Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Saad Ehtisham, President & CEO, Atlantic Health

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Saad Ehtisham, President & CEO, Atlantic Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
0:33
My name is Will Riley from r one.
0:36
I'm joined on the podcast today by Saad
0:39
Eteshem.
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Saad is president and CEO of Atlantic Health
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in New Jersey. Welcome to the podcast, Saad.
0:47
Thank you, Will.
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It's great to have you and great to
0:50
be talking to you. Can you start off
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please by telling us a little bit about
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yourself, your role, and tell us about Atlantic
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Health.
0:57
Sure.
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So I've been with Atlantic Health for a
1:01
hundred days as their new president and CEO,
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so fairly new to the organization.
1:06
Prior to that, I was with Novant Health.
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I was the president of acute care operations
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for Novant overseeing 19 hospitals, 10,000,000,000 in net
1:15
revenue.
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Atlantic Health. Let's talk about Atlantic where I
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am.
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It's a 5 and a half billion net
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revenue organization. It's got six hospitals, almost 1,800
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beds,
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tertiary facilities,
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very much anchored in the community. Morristown Medical
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Center has been around since 1911.
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It is ranked among one of the top,
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three hospitals in state of of New Jersey
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by US News and, report ranking.
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Newsweek, number one. Overlook Medical Center is number
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two.
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The community
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is just, fantastic. That area is fantastic. We
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have
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about seven and a half million
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population that we serve around 14 counties, one
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in Pennsylvania as well,
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another New Jersey, a state that has nine,
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million,
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residents. So we're serving, quite a large population
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there.
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Very diversified.
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We're not academic medical center yet. We have
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550
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medical students.
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We have 356
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residents,
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in the system,
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and we have about $70,000,000
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worth of research happening,
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at Atlantic Health as well. Wow. Okay.
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What are some of the key initiatives and
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priorities that you have on your agenda for
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Atlantic Health going into 2026?
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The timing,
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perfect for this podcast because we just pivoted
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and rolled out a three year strategic plan,
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for our organization,
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and, and and I call it a journey.
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It's a journey to becoming a top performing
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national leader in health care and under which
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we have five priorities,
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strategic imperatives that we are focusing on. Number
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number one is execute on clinical
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excellence,
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and and we can talk more about that.
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So number one, execute on clinical excellence.
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Number two,
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create brand loyalty
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and consumer,
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stickiness.
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Number three is focused on our team,
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ensuring that we have
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a great experience for our team members.
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We're creating upskilling opportunities for our employees
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and also,
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looking at ways to
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grow them within the organization.
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So a lot of focus on team members.
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Number four is sustainable growth,
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and the word sustainable is very purposeful there.
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And, lastly,
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on that is,
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financial stewardship,
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future proofing the organization.
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The focus on stewardship sustainability
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there. Can you tell unpack that a little
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bit more? So,
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the, financial stewardship, we we have set out
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that we wanna attain a certain profit,
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margin,
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in, by 2026.
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We believe that's the margin that's going to
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be needed to be able to drive access
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revenue, to invest back into capital and strategic
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initiatives,
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and and along with that is growing in,
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our market share. Market share, synergistic market share
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in primary and secondary service areas,
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looking at growth opportunities and partnerships, very important.
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It's probably not gonna be possible for health
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systems to continue to own everything.
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I think we need to look at partners
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out there that we can leverage
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and have, growth, joint venture opportunities exist as
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well. So, part of that is that sustainable
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growth that we can continue to build upon
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and expand from where we are in our
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region into our surrounding regions as well. Okay.
4:48
Fantastic. Thank you.
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I'd like to start by talking about technology,
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and the adoption of technology at large health
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systems like yours.
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It feels like historically,
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large health systems have been quite conservative when
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it comes to the adoption of technology.
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But it also feels like potentially that's changing
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with the advent of AI solutions to help
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both on the clinical side and the administrative
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side of health care.
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And that there's this real sense of enthusiasm
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and energy around using those that maybe is
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different from different eras of technology we've seen
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in health care in the past.
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Do you agree with that? Is that how
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you see it playing out too, or is
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it different? No. I I agree. There's a
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lot of excitement
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about,
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technology.
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How can we leverage technology
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to advance, clinical
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outcomes?
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How can we use,
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technology to, from administrative
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documentation burden, make it easier for our clinicians
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and our teams to provide care?
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So that excitement is there, and I've always
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been a fan. I I would call myself
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a cautious techno enthusiast.
