because we continue to see,
17:19
the outcomes are better, the quality is better,
17:22
the costs are lower, you have more benefits
17:26
inside Medicare Advantage
17:28
than compared to,
17:30
you know, Medicare Supplement or Medicare fee for
17:32
service.
17:34
And,
17:35
and I think the last thing I would
17:36
say is when that funding is not stable,
17:39
what happens is then we are gonna need
17:40
to make, you know, choices in how we
17:43
manage that that cost environment and that cost
17:45
reduction. So,
17:46
you know, I mentioned benefit cuts for seniors,
17:49
but it also means maybe less time spent
17:51
on preventive care or it means us having
17:54
to think about trade offs with,
17:56
wraparound services or
17:58
investments we make in in care teams and
18:01
care coordination.
18:03
And what happens then is, you know, patients
18:05
may end up in the ER or getting
18:07
fewer preventive screenings or things of that nature.
18:09
And so, you know, we're advocating strongly on
18:13
behalf of our patients,
18:15
on behalf of our providers,
18:16
and in partnership with our payer partners to
18:18
ensure
18:19
that we can continue to advance and scale
18:22
the value of value based care,
18:25
because we again, we believe that it is,
18:29
the right approach
18:30
to,
18:32
reward a system and and really incent a
18:34
system to focus more on on preventive holistic
18:37
care
18:38
for Americans.
18:40
Certainly. And to your point, Krista, I mean,
18:42
we've already heard from industry groups, from individual
18:44
insurers about what this this advance rate notice,
18:48
what it would mean for benefits for seniors
18:50
down the line,
18:51
if it if it becomes reality as as
18:54
currently proposed. So,
18:56
it will be fascinating to see what happens
18:58
there, but I I and I know that's
18:59
something we could talk about during this entire
19:01
conversation, Medicare Advantage alone. But I wanna also
19:04
make sure to ask you a little bit
19:06
about AI. I know it squeezes its way
19:07
into every conversation right now.
19:10
But but we've been hearing from UnitedHealth more
19:12
broadly
19:13
about how much work the company and investment
19:16
the company is making into this technology.
19:19
We we heard about how the company has
19:21
deployed more than 2,000
19:23
engineers
19:24
into AI initiatives and integrated over a thousand
19:27
AI use cases across the broader business.
19:31
So where you
19:33
in in the part of the company that
19:34
you lead, where you already seen AI,
19:37
technology more broadly,
19:39
meaningfully reduce
19:41
burden or or improve the experience overall for
19:44
for for your patients, for your care teams,
19:47
on the ground? What is that looking like?
19:51
Yeah. There's really there's so much opportunity here,
19:54
and I'm, we remain deeply committed and really
19:57
excited about what AI can do to,
20:00
again, reduce administrative burden, kind of reduce, you
20:03
know, waste in the system, and really enable
20:05
our care teams to operate at the top
20:07
of their license. And also really create more,
20:09
you know, access for people so they can
20:11
they can focus on care and not, not
20:14
as much on the, you know, whether it's,
20:16
like, the documentation side or the summarization side.
20:19
So a couple of examples that are that
20:22
are already live on our end.
20:25
First is, you know, just ambient scribing, which
20:27
allows
20:28
clinicians to really focus more on that face
20:30
to face conversation
20:32
with their patient and, you know, that scribe,
20:35
you know, really taking all the notes,
20:38
and allowing physicians again to focus on their
20:40
patient and really just kind of review and
20:42
approve the notes at the end of the
20:43
day so they're not, you know, face down
20:45
in a computer
20:46
or having to work on notes,
20:49
in their pajamas at home later at the
20:51
end of the day. That's just, you know,
20:52
one example.
20:53
Another is,
20:55
you know, beyond that documentation,
20:57
using technology to really kind of summarize
21:00
care.
21:01
So kind of pull different, you know, medical
21:04
records, charts, claims,
21:07
labs,
21:08
history,
21:08
information,
21:10
that the patients are sending us in advance
21:12
their appointment, kind of pull all that together
21:14
to help care teams,
21:16
be more prepared for the visit
21:18
and have a kind of a prioritized set
21:20
of of things that they wanna make sure
21:22
they're addressing with the patient in addition to
21:24
listening to what the patient needs are. You
21:26
know, that's one. And third, a way in
21:28
which that comes to life not just in
21:30
a clinical setting,
21:31
but,
21:32
as you know, we have a number of
21:33
nurses
21:34
that do home health visits.
21:37
And,
21:38
we use that same kind of summarization tool
21:41
to help our nurses that are, you know,
21:43
driving to patients' homes
21:45
by allowing them to have this summary and,
21:47
like, an easy to listen to audio summary.
21:50
So, again, they get to know their patients,
21:52
they get to digest that history,
21:54
on their way to the visit. So they're
21:56
not having to spend as much time kind
21:57
of redoing all that history, but instead validating
22:00
it and focusing more on the patient needs
22:02
in front of them. And I would just
22:03
say these are, you know, three
22:05
very simple examples, but the opportunity
22:08
is is truly vast. We are
22:10
absolutely
22:11
investing dollars and resources and, you know, putting
22:13
teams deployed to these exact same things.
22:16
I go back to what I said in
22:17
the beginning, which is,
22:18
really starting with listening to our clinicians
22:21
and starting with what they need to improve
22:24
patient care and patient outcomes and always making
22:26
sure that, you know, they're operating at the
22:28
top of their license.
