Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Kourtney Witten, Area Vice President Network Managing Partner Wisconsin, Advocate Health

Transcript

Kourtney Witten, Area Vice President Network Managing Partner Wisconsin, Advocate Health · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

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  Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless
• 0:02
  innovation to create world class pharmacy, care, and
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  benefit solutions.
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  Barriers to care can lead to gaps in
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  care, which can drive up the total cost
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  of care. Our capabilities work seamlessly together to
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  create innovative pharmacy care and benefit solutions for
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  today and tomorrow.
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  Our connected health services make the treatment, prediction,
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  and prevention of health care's most complex conditions
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  easier and more accessible as we drive organizations
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  and people forward.
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  This is Haley Rudger with the Becker's Payer
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  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  Becker's third annual spring payer issues roundtable.
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  Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by Courtney
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  Whitten, area vice president of enterprise population health
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  at Advocate Health.
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  Courtney, thank you so much for joining me
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  today. Can you go ahead and get us
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  started by telling us a little bit about
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  yourself and your background?
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  Sure. Thank you for having me.
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  I am the, area vice president
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  for population health for our Wisconsin division at
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  Advocate Health. I've been with Advocate over a
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  decade in several different roles
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  and, helped build our value based care infrastructure
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  for the state of Wisconsin
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  and have recently taken on an expanded role
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  as a managing network partner
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  for enterprise population health. Well, congratulations
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  on that new role. Now to start our
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  conversation off, I'd like to talk about balancing
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  affordability and quality. So how is your organization
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  innovating to manage the cost of care while
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  maintaining or improving member outcomes?
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  So quality and affordability
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  are not mutually exclusive.
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  In fact, many of our strategies
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  to
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  look at cost reduction
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  revolve around prevention and wellness for our patients.
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  And building a relationship with our patients in
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  ambulatory clinic
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  is key.
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  We can then help identify which patients have
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  chronic conditions
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  or other factors that put them at higher
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  risk for adverse health events.
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  So when we get to know our patients
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  in a more regular
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  setting, then we can start to predict who
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  will be at risk
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  for adverse health events
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  and start to proactively set them up with
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  resources
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  and support programs to try and help maintain
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  their highest level of health.
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  This should in turn lead to fewer
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  emergency room,
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  hospital stays, skilled nursing facility stays, and, really,
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  you know, demonstrates the
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  strong quality of care for our patients.
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  Well, I'd like to go off of that
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  on the quality of care. So what best
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  practices or tools does your organization rely on
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  to keep quality of care at the forefront?
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  So it's important to stay on top of
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  new quality programs and regulations as they're coming
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  out. Especially nowadays, it feels like things are
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  changing very rapidly.
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  But quality is still key, and building a
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  relationship with our patients
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  is the most important part of that.
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  We do use technology. So we have, patient
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  lists. We identify care gaps, and we use
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  technology partners that can help,
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  proactive outreach to those patients and work on
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  addressing those care gaps. We've also got some
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  creative solutions around,
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  virtual care, remote patient monitoring
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  services for patients at home who are not
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  able or not willing to come in
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  for their care. So meeting the patients where
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  they are,
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  to help look at the the data and
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  metrics, but also really provide that patient centric
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  care helps us, you know, understand those care
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  gaps and
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  then,
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  help patients maintain their highest level of health.
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  So on the topic of patient centric care,
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  member satisfaction is essential to thrive in today's
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  competitive health care landscape.
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  So what experience or engagement strategies have proven
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  effective for your organization, and how are you
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  measuring that success?
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  I agree. Patient satisfaction is really important, and
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  it's a good barometer of the trust
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  that we have with our patients between,
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  the clinician,
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  the patient, and even the communities and caregivers
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  that we serve. So a big part of
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  that is managing expectations,
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  helping patients understand if there are any delays
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  or issues that we can anticipate in getting
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  out in front of those,
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  and then also checking in with patients while
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  they're at our settings of care to see
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  if they have additional questions or concerns or
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  issues.
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  And that does two things. The first is
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  it lets patients feel heard
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  if they have some feedback or questions for
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  us, and it also enables us to provide
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  a timely solution,
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  that we can agree upon with the patients.
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  And
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  thinking of treating patients with respect and empathy
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  is is really important. That does more than
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  just build your survey results.
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  It allows us to build relationships with patient.
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  It goes to patient loyalty.
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  It goes to
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  understanding and getting to know our patients so
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  they will come to us and call us
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  first
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  when they need care and allows us to
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  provide the highest standard of care that we
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  can.
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  Absolutely.
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  And looking ahead, what do you see as
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  the biggest opportunity for payers to lead the
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  charge in transforming care delivery and driving better
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  outcomes for all stakeholders?
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  Now more than ever, I think we have
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  an abundance of data.
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  And
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  what do we do with that? How we
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  analyze data, how we learn from it, that
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  can have a significant impact on
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  our patients, our communities,
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  and our teammates.
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  If we can proactively identify patients who need
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  additional support and resources
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  before they have
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  adverse health events, that's a huge win.
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  If we can work to streamline our operations
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  and find some efficiencies using technology,
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  that can take some of the administrative burden
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  off of our staff and our clinicians
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  and allow those folks to spend more time
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  caring
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  for our patients.
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  And
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  technology can also
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  offer different access points for care.
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  So we can consider virtual options,
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  remote patient monitoring,
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  in home options for care,
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  different apps to connect with our patients,
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  different outreach solutions, and and contact points. So
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  all of the technology that's out there can
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  allow us to meet patients where they are,
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  and this is a really exciting time to
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  be in health care and to
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  improve care delivery as we operationalize
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  some of the technology options that are out
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  there.
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  Well, I really enjoyed this conversation with you
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  today. Again, this is Haley Recker with the
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  Becker's Payer Podcast,
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  recording live at the Becker's third annual spring
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  payer issues roundtable. Courtney, thank you so much.
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  Thank you.