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I I I do like technology,
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but I have a unique spin on that.
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For me,
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most people are looking at technology as the
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the next
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wave of how we're gonna get better
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without really understanding what you're trying to get
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better at.
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And for me,
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in my teams, what I tell them, what
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is the problem you're trying to solve?
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Identify the problem,
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know what you're trying to solve,
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And when you solve it, what does it
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get you? And it needs to be grounded
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in. It has a impact on patient outcomes.
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It has an impact on team member experience.
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It has an impact on patient experience. And
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at the end of the day, it has
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a return on investment or a value on
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it, investment.
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And that that that could be soft quantifiable
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things. Once you know all those things, then
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go find the solution on the AI side.
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Mhmm. What I'm seeing is people are looking
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for solutions. They find the solution. They get
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excited about that technology. Then they go looking
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for problems to solve for within the health
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system. It's backwards. Yeah. So I'm flipping it
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a little bit. And that, I mean, that
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leads you or me straight to,
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governance
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and how you then govern
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the deployment of this technology and where you
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make your bets, basically. Yeah. Can you talk
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a little bit about any governance structures or
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systems that you're setting up? So,
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on there, we've just stood up recently,
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comprised of clinical leaders, administrative, executive team members,
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and others,
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what we call as
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a joint venture slash product,
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development evaluation committee.
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In that, where we evaluate all the different,
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technologies that are coming through along with all
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the other joint ventures, but we're focused on
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the technology piece. And we also have what
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we call a venture studios arm, which is
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almost we have a 60,000,000 dedicated to private
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equity funding
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to start ups in technology, health care, health
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care adjacent companies. So that all funnels through
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there.
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And the governance is to really look at
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the principles of what we're trying to do
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as I mentioned before. What is the problem
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we're trying to solve? How does that impact?
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And we put the patient lens. We put
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the team member lens. We put the financial
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lens through it. And you gotta have that.
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And once you know that this is the
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product that makes sense, then you gotta involve
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a broader stakeholder group, the end users.
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You really gotta bring them to the table
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upfront early on because
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the fear usually is, is AI going to
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replace me? Mhmm.
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I don't believe AI is gonna replace people
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because the cognitive abilities and that the clinicians
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have is never going to be replaced, but
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it's going to augment their decision making much
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faster. So we, I like to involve the
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clinicians in that decision making process, vetting process.
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I think it's very important. Once you do
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that, you're really going to understand
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how does that alter our workflows.
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That's where people usually fail.
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They're trying to,
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put a square peg in a round hole,
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and it doesn't work. So you gotta understand
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your workflows because it may alter the way
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care is delivered, and that's why you need
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those clinicians to be able to say, yeah.
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This has value,
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and we're willing to change the way we
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deliver care and our pathways. And if you
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can get alignment on all those areas,
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you're gonna be very much successful. So the
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governance structure has to be in place to
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look at it why,
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how, where, and what's it gonna accomplish. Okay.
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Very interesting. You mentioned as well,
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some venture partnerships, and I'm curious to ask
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more about that because
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it feels like in health care, there are
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two sort of archetypes of innovation.
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Your incumbent,
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large health system, large payer,
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large technology provider
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established with the data, with the infrastructure,
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and then an alternative model of ins more
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of an insurgent
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model,
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disruptor Yeah. Maybe in our world, AI native
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data first,
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but without some of the benefits of incumbency.
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It sounds like you're trying to build an
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innovation agenda and approach that somehow juggles those
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two
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archetypes. Is that right? We're trying to be
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in the middle somewhere. Right. What what I'm
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telling my teams is we need to think
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about is disrupting ourselves.
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I see. If we can disrupt ourselves and
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innovate around that
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and know why we're innovating, we're gonna be
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successful
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because then you're not reacting to what's coming
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down the pipe. You know, we we talk
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about all the regulatory changes and policies coming,
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and people react to them. What I like
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to do is build a system
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that knows its identity, knows where it's going,
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and knows how to get there and not
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worry about what's coming down the pipe. I
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mean, sure, you gotta worry about it, but
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if you're always in reactive mode, you're in
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survival mode. Yeah. And I'd rather us not
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be in a reactive mode. And you bring
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some
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significant advantages
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as a large incumbent, I would think. Yeah.