22:30
One other thing I just wanna mention here,
22:32
which is really important to us is while
22:34
AI,
22:36
will be able to do a lot in
22:37
health care, I think there's something really critically
22:40
important in health care, which is kind of
22:41
humanity and empathy and care.
22:44
And that's something
22:45
that, you know, AI isn't replacing
22:48
yet,
22:49
and may not. And that's where our clinicians
22:51
and care teams
22:53
being able to practice medicine,
22:55
enjoying their work environment,
22:57
focus on value based care,
22:59
bring you know, being able to bring that
23:00
empathy,
23:02
into every one of our our visits and
23:04
our experiences with our patients is always going
23:07
to remain critically important.
23:09
Understood. So it really sounds like at the
23:10
core of these investments, you wanna make sure
23:13
that you're enabling and better supporting that that
23:16
human,
23:17
to patient to to clinician connection.
23:20
Krista, before we go today, you know, we
23:23
we've talked a lot about,
23:25
the pivotal time for Optum Health, what's going
23:28
on in the industry more broadly,
23:31
and then your your conviction that value based
23:34
care, that that strategy is the correct one
23:37
moving forward.
23:39
Has anything surprised you so far in in
23:42
your role? I know you've you're coming up
23:43
on just about six months,
23:45
of leading OptumHealth.
23:47
How how is
23:49
leading such a critical company for the industry
23:52
overall? How has it shaped your your personal
23:56
view of where this industry is headed?
24:00
You know, I,
24:01
I am even
24:03
more convinced
24:04
that,
24:05
you know, value based care is is,
24:08
truly the the answer right now in health
24:11
care when, you
24:12
you know, when people aren't getting the quality
24:14
care they deserve, when costs are rising and
24:16
not affordable,
24:18
when patients
24:19
aren't satisfied with the experiences and providers are
24:21
burned out. I just I continue
24:24
to remain convinced that we have the right
24:26
value based care model,
24:29
and there's a lot more opportunity to grow
24:31
and to scale this to even more and
24:33
more people.
24:34
And,
24:35
you know, you was you mentioned what has
24:37
surprised me the most.
24:39
This business has really been going through,
24:42
significant change,
24:43
and we've, you know, we've talked at the
24:45
beginning about, you know, operational opportunities to improve
24:48
performance.
24:49
But what is really alive and well
24:53
is,
24:54
you know, resilience,
24:56
a deep
24:57
purpose
24:58
and commitment to our patients
25:00
and to the promise of value based care
25:03
and truly,
25:04
an innovative
25:05
spirit to,
25:07
and kind of that growth oriented spirit to
25:10
always show up and do better tomorrow for
25:13
our patients
25:14
than we're doing today. And I just think
25:16
maybe I shouldn't have been surprised by that,
25:18
but I'm so pleasantly surprised with
25:21
the that purpose
25:23
and the potential of this business. And I
25:25
couldn't be more thrilled to be here at
25:27
this time when health care needs us now
25:29
more than ever, and you've got a team
25:31
that is truly ready to deliver better outcomes
25:34
for patients that we serve and,
25:36
just honored to be here. Yeah. I'm sure
25:39
it's a very satisfying thing to be surprised
25:41
by. I my last question for you super
25:44
quick. You know, we're being listened
25:47
to by thousands
25:48
of hospital executives around the country, health insurance
25:52
executives,
25:53
all facing similar pressures,
25:55
as you and your colleagues.
25:58
Anything else you'd you'd wanna share with them?
26:00
Final bits of advice.
26:02
You know, I think there's never gonna be
26:04
just one simple answer, one simple solution or,
26:08
you know,
26:09
to the challenges that we're facing in health
26:11
care.
26:12
It is really gonna take all of us
26:14
to work together,
26:15
find common ground,
26:17
align
26:18
incentives,
26:20
and, you know, work together to deliver a
26:23
better experience for patients
26:25
and and better quality outcomes for society.
26:29
And
26:29
we welcome those partnerships. We welcome those conversations
26:33
and those relationships
26:35
and the ability to work through,
26:37
those aligned incentive models to make sure that
26:40
that we are improving,
26:43
for all of us. We have that responsibility
26:45
to improve what we do each and every
26:47
day for the patients that need us the
26:48
most. And I think,
26:50
I'm
26:51
really optimistic
26:52
that,
26:53
you know, we have great relationships today, but
26:55
I'm even more optimistic that with the results
26:57
that we
26:59
have in our clinical models today and with,
27:02
the relationships that we have and and frankly,
27:04
the momentum we're gaining that
27:06
I think we're in a great position to
27:08
come together with whether it's hospital system partners
27:10
or payer partners,
27:12
other clinical leaders, network providers in our communities,
27:16
and actually just start to action
27:18
against this and, you know, continue to hold
27:21
ourselves accountable to do that together as a
27:23
society and together as partners.
27:25
Wonderful. Well, Krista, I can't thank you enough
27:28
for taking the time to chat with me
27:30
today on the podcast and for sharing your
27:33
insights, your expertise
27:35
with our listeners. We truly appreciate it. Thank
27:38
you so much for having me.
27:40
And to our listeners, if you'd like to
27:41
listen to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare, you
27:44
can visit beckershospitalreview.com.