Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Mihir Kamdar, Chief Medical Officer at Tuesday Health

Transcript

Mihir Kamdar, Chief Medical Officer at Tuesday Health · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

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  Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless
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  innovation to create world class pharmacy care and
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  benefit solutions. Our connected health services make the
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  treatment, prediction, and prevention of health care's most
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  and people forward. Ever North Home Based Care
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  multiple chronic conditions
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  and social determinant of health barriers get the
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  care they need and the personalized experience they
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  deserve. We serve patients who struggle to navigate
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  the health care system by bringing high quality
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  providing clinical care and support services that provide
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  whole person care, we improve health equity, access,
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  and outcomes for the populations we serve.
• 0:47
  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast, and we are live at the 2024
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  payer issues roundtable.
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  I'm joined right now by Mihir Kamdar who
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  is the chief medical officer at Tuesday Health.
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  So thank you for being here. We'd love
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  to have you start off by introducing yourself
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  and telling us a little bit more about
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  your role. Thanks, Grace. So my name is,
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  Mihir Kamdar. I am a palliative care physician
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  and serve as the chief medical officer for
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  Tuesday Health. And Tuesday Health is a value
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  based care, supportive, and palliative care company, and
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  we really seek to provide comprehensive,
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  supportive care for patients with serious illness, particularly
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  in the last 1 to 2 years of
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  life.
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  Wonderful. Well, thank you for taking the time,
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  and let's start our conversation here about
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  growth goals. So from improving member experience and
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  expanding value based care to controlling costs, payer
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  executives have ambitious growth goals for the rest
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  of the year and as we look into
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  the new year ahead.
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  So in your role, what is your top
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  priority and how are you planning to get
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  there?
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  Yeah. It's it's a great question. And, you
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  know, what we know about patients with serious
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  illness is this is a really challenging population
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  for payers.
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  We know, particularly in that last year of
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  life, Grace, there's a significant amount of,
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  challenges with, member experience that can spill over
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  onto their caregivers
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  and all of that leads to an exorbitant
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  amount of cost. Right? The cost of care
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  in the last year of life are significant.
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  And so what we're trying to do is
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  really be able to, get involved earlier in
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  the course of these patients, you know, 12
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  to 24 months before patients pass away to
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  be able to provide evidence based palliative care,
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  which we know can improve the quality and
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  that journey for that member and their loved
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  ones, but also significantly reduce those those exorbitant
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  costs of care in that last year of
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  life. And and so, you know, we we
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  know payers are really struggling with admissions recently.
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  We know that a lot of those admissions
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  are gonna be concentrated in that last year
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  of life. We know that,
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  you know, patient experience matters a lot. And
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  so those are all things that we are
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  in particularly focused on. We're we're a new
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  company.
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  We launched,
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  you know,
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  clinically just earlier this year. We're fortunate to
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  announce a $60,000,000
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  initial raise. And so what we're doing, we're
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  we're alive now in Ohio, and what we're
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  really doing is is, delivering
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  our care and our clinical model. And our
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  priority for next year is really be able
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  to to scale from there and create access
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  to evidence based,
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  palliative care and forging
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  even greater,
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  payer partnerships.
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  You know, one other thing I think for
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  payers to keep in mind is we're also
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  anticipating,
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  you know, some point in the future that
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  hospice will be carved back into, Medicare Advantage.
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  And so, that's another thing I think is
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  and it really should be on the the
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  radar,
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  of payers as we think about growth.
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  Absolutely.
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  And going off of that, at an industry
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  level, how would you describe the biggest barriers
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  to effectively
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  serving and engaging members? And what opportunities do
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  you see for large scale improvements, and how
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  are you applying this in your current strategy?
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  Yeah. This is another really important question.
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  You know, engagement is critical, and it's something
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  we spend a lot of time focusing in
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  it, at Tuesday Health. Our our patients with
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  serious illness are they have a lot of
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  challenges, and it's not just medical. It can
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  be psychosocial,
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  a lot of social determinant challenges. And so
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  we think about we really think about engagement
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  in 2 ways. 1 is obviously with the
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  the patient,
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  and their loved ones. Their caregivers are critically
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  important to engage.
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  As patients get sicker, oftentimes, the caregivers making
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  the decisions,
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  you know, are really key moments in their
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  in their journey for that their loved one,
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  but also for providers.
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  And, you know, supportive care study after study
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  shows it can be incredibly helpful but sometimes
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  the biggest barrier is some of the stigma
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  associated with supportive and palliative care. People confuse
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  it with hospice.
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  And so, what we'd really try to do
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  is is go in market and hire both
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  provider and patient engagement specialists,
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  to really understand the needs, understand where are
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  the pain points are, understand where we can
