Latest / Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health / Scaling Mental Health with Outcomes, Workforce Strategy, and AI with Kellan Tittle

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Scaling Mental Health with Outcomes, Workforce Strategy, and AI with Kellan Tittle · Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health

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  This is Andrew Cass with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined today by
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  Kellen Piddle, CFO at People Incorporated. Kellen, it's
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  a pleasure to have you on the podcast.
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  Yeah. No. Thanks, Andrew. I'm excited to be
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  here.
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  Before we begin, can you tell us a
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  little bit about your background and, your organization?
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  Absolutely. So, yeah, like Andrew mentioned, I'm Kellen
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  Tittle. I'm the chief financial officer
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  at People Incorporated.
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  I've been here almost thirteen years in a
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  variety of roles and cross functional,
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  roles as well.
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  Currently, I'm in charge
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  of all of revenue cycle,
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  accounting, data enterprise,
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  new ventures,
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  strategy,
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  and also I also get a an operational
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  canvas long term residential that I'm in charge
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  of as well.
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  Seen revenue grow from $35,000,000
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  to currently almost $75,000,000.
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  So we've been a growing agency ever since
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  I got here, and we're very excited
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  about the future.
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  Yeah. Speaking of the future,
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  I guess, the present there, what are three
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  of the top trends you're following in health
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  care today?
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  Yeah. No. From a from a mental health
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  standpoint,
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  the top three that our agency and myself
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  are very, very focused on are really shifting
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  from access to outcomes.
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  One thing that we look for at People
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  Incorporated
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  is a really integrated model.
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  Care coordination is always top of mind for
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  our agency.
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  We know that of our 13,000
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  individual unique clients,
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  that the more we're able to talk to
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  them, the more we're able to connect with
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  them, the more we're able to follow-up and
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  making sure not only are they aware of
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  our services, but they're attending them and we're
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  getting follow-up, the better off that not only
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  their outcomes are, but the better off it
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  is for the general community and schools as
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  a whole. So we know that working with
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  our payers, working with our funders,
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  that not only is access important,
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  but also reaching for those outcomes is just
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  as important and critical as well.
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  Our second thing that I'm looking for from
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  a trend standpoint is workforce. I mean, when
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  you look at our our web pages of
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  opening positions,
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  at any given time, we have 75 to
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  85 open positions.
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  Burnout is the thing. Turnover is consistent.
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  Right now, we have a lot of documentation
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  to make sure that we're hitting not only
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  from a billable standpoint,
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  but from a client share standpoint in our
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  system.
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  I mean, we're only gonna be able to
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  do this as a whole and continue to
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  grow
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  in our communities
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  by having the right people in the right
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  places, but we know that we're not gonna
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  be able to hire our way out of
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  storage. We really have to redesign that care.
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  And People Incorporated
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  was one of the seven demo
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  CCBHCs,
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  which is certified
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  community behavioral health clinics.
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  And what they've done in the state of
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  Minnesota
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  is really focusing on that integrated care. They
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  wanna know what can you do from an
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  integrated care model,
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  and you tell us how much it's gonna
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  cost you, and we'll work to give you
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  that reimbursement rate. Now it's not perfect, but
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  at the same time, as we're trying to
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  redesign that care model and try to make
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  sure how do we do more for the
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  client with less staff because they're just not
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  available, we're really working towards an integrated model
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  to make sure that our workforce not only
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  can sustain itself but also grow at a
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  consistent model as well.
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  And for our third one that I'm really,
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  really curious about, I'm sure it's on every
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  agency's mind, is AI. I mean, it's the
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  buzzword right now. It's going around all over
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  the place. We're really focused on
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  the one most recent that we've re that
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  we're rolling out is our,
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  client documentation.
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  How can we make sure that our clinic
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  documentation
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  on our clients
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  is not only
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  robust
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  and accurate, but also make sure that we're
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  using AI to kinda filter things through because
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  our payers right now have their AI models,
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  and they're denying claims. If they deny claims
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  versus because our documentation
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  wasn't correct in their eyes. We gotta make
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  sure that our AI tools can match up
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  to their AI tools
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  and get our claims processed in not only
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  a a quick way, but also an efficient
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  way to make sure we're getting reimbursement quickly.
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  And now since you brought up both workforce
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  and AI, do you see AI as a
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  tool that can help automate the workforce as,
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  you know,
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  there are some challenges filling roles?
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  Absolutely.
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  I mean, not only from our applicant tracking
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  system, which we're using AI to kinda filter
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  through,
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  resumes, but also on the back end, yes,
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  through client documentation, working through our electronical
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  medical record,
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  really trying to figure out how do we
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  become more efficient, but also make sure that
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  that our clinicians if they're able to cut
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  down 20% from a documentation time, that means
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  they're able to spend that much more time
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  directly impacting our clients and impacting our communities.
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  So, yeah, AI is a big a big
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  thing for not only our agency, but I'm
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  sure the rest of mental health and physical
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  health in our spaces.
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  Yes. And so how do you feel your
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  AI journey is going, so far overall?
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  I would say we're pretty we're still in
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  our infancy. We're we're we haven't historically been
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  an early adapter. I would say we want
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  there's so many regulations.
