Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Josephine Wilton, Chief Business Development Officer, CHCB

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Josephine Wilton, Chief Business Development Officer, CHCB · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health care leadership comes together.
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  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
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  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
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  speakers to Chicago, April 13 through the sixteenth.
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  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
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  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
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  w Bush. For the 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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  in Chicago.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  thirteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable.
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  I'm currently joined by Josephine Wilton, who is
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  the chief business development officer at CHCB.
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  So Josephine, thanks for being here. I'm gonna
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  have you start off by just introducing yourself
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  a little bit further and telling us more
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  about your background. Terrific.
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  So Josephine Wilton.
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  I my background is is pretty,
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  it's I refer to it as, like, quilted
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  in a patchwork. So
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  I pride myself as being, maybe a jack
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  of all trades, master of none.
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  I started out my academic and professional career,
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  in a legal track. Actually worked as a
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  paralegal for many years, moved transitioned into legal
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  operations.
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  And then
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  about fifteen, almost twenty years ago,
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  ended up taking a job with the Blue
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  Cross plan in Western New York
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  and,
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  started naturally the legal department, legal operations.
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  And,
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  once I got in there about three years,
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  I realized I wanna learn more about the
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  business of health care. Right? Everybody goes to
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  legal when there's a problem, so you get
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  a little sense of, you know, the ins
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  and outs, somewhat at a very high level
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  bird's eye.
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  But I had tremendous support,
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  from my executive and other executives throughout the
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  organization and found my way into the network
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  team,
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  provider network, and
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  ended up negotiating and doing contracting with facilities
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  and ancillary providers and really learning the business,
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  even sides of it that I didn't like.
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  Like, we could probably do a whole podcast
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  on claims issues with hospitals.
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  From there, you know, after eight and a
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  half year tenure
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  with Blue Cross,
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  I ended up transitioning to a startup, ACO,
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  and that was awesome. Right? Because then I
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  had the perspective of,
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  that middle entity,
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  that was there to bridge and support payer.
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  So for ACO REACH, you've got CMS as
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  a government payer bridging with providers.
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  And I got to go back to my
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  old
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  stomping ground, if you will, of doing network
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  development recruitment.
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  And, that ACO also established an IPA in
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  New York, Georgia, and right here in Illinois
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  shortly after I left, but I had an
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  opportunity to travel and really get to see
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  a lot of the simp
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  similarities,
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  with different provider types.
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  Those claims and operational issues that I disliked
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  and disdained on the plan side,
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  those experiences
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  really came into play and were helpful when
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  I was on the ground and and working
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  with, those provider organizations.
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  And then I ended up, of course, where
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  I am now,
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  working for an FQHC, a federally qualified health
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  center,
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  and that was my foray into working for
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  a provider.
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  I I think it's a natural fit with
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  my background, and I'm glad that I had
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  the opportunity to do that. So
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  Wonderful. Well, thanks for that rundown, and I'm
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  glad you're here with us. Yes. So let's
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  start our conversation talking about your growth strategy
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  in the next year or two.
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  Yeah. So growth.
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  Even since I've been here,
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  at this, conference, I've been on the phone
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  with
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  the members of the executive team, including the
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  CEO, and we're still strategizing.
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  There's definitely when we talk about growth,
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  we
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  are, I would say, more foundationally,
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  embarked almost two years ago
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  on a path of renegotiating
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  our contracts,
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  just with the with the health plans. Like,
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  that's just fundamental. Right? Get the fee for
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  service right. Make sure it aligns with your
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  delivery of service and care,
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  which continue should continue to evolve based off
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  of community needs.
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  It's not just fee for service. From there,
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  you know, it's a building block.
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  Here at the conference, you're hearing people talking
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  about fee for service is still here. I
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  remember in my career where everybody thought it
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  was gonna go away and value
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  based payment arrangements were gonna take over. It's
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  kinda been split, and I I think I
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  agree with others that it's gonna be that
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  way for a while.
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  However, a lot of organizations do need to
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  catch up to the VBP world,
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  including especially FQHCs who can't typically take downside
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  risk. So then we gotta get creative. Right?
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  And there's still a lot of opportunities. So
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  that's been a part of our growth strategy
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  is is kinda stabilizing,
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  but also
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  kinda leaning in and leveraging those different revenue
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  opportunities, which will give us more of an
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  advantage to expand into the community.
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  We are opening a new brick and mortar,
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  which the this was already,
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  in the works through state funding.
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  We're expanding to more southern tier of Western
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  New York, the F Q 8 C. We
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  have five locations right now in a mobile
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  unit,
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  but access is still an issue. When we
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  talk about access, folks could be, like, five
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  blocks away from a hospital or provider. That
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  doesn't mean they're able to get there for
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  many different reasons.