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  offer value.
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  As it relates to both providers and patients,
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  we really aim to solve a problem for
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  both providers and patients,
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  within
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  that, you know, the first, visitor to, so
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  we can show our value and we find
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  that as incredibly helpful. We're we're excited because,
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  we're really seeing high levels of engagement so
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  far with our clinical deployment.
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  And switching gears slightly to the leadership side
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  of things, keeping pace in today's dynamic health
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  care landscape is challenging.
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  So what's one piece of advice you'd share
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  with peer leaders to grow their businesses while
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  keeping members top of mind?
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  Yeah. I you know, I think it's a
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  it's a simple answer. It's exactly what you
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  said at that end of that question. It's
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  really how do we keep the the patient?
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  And I'd also say they're loved when they're
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  caregiver
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  at at really as their north star. People
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  oftentimes forget about really thinking about that dyadic
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  relationship, which I think is critical in health
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  care. And I think
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  I think the challenge for leaders is how
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  do you actually, live and breathe that as
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  an organization instead of having it just be
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  something that kinda sounds like a Hallmark card.
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  And so for us, we really try to
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  integrate
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  keeping the patient and their caregiver first really
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  into the fabric of our company. We start
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  every meeting where we're gonna need to make,
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  important decisions with a patient's story.
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  And that I think really helps ground and
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  center us. And I think what's nice in
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  in palliative and supportive care, we have an
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  opportunity where the Venn diagrams of doing the
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  right thing for a patient and their loved
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  ones also overlaps with, being able to reduce
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  unwanted medical spend that oftentimes isn't isn't helpful.
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  So we really try to, you know, keep
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  that, front and center. We know if we
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  can deliver for the member and their loved
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  ones, everything else will fall into place.
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  And as we are wrapping up our conversation,
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  I'd love to just visit technology quickly. So
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  how is tech supporting value based care member
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  focused initiatives at your organization?
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  And what's most exciting for you here and
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  why? Yeah. I love this question. It's a
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  really interesting question to me because
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  a lot of people think a lot of
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  palliative care clinicians, supportive
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  clinicians,
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  you know, really see that field really built
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  over the last 20 years on the humanness
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  of Medicare, really, that personal touch, really,
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  being with patients at the bedside in these
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  in these challenging moments.
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  And so sometimes thinking about technology can seem
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  antithetical to that, but we really think about
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  technology as as something that we can harness
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  to really pull in
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  our clinicians at key points,
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  to be able to optimize care. One of
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  the challenges that we see in palliative and
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  supportive care is there's not enough clinicians out
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  there. There's only about 5,000 to 6000 palliative
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  care physicians out there. We estimate by 2050,
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  80 to 90,000,000 people will need some type
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  of palliative supportive care, and and the needs
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  are present now. And so we use technology
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  at several key points, in a patient journey.
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  One is we have a highly accurate
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  identification algorithm.
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  One of the challenges that a lot of
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  payers experience is how do we really identify
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  the right patients who could benefit from this
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  type of care?
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  And so we start by using, thoughtful predictive
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  analytics to be able to identify patients.
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  And then along the care journey, we also
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  incorporate,
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  2 2 important things. 1 is telepalliative care.
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  Members of our team, we were fortunate to
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  publish an article in JAMA showing that telepalliative
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  care can be, almost as effective actually as
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  in person, palliative care. How we use that
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  is and think about the nuance there is
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  really important,
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  but we're excited about our telepalliative care delivery
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  to reach, you know, to really reach more
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  patients in need. Another is how we think
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  about continuous monitoring,
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  and we actually published a study showing that
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  we can use continuous monitoring in patients with
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  serious illness to not only improve their care,
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  but also reduce hospitalizations.
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  And then lastly, one challenge for clinicians is
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  really knowing when someone is getting sicker and
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  really getting into that end of life phase.
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  And so we also use technology to better
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  predict
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  as patients are getting sicker. So we can
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  not only leverage greater resources to help with
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  things like symptom management, keep folks out of
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  the hospital,
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  but make sure that we're having those important
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  conversations that oftentimes don't happen. And in that
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  way, we can really help folks, you know,
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  transition to hospice when the time is right,
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  not too early and not too late, and
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  really help folks and their loved ones have
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  a soft landing at the end of life.
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  So we're really trying to help folks from
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  the point of identification
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  all the way through that end of life
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  journey using technology at key points along the
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  way.
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  Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for taking
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  the time to join me today on the
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  Becker's healthcare podcast. Again, we're live at the
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  2024
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  payer issues roundtable.
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  K. Thank you so much.