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

Transcript

Chris Wasel, President, Strategic Partnerships, Vantage Healthcare · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

• 0:00
  Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless
• 0:02
  innovation to create world class pharmacy, care, and
• 0:05
  benefit solutions.
• 0:07
  Barriers to care can lead to gaps in
• 0:08
  care, which can drive up the total cost
• 0:10
  of care. Our capabilities work seamlessly together to
• 0:13
  create innovative pharmacy care and benefit solutions for
• 0:17
  today and tomorrow.
• 0:18
  Our connected health services make the treatment, prediction,
• 0:21
  and prevention of health care's most complex conditions
• 0:24
  easier and more accessible as we drive organizations
• 0:27
  and people forward.
• 0:29
  This is Haley Recker with the Becker's Payer
• 0:31
  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
• 0:33
  Becker's third annual spring payer issues roundtable.
• 0:36
  I am thrilled today to be joined by
• 0:37
  Chris Wassel, president of strategic partnerships at Vantage
• 0:40
  Healthcare. Chris, thank you so much for being
• 0:42
  with me today. Thanks for having me today.
• 0:45
  Can I have you go ahead and introduce
• 0:46
  yourself? Tell us a little bit more about
• 0:48
  your background and your organization? Yeah. Yeah. So,
• 0:51
  again, my name is Chris Wassill. I'm the
• 0:52
  head of strategy
• 0:54
  and development for Vantage Healthcare.
• 0:57
  I have, over twenty years experience
• 1:00
  in
• 1:01
  health care operations,
• 1:03
  strategy,
• 1:04
  and value based payment.
• 1:06
  With Vantage Healthcare, we're the largest
• 1:09
  provider group of its type in New England.
• 1:12
  We operate in all six states
• 1:14
  to around 220
• 1:16
  locations.
• 1:17
  We're a mobile,
• 1:19
  physician practice, so have about a 110 providers,
• 1:23
  and we go on-site to skilled nursing facilities
• 1:26
  and assisted living communities. And we participate in,
• 1:29
  value based payment programs like ACOs, and we're
• 1:32
  looking at I SNPs and other pro such
• 1:34
  programs.
• 1:35
  Well, that's amazing. And I today, I'd like
• 1:38
  to focus our conversation on quality of care.
• 1:41
  Mhmm. There's an imperative to reduce costs while
• 1:44
  also improving quality and advancing health equity. So
• 1:47
  how would you approach aligning these priorities in
• 1:49
  your organization's strategic vision?
• 1:52
  I think the last couple of years,
• 1:54
  there's been more opportunity
• 1:56
  for,
• 1:58
  practices like ours
• 1:59
  and operators such as skilled nursing facilities
• 2:03
  to participate in value based payment
• 2:06
  programs, and it hasn't been the case in
• 2:08
  the past.
• 2:09
  And with that, particularly in the skilled nursing
• 2:12
  facilities,
• 2:13
  most of the patients we serve there are
• 2:15
  dual eligible.
• 2:16
  And,
• 2:17
  with that
• 2:18
  and with the value based payment program participation,
• 2:22
  particularly with our,
• 2:24
  ACO participation,
• 2:27
  it provides us with more tools and,
• 2:30
  the means to better
• 2:33
  treat those dual eligible patients in place, reduce
• 2:36
  hospitalizations,
• 2:37
  and, also, it gives the opportunity
• 2:39
  for
• 2:40
  the operators to to participate
• 2:44
  and do a better job managing care and
• 2:46
  managing patients in place.
• 2:48
  Absolutely.
• 2:49
  Now I really wanna hone in on that
• 2:51
  member satisfaction
• 2:52
  here. Member satisfaction is essential to thrive in
• 2:55
  today's competitive health care market. What experience or
• 2:58
  engagement strategies have proven effective for your organization,
• 3:01
  and how are you measuring success?
• 3:04
  Yeah. So we
• 3:06
  we launched a new service line.
• 3:09
  It was about four years ago. So we
• 3:10
  started out providing services in skilled nursing facilities,
• 3:14
  and we identified a need also,
• 3:17
  in assisted living communities.
• 3:19
  So,
• 3:21
  there was low satisfaction
• 3:23
  in some cases with,
• 3:25
  patients and their family members
• 3:28
  with the health care component of assisted living
• 3:30
  communities, which are
• 3:31
  typically geared more towards a social model.
• 3:35
  So,
• 3:36
  you know, with that, we were able to,
• 3:38
  create,
• 3:40
  a part of our physician practice that delivered
• 3:42
  on-site care. A lot of the
• 3:45
  dissatisfaction was around having to transfer
• 3:48
  patients off-site for their medical appointments and a
• 3:51
  lot of other appointments,
• 3:52
  and we were able to really eliminate that
• 3:55
  by bringing that care on on-site. So it
• 3:58
  really increased
• 3:59
  satisfaction.
• 4:00
  However,
• 4:01
  you know, over over time as we've grown
• 4:04
  that part of our practice very quickly,
• 4:07
  and with that, it's created, you know, other
• 4:09
  challenges.
• 4:10
  Like, you know, we have heavy family involvement,
• 4:13
  so it creates a lot of inquiries
• 4:15
  to our nurse care coordinator teams and support
• 4:18
  staff. And with all the call volume coming
• 4:21
  in, it really
• 4:22
  provides an opportunity for us to look at
• 4:24
  other ways to manage all that volume and
• 4:28
  do a better job to be able to
• 4:30
  really meet members' needs as far as follow-up
• 4:33
  on those inquiries.
• 4:35
  Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining
• 4:38
  me today.
• 4:39
  Again, this is Haley Rucker with the Becker's
• 4:41
  Payer Podcast recorded live at the Becker's third
• 4:44
  annual spring payer issues roundtable. Chris, thank you
• 4:46
  so much. Thank you. Have a good day.