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  Western New York community has gone through a
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  lot of trauma,
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  because of a lot of events. You know,
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  winter storm, we had, unfortunately, a Tops massacre.
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  The the community at large was impacted, and
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  a lot of folks are dealing with behavioral
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  health issues. So when we talk about growth
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  and expansion, it's it's access to care.
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  In particular,
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  there's behavioral health, but also dental.
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  There's a great need.
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  A lot of avoidable hospital visits are due
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  to dental issues,
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  and you really can't
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  there's not much they can do unless it's,
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  trauma related. So we're looking into expanding our
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  dental delivery
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  of care. Absolutely.
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  And tell us about the most exciting or
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  impactful initiative or project that you're currently working
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  on. Oh, wow.
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  So many.
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  So
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  I would say something that kinda hits home
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  at a personal level is maternal health.
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  Obviously, there's there's a lot of focus on
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  that,
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  in our country. I mean, even globally, but
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  certainly we'll talk we'll stay with The US.
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  We got enough to deal with here.
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  And certainly the health disparities around that.
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  I through the health center, we had an
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  opportunity
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  to,
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  request,
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  some funding
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  to expand access to maternal care.
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  There's a lot of great statistics out there
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  within each state county level. They're gathering all
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  sorts of statistics,
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  But there's still a shortage,
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  at a at a more micro level and
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  certainly
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  incorporating social determinants of health. Like, what's happening
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  to,
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  those individuals, those persons,
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  birthing persons who are and also their support
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  system. Right? It's not just them. It's their
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  partners,
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  family. What are they experiencing that's causing them
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  to
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  end up at at risk,
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  potentially losing their lives, their, you know, their
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  child's life?
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  So we
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  went to the state,
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  and I was personally involved in that and
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  was able to give personal testimony as to
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  how it, you know, I was impacted through
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  the health care system,
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  negatively, but could have been a whole lot
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  worse. And just to, speak and be a
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  voice and a face. You know? Oftentimes,
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  we're working with people right next to them,
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  and we don't know how they've been impacted
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  in their lives. And so, hopefully, if anything,
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  I was able to make it real and
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  relatable,
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  in the ass. So we're looking forward to
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  getting that going. It's gonna be a complete,
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  I guess, infrastructure
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  build that we will augment our current care
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  delivery
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  system workflows and process to expand this maternal
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  health. And we're gonna leverage our ACO,
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  which also is an IPA partner,
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  to do that work. So I'm excited. It
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  it's like we're in the infancy planning stage,
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  but and it's not a ton of money.
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  And our goal is to keep it going.
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  But I'm really excited about that work because
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  I think it's it's just so meaningful,
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  as well as all the work that we
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  do at the health center. But we gotta
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  make a difference somehow, and it's just incremental
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  wherever we can. Absolutely. And then finally, what
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  is the most important thing you think health
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  care executives should be doing right now to
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  make sure their organizations
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  are successful in the future?
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  Infrastructure.
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  So I heard
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  I I was very pleased to hear some
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  of your panelists in different sessions, some value
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  based sessions, others not so
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  not exactly that, but there was,
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  a little bit of a theme
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  in focusing on operations and execution. And so
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  I think that's exactly where executives should be.
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  The the entire c suite boards need to
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  be focused on operations and execution.
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  I've done contracting for a living negotiations.
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  It's great. I have a legal background. My
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  I'm excited by redlining and making sure the
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  contract is fully executed. But then what happens
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  after that? Right? We sit in meetings,
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  internal meetings with our partners,
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  others,
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  and,
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  health plans, etcetera. And we're talking about moving
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  the needle, and we're staring at scorecards,
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  metrics, and data.
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  And everybody's frustrated on all sides because things
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  are just not progressing,
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  as expected. And I'll speak for f q
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  eight c's in particular.
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  They're incredibly
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  nimble.
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  One of your most flexible provider types in
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  a community, they have to be resilient inherently
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  because of all what they endure despite whatever
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  administration we have,
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  just in the landscape of health care.
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  However,
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  one of your panelists also mentioned
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  the first thing before you even start to
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  talk about operationalizing and execution is get getting
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  that deep understanding
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  on both sides.
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  And I've experienced that through negotiations where people
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  say, yes. We understand your organization and your
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  care delivery model, but usually there's a wide
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  gap in the in that understanding.
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  So starting there first on both sides.
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  Certainly, there are a lot of myths from
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  the providers
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  based off of health plans.
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  And then moving into operational planning and execution
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  and proper tracking and monitoring,
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  to ensure that all the great activities that
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  are occurring are
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  getting
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  the parties,
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  moving them along some sort of pathway to
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  success.
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  Absolutely. Well, Josephine, thanks so much for being
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  here today and joining me on the Becker's
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  Healthcare Podcast. Again, we are recording live at
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  the thirteenth annual
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  CEO and CFO roundtable. Thank you so much.