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  There's so many rules in health care that
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  we wanna make sure that we're partnering
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  with our electronic medical record
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  that not only they're making sure their systems
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  are working very well, but for our staff
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  that we're rolling it out on a distinct,
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  manner. So we know, like, we can get
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  the buy in from the staff, but also
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  making sure that we're not overwhelming
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  our staff without clear documented policies and procedures
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  and making sure that our training is not
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  only sustained but also able to get everyone
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  on board at the same time. So right
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  now, we're kind of working on those policies
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  and procedures. We're working on those training plans
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  and really trying to roll out that AI
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  for the clinical documentation
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  over the next three to four months. And,
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  hopefully, if all goes well, by the end
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  of this year, we'll see some really significant
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  gains from our clinical documentation,
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  reducing that time so they can spend time
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  with our clients.
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  I'm shifting gears a bit. What are you
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  most excited about right now in health care?
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  I mean, right now, me personally and People
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  Incorporated is really that integration for the whole
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  person. I mean, care coordination has been around
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  for a long time, and we're still working
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  on how do we continue
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  to build the right skill sets and build
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  the right team of clinicians
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  to make sure our clients are getting all
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  their needs met. So we work in schools.
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  We're working in our communities. We're working in
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  clinics. We're out wherever our clients are to
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  meet them where they are,
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  and having that care coordination, having that care
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  team
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  really focused on meeting our clients' needs
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  is so critical. That integration piece is what's
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  gonna make our outcomes
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  even more strong as we continue to grow
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  our CCBHC
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  and as we can continue to grow our
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  impact in our communities. But, yeah, integration is
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  so critical. We used to historically, there'd be
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  silos. Like, you'd have your residential,
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  you'd have your clinics.
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  Now everything is integrated in our systems that,
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  hey. If somebody's being discharged from one of
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  our residential claims, we know we have a
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  clinic work worker waiting for them to discharge
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  so they can get them into our other
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  services.
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  We want them to be able to access
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  our
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  services
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  as quickly and as integrated as possible because
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  we know if they just charge for one
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  of our programs, we may not see them
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  again. So we have to have that soft
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  handoff between all of our programs to make
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  sure our clients are consistently being seen to
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  help them.
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  And, how are you thinking about growth over
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  the next twelve to twenty four months?
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  Oh, growth. I mean, in a perfect world,
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  like, it's one of those weird businesses. Mental
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  health, our phones ring all the time. On
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  any given day, we're getting three to 500
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  calls. So from a business standpoint,
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  we have almost unlimited demand.
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  But from a growth standpoint,
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  even if we do everything right, Andrew, we're
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  lucky to get a 2% margin.
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  So in order for us to grow sustainably
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  and also fiscally responsibly,
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  we need to be very, very sure that
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  what we're doing is not only going to
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  be
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  full but also reimbursed in the future. I
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  don't know if you've seen, but Minnesota recently,
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  there's been a lot of fraud allegations.
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  I mean, Minnesota has been in the news
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  for a lot of different reasons.
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  Frankly, People Incorporated, we have nothing to worry
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  about. We run a very, very
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  high integrity agency.
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  But being a nonprofit in Minnesota, sometimes you
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  get roped into those those conversations.
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  For us to continue to grow,
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  we need to have ourselves
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  in the right places, in the right areas.
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  I would say
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  between the metropolitan areas, they're a little bit
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  saturated. I think our growth and our sustainable
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  growth is gonna be in the the first
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  or second ring suburbs of the Minneapolis, Saint
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  Paul areas and really continuing to grow our
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  mission, which is the safety net, and align
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  that growth with sustainability.
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  So we need to make sure that our
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  staffing models make sense. We need to make
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  sure that our our supervisory
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  from a standpoint of can we have staff
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  to supervise
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  are there as well. We know we're not
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  graduating enough,
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  licensed professionals in the state of Minnesota.
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  There's been a worker shortage for as long
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  as I've been in this business. So in
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  order for us to grow, not only do
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  we need to make sure it's fiscally responsible
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  and sustainable from a client, but, also, we
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  need to make sure we can staff it
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  appropriately. So for People Incorporated, we're always looking
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  to grow, but we know that in order
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  to grow, we need to take on some
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  debt, but also make sure that our staffing
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  is aligning with our sustainable growth.
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  Those are all the questions I had for
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  you today, Kelvin. Thank you so much for
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  joining us. It's been a pleasure speaking with
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  you, and I hope we can talk again
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  soon.
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  Yeah, Andrew. No. I appreciate it. I just
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  wanna leave maybe one last lasting impression. It's
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  just we know that the future of nonprofit
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  mental health care isn't just about kind of
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  expanding access. It's really about looking at those
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  outcomes,
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  supporting our clinicians and the rest of our
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  staff, and making sure that our systems in
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  place can really actually sustain both of those
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  models, not only physically, but also from a
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  standpoint
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  clinically as well. So, yeah, we have we're
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  very excited for what we've done. We're gonna
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  continue to grow here at People Incorporated.
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  And, yeah, I appreciate you letting me talk
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  about not only our agency, but also what
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  we're trying to do with mental health of
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  Minnesota.
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  Of course. Oh, it's a pleasure.