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And you want to play to those advantages
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and to those strengths. Absolutely. I I wanna
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invite our teams,
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use the principles of higher reliability
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organization, deference to expertise,
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engagement at all levels from the clinical teams,
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from our physician providers,
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and from the administrative side, the corporate overhead
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enterprise side to say,
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look. This is what we're trying to do.
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This is how we're going to accomplish it.
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So you have shared data governance
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along with clinical expertise,
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married together with a common objective of advancing
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care.
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At the end of the day, it's really
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about patient outcomes and patient experience. Mhmm. And
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if you keep that grounded as the central,
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North Star, you're gonna do
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well. Can we talk a little bit about
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the administrative
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side now and and how it can benefit
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from the application of some of these new
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technologies?
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Perhaps you could start by telling us about
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your payer mix and some of the payer
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relations Mhmm. That you have. Sure.
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So we happen to be in a payer
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mix of, like most systems. We're we're 50%
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governmental,
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Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and, Medicaid
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with, portions of self pay as well. And,
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the rest of it is, different levels of,
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managed care, contracting.
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Ironically,
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Atlantic Health is, in my opinion, much more
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advanced than most health systems. We have 38%
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of our revenue is, through,
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risk based contracts. Got it. So we're already
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at 38%.
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We have two large ACOs that are managing
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population health, with upwards of couple of thousand
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providers in each of the ACOs has done
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really well.
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Our pop health strategy is, pretty robust.
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I've challenged the team in the next three
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years to try to get from 38 to,
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43, 45%
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of total book of business of value based
12:47
care. You have to be cautious there because
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we don't know
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how the policy is coming from the administration
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going to pivot and change. So little bit
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cautious, but we will need to grow that.
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So pair mix is, gives us an opportunity
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to look at it from the governmental side
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and also from a commercial side.
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And so, in terms of the application of
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new technologies like AI, for example, on the
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administrative side Okay. That process historically has been
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an area that has been very labor intensive
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for health systems.
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Lots and lots of people technology has been
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used in places like revenue cycle, but it's
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always seems to have been more of an
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assistant Yeah. And secondary.
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Right? But with with new technologies like AI,
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it feels like an area that's ripe
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to pivot essentially and become technology
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first, labor second.
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Very much so. So, you know, let's take
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talk about coding. Right? Mhmm. Techno there's the
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there's technology
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out there from, artificial intelligence that can mine
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the the electronic medical records and
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and code the medical record ready for billing.
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That's where the human portion comes in to
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just
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look at the speed and velocity of all
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those coding things that are happening, and one
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human still need to look at it, make
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sure it make meets the reasonableness.
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So you leverage the ability of one coder
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to be able to do multiple, multiple, things
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at the same time without having multiple coders
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doing singular. So you're parallel,
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processing. I think that's the huge advantage there
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as well. Denials is another area where we
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can do that.
14:25
Use AI to advance,
14:27
reduce our administrative burden as well, which is
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people dependent process. So it's almost Yeah. Leveraging
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people to be more efficient.
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Yes. Yes. Yes. Rather in the way you've
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described the clinical side. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
14:40
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And maybe to to to
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wrap up, how do you see some of
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these technology advancements
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benefiting the patient ultimately? Because you've said that's
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the North Star. Yes.
14:52
So
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to be
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better outcomes
14:56
at a lower cost is
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eventually going to lower the burden
15:01
on our consumers from out of pocket. That's
15:04
really the endgame. At the end of the
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day, we gotta give them a product that
15:08
improves their health. We wanna be partners in
15:10
their journey. And if we could do it
15:12
at our low cost value in the right
15:14
setting, it doesn't need to be in the
15:15
acute setting. It has to be in the
15:17
right setting, whether it's inpatient,
15:19
outpatient, or physician offices. We wanna meet the
15:22
patients where they wanna be met.
15:24
And so to me, that's the advantage. Yeah.
15:26
Yeah. Okay.
15:28
Saad, it's been great talking to you. Do
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you have any concluding thoughts or things that
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we haven't covered that you want to bring
15:33
up? Just
15:35
echo again, re reinforce,
15:38
know what the problem you're trying to solve
15:40
before you go seek the AI solution
15:43
and have a governance structure in place that
15:45
involves clinicians at at the bedside
15:48
in in implementing that or administrative
15:51
style. And, take the fear away that technology
15:53
is replacing them because it's not. It's aiding
15:56
them to be more efficient.
15:58
Wonderful. Thank you. Thanks so much. It's been
16:00
really great talking to you. Thank you, sir.
16:01
Thank you, Will. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thanks.