Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Dan Larson, Principal/Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at HealthBridge Children's Hospital - Orange

Transcript

Dan Larson, Principal/Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at HealthBridge Children's Hospital - Orange · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

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  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
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  I'm Chris Sosa, the copy chief here at
• 0:04
  Becker's. I am thrilled to be joined by
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  Dan Larson, principal and chief strategy and marketing
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  officer at HealthBridge Children's Hospital. Dan, thank you
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  for joining us today.
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  Thank you, Chris, for having me on.
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  Wonderful. Dan, for our audience members who are
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  not familiar with you and your work, could
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  you please introduce yourself and tell us a
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  bit about your background?
• 0:24
  Sure. So my name is Dan Larson.
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  I've been in health care since, 1989,
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  as as a principal owner of three different
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  businesses. The the one that the HealthBridge Children's
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  Hospital is a current business.
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  Initially developed a partnership with my sister who's
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  a speech pathologist in 1989,
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  and we founded a company called South Coast
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  Rehab Services,
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  which contracted with skilled nursing facilities throughout the
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  country.
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  We we drew that to about 17 states
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  and 240
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  some contracts, and then we end up selling
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  it to one of our, actually, one of
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  our clients. And we became their in house,
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  rehab company once,
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  the
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  the Sniff business and Medicare business went to
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  prospective pay. So that was in 1997.
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  And as as part of that,
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  we were involved in in another takeout of
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  SunHealth from from Regency.
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  And when we were managing,
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  that rehab department, we had a little group
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  in there called Meridian NeuroCare,
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  which was really a kind of residential based
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  spinal cord and and traumatic brain injury rehab
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  business. We we liked it a lot. And
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  so when, Sun went to purchase that deal,
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  we asked, Rick Matros and and,
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  yeah, if we could go in and buy
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  it. He said, absolutely. So he, along with
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  Bruce Broussard, former Humana guy, he was our
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  CFO at the time.
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  We purchased Little Meridian NeuroCare, renamed it Care
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  Meridian,
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  and grew that to a multisite operation to
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  32 sites, and then we we we exited
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  that business as well.
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  In in the mean so most of my
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  career has been kind of in this post
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  acute rehab space. I did do a short
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  stint here in St. Louis,
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  where I was the CEO of Premier Care
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  Orthopedics, which is a kind of a roll
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  up strategy for practice management roll up strategy
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  for orthopedic surgeons.
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  And then we also founded a group called
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  Signature Health Services, which was a large which
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  now got large MSO.
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  So, again, most most of my space has
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  been in the in the in the rehab
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  post acute side of it. And, really,
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  the the pediatric hospital is very similar to
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  that. We have four levels of care. We
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  have, we have both, acute beds and subacute
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  beds. We have LTAC. We have
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  acute rehab.
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  We have subacute, and we also have outpatient
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  services. So I I never say never, but
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  I think,
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  after thirty five years, this will probably be
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  the last company I start.
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  Well, clearly, you've had a lot of experience
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  in any number of areas in in health
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  care, Dan. So
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  what exactly about
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  investing in starting Helpbridge Children's,
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  appeal to you in particular?
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  So I'm a I'm a huge proponent. So
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  take a step back.
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  Most of the stuff I've been involved in,
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  deals with especially the the care meridian phase
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  of it dealt with
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  really complex injuries that required
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  really long
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  long recoveries,
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  multisite kind of, you know, kind of care
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  model. And so understanding that the family is
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  going through this recovery process and there's gonna
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  be multiple providers involved,
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  I was a huge advocate for, you know,
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  having a coordinated care model. So we had
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  actually, at Care Meridian,
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  with,
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  Santa Clara Valley,
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  hospital, we developed a program called NeuroNet,
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  which was really a collection of four different,
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  companies
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  that provided that full level of care with
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  a common,
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  nurse navigator as the case manager,
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  from the onset of the injury all the
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  way to home. And so that coordinated care
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  model was a huge deal to to us.
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  We we saw,
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  the outcomes were much better. The client satisfaction
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  was much better. And so we as we
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  looked at this segment of of pediatric care,
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  most of these kids are, you know, very
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  fragile, medically complex kids.
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  It's the same it's the same problem, same
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  business problem. And so we are, you know,
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  working hard to build out that full continuum
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  on the post acute side, and then and
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  then working and coordinating that with our with
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  our for hospitals,
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  in the in our markets that like the
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  CHOC hospitals of the world. So it's it's
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  really, you know,
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  again, taking these kids that are medically complex
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  and have these long recoveries and and building,
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  both efficiency into it and predictability for families.
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  I understand. I mean, clearly, there's a lot
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  of work involved with that, Dan. Given all
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  that that you've just laid out for us,
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  what are your top priorities today?
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  So we are,
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  we're working with several different hospitals to, you
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  know, to,
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  put process to that coordinated care model, that
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  nurse navigation.
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  Again, think we think that is is real
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  key. We also are looking at at ways
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  where the ED boarding problem, what especially with
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  these kids that need,
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  acute beds where we can accept these these
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  children directly out of the EDs.
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  That's a that's a big push of ours.
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  And then,
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  you know, again, these kids most of these
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  kids are going home with some level of
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  permanent disability
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  and and ongoing medically complex issues. So there's
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  a, you know, high risk for these kids
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  to bounce back. And so we're implementing a
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  program called safe at home, which is a,
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  you know, post discharge predictive risk scoring framework
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  so that we can,
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  look at
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  the the the the things that basically impact
