Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Larry Levine, CEO of Blythedale Children's Hospital

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Larry Levine, CEO of Blythedale Children's Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

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  Thanks for listening. Now here's the episode.
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  - This is Chris Oster with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I feel today to be joined by Larry Levine, president
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  and CEO of Live Dale Children's Hospital in New York.
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  Larry, thank you for joining us today.
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  - A pleasure to be with you, Chris. Thank you for having me.
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  - Much appreciated. Larry,
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  would you mind introducing yourself
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  and telling us a bit more about your background?
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  - Oh, sure. So I'm the, uh, president
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  and CEO here at Blythedale Children's Hospital in New York.
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  Uh, I've been CEO here since 2001,
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  and um, this is my 48th year
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  of work in the healthcare field.
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  Uh, started way back in 1976 as a graduate at the University
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  of Michigan School of Public Health.
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  And Chris, my, my career has kind
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  of spanned three different jobs.
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  I've worked in Capitol Hill, I worked then as a consultant,
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  as a healthcare management consultant
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  with expertise in children's hospitals
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  and of course the last several years working in
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  children's hospital management.
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  - Larry, we definitely appreciate you bringing your
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  expertise to our podcast today.
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  Here's where we're gonna start. So while I understand it's a
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  very long list, what issues facing children's hospitals do
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  you find most preceding today?
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  - Well, sure. Well, there's, uh, a few that I can,
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  I can click off the top of my head.
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  One is, uh, it's really important for children's hospitals
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  to protect Medicaid from funding cuts.
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  And the reason for that is nationally, Chris, about 50%
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  of kids are covered by Medicaid.
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  And Medicaid is the leading payer by far at most
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  of our nation's children's hospitals,
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  around 55% on average.
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  And here at Blythedale, more than 70%
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  of our patients are covered by Medicaid.
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  So you can understand when the budget is being talked about
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  nationally and even at the state level when the deficit
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  hawks come out.
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  Medicare and social security are always protected,
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  but Medicaid is never considered as a sacred cow.
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  We really have to worry about Medicaid funding
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  'cause it's so important for children's health.
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  Second, what's really interesting is there's a lack
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  of adequate numbers of home care nurses in the nation
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  to care for medically complex kids.
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  It's a real national problem.
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  And what's happening in pediatrics is
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  that many kids can be treated on an ambulatory basis.
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  So the kids who remain hospitalized tend to be much sicker
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  with complicated illnesses and conditions.
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  In order for these kids to be successfully discharged home,
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  you have to have home care nurses in numbers
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  and with experience to care for kids on ventilators, kids
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  that have tracheostomies or complex medication regimens.
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  And yet there is a national shortage of these nurses
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  which places burdens on parents to care for these kids
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  as well as on hospitals and discharging them safely home.
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  So that's kind of a second problem for us.
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  A third one is really protecting children's
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  GME funding GME funding.
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  Chris is important for children's hospitals
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  as it's an important funding source for pediatricians
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  and pediatric specialists coming out of, uh, residency
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  and training programs.
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  Since freestanding children's hospitals don't get CGME
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  funding through Medicare,
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  children's hospitals have a separate program of,
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  uh, C-H-C-M-E funding.
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  And again, unlike Medicare, GME, which is mandatory funded,
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  C-H-C-M-E is a discretionary grant
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  and we have to get that reauthorized every five years.
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  What's really important for us to note is
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  that CME funding GGME hospitals make up only 1%
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  of our nation's hospitals, only 59 per 59
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  of us get C-H-G-M-E funding,
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  and yet we train nearly 40% of the workforce.
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  So those are some of the most important, the top three
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  problems I think that we have.
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  - Thank you for laying laying those out for us, Larry.
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  So on that note, why is it so important
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  for healthcare executives, particularly those
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  that pediatric care centers
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  to come involved in legislative process?
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  - Yeah, I think we as CEOs could really utilize our position
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  to vigorously advocate for our patients and our families
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  and to fully engage in the public policy process.
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  You know, Chris, there's two types of advocacy.
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  So we can do, one is first and foremost is to protect
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  and advance the interests of our hospitals,
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  but also to advocate for broader policies
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  to help our patients and families,
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  and particularly for children's hospitals, we have
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  to educate policy makers about what the needs of kids are,
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  write legislation, comment or testify regarding regulations,
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  and certainly to weigh in on state
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  and federal and state budget.