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  that child's life that could end up causing,
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  you know, a negative event like a seizure
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  or something else that would require rehospitalization.
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  So and we're, you know, we'll overlay that
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  with AI tools to be able to look
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  at these trends and hopefully get to a
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  point where we can start predicting, okay,
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  if these things are happening, the risk for
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  this is is as acts. And so what
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  we wanna be able to do is support
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  those caregivers at home to be able to
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  give them a little bit of a heads
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  up as we start seeing trends that are
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  developing
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  that could, you know, potentially end in some
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  negative event that would require a rehospitalization.
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  Dan, I'm glad you mentioned trends. With respect
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  to those, whether it's the safe at home
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  program, which sounds like a terrific, if not
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  a very complicated and challenging endeavor that you
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  have going on. How do you think your
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  role is going to change, and how is
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  the role of your team going to change?
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  Well, I don't know necessarily if my role
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  will change that much. I I, you know,
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  as as an owner too, I have my
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  hands as you can imagine in finance and
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  everything else. My my primary focus though every
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  day is is really the the the strategy
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  and the payer side of the market.
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  So I don't really anticipate
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  much change to my role, but a lot
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  of our clinical people are are required
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  in in these, development meetings. And so they've
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  never, you know, they've never been in them
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  before. So it's all kind of new territory
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  for them,
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  participating in more business process than, you know,
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  being on the floor clinical. But we have
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  great experts, and
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  and, these different models are predicated on the
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  fact that, you know, again, we can we
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  have the clinical goods to deliver. So I
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  need them involved in that in that development
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  process.
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  Lastly, Dan, I have a two part question
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  for you. Sure.
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  Here's how it goes. So I would like
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  to know what exactly is making you nervous
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  about health care in general right now, whether
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  it's pediatrics related or not, and what are
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  you excited about?
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  Well, on on the pediatric side,
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  obviously,
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  unless you've been living in an alternate universe,
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  you know, we we see, you know, the
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  the headlines every day about the prospective
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  Medicaid cuts,
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  coming down. And so,
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  you know, it it depends on how that,
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  you know, how those end up happening and
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  how that would affect us. Most of the
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  kids that we take care of,
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  tend to be Medicaid
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  at some point.
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  And in California,
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  if you're if if you have a catastrophic
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  injury or illness and it goes more forty
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  five days, you get put in at the
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  into the CCS process. So,
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  it's a covered it's a covered actually, a
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  a covered level of care within the state
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  of California, which is unique. And so not
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  knowing fully how that plays out,
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  you know, we're we're we're watching it. We're
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  we're a little bit nervous. We're we're anticipating
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  that,
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  given the space that we're in and and
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  we're in such a cost savings,
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  level of care, we should be okay. But,
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  you know, it all depends. And and from
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  our perspective,
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  since it's pediatrics, we're not worried about, you
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  know, the the work requirement,
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  or any of that. So
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  we're just kind of a niche player in
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  that. So we're watching it carefully, but it
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  definitely is something that, you know, it had
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  has us concerned.
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  On the on the, you know, what makes
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  us excited,
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  you know, this level of care,
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  is unique. And the the reason why it's
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  unique is if you look at Medicare,
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  Medicare cut cuts across all 50 states. Right?
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  So you have the same you have a
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  well worn path to these adult continuous of
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  care, short stay, LTAC,
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  acute rehab, SNF,
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  assisted living, home health.
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  Those are all licensed,
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  levels of care with reimbursement.
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  When you look at our level of care,
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  it's predominantly Medicaid, so it's a state by
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  state effort. So there's no way really where
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  you can just go this business model is
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  gonna work in every state because there might
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  not be the reimbursement for it. However, we
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  as we see the trends, California has gone
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  to a % managed Medicaid.
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  We're seeing more and more managed products,
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  that growing.
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  That gives us the ability to negotiate deals
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  directly with the insurance companies and not state
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  itself to get the right rate structure.
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  So we're we we, you know, we feel
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  like we're in the in the early minutes
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  of the first quarter of the game, and
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  there's no 800 pound gorilla yet. And there's
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  a lot of organic opportunity out there. And
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  so and and we we know that this
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  business is, was founded in February.
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  I tried to buy it when I was
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  at Care Marine, and I couldn't get it
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  done, but we eventually did,
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  personally. But this this this proof time and
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  time again to be able to create, you
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  know, outstanding outcomes at a lower cost price.
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  And a lot of these kids would would
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  formally just live in the children's hospital. That's
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  an inappropriate level of care. So we think
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  estates are looking to reduce cost spend, as
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  the insurance companies are looking to, you know,
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  find alternatives to higher cost, you know, types
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  of settings, I think, you know, this level
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  of care is is is perfect.
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  We see it you know, health systems are
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  gonna, you know, want it.
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  Insurance companies are gonna want it. So we
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  we just I think this is the one
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  true thing where you kinda you always see
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  those business slides with the hockey stick. I
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  think this is as these states become more
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  managed and as we start to see this
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  roll out, I think you're gonna see, you
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  know, big growth,
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  if, you know, three to five years out.
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  That's when it's gonna take off. So, we
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  just wanna be we wanna be on the
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  front end of it.
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  Dan, thank you so much for all your
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  time and your insights today. You've been very
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  generous, and we can't wait to share them
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  with our audience soon.
• 11:19
  I appreciate it, Chris. Thanks so much.