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  Um, you know, I just mentioned three of the top
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  institutional concerns that we have at children's hospitals,
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  uh, Medicaid funding, C-H-C-M-E funding
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  and home care nurses,
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  but children's hospital CEOs are also really worried about
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  broader issues that impact a child's physical
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  and mental health and their quality of life.
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  And so, you know, I think we as a group of
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  children's hospitals have to really go to bat for these kids
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  and these families, many of whom are at a very
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  vulnerable time in their life.
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  Thank God most children don't get sick,
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  but those that are sick that have a lot of different issues,
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  I think as CEOs, we really need to advocate
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  for policies and for regulations and budgets to protect
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  and advance the quality of life
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  and the healthcare of these kids.
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  And I've always taken that as a mantle of importance for me
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  as a CEO to be an, uh, an activist
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  to really work at the federal
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  and the state level, um, to put together policies that, um,
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  that help these children and families.
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  - Clearly patients
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  and caregivers need people like yourself,
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  Larry, to be doing that work.
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  And you've been doing this clearly a
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  long time as you mentioned.
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  Uh, zooming in a little bit, could you detail a little bit
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  policies that you've helped bring to fruition
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  and what that process entails?
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  - Yeah, so Chris, I've gotten,
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  actually in my tenure here at blythedale,
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  I've gotten three pieces of legislation written passed
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  by our state legislature
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  and signed into law by three different governors.
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  And they've dealt with improving covered benefits
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  under the SSIP
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  or the Child Health Plus program, uh, here in New York, uh,
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  Medicaid hospital reform for children's hospitals.
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  And most recently our governor, uh, signed into a law,
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  uh, a statute which provides sweeping requirements
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  for Medicaid managed care
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  and commercial payers in determining the way medical
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  necessity, uh, is defined and provides special protections
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  and accommodations for medically fragile children.
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  And that law went into effect on September one.
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  - That's excellent, Larry, thank you
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  for letting us know about those efforts.
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  Looking ahead a little bit, are there changes
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  policies you're hoping to enact next?
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  And what advice would you give others, CEOs in particular
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  who are looking to follow in footsteps that you've laid out?
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  - Yeah, so right now, uh, an important policy, uh,
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  in front of Congress is to extend the child tax credit.
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  This helps lift many children out of poverty.
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  Uh, and it has during the pandemic when, um, the, uh,
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  American Recovery Act, uh, was, uh, um, passed, it
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  provided a significant, uh, tax credit for,
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  for low income families.
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  Uh, national studies indicated that, uh, up to 40%
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  of children were lifted out of poverty were regrettably
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  that, uh, tax extension did not occur at the end
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  of 2022.
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  And it's back up, um, for consideration,
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  there actually is a bipartisan bill in front of Congress.
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  And so I've been actively lobbying on behalf
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  of the extension, uh, of this.
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  Uh, another thing that we're, uh, also talking about, Chris,
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  is protecting the food stamp program,
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  which is known as snap.
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  Um, that unfortunately is on the topping block, not
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  to be cut entirely, but to be cut back
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  significantly in the continuing resolution.
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  I, I note the fact that one out of seven children
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  or 11 million children nationally go
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  to bed hungry every night.
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  And so as the CEO and,
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  and working with our families here, I know
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  that food insecurity is a major problem.
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  And so I've been lobbying for those two things right now on,
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  on Capitol Hill.
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  So the last piece is we're ready
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  to tackle this home care nursing shortage
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  for medically complex kids.
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  Um, and what I'm doing right now is gathering a coalition
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  of hospitals, parent groups, child advocacy organizations,
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  home care agencies
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  before legislation could be written to more
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  specifically define the problem
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  and what the policy solutions should be at our state
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  government, which hopefully could be a model
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  for the rest of the nation.
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  That's what I'm working on right now.
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  - Larry, we certainly wish you continued.
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  Good luck in all these efforts.
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  And we also thank you for being so generous
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  with your time and insights today.
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  We cannot wait to share them with our audience,
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  and we look forward to connecting with you soon.
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  - Thanks so much, Chris.
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  I appreciate you having me on your program.
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  - It's so important for leaders at the top of organizations
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  to keep learning, stay sharp, grow their networks,
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  personalized, and meaningful way.
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