Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Expanding Tertiary Care Access in Chicago’s Western Suburbs with Kyle Glass

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Expanding Tertiary Care Access in Chicago’s Western Suburbs with Kyle Glass · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  This is where health care leadership comes together.
• 0:04
  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
• 0:07
  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
• 0:10
  speakers to Chicago
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  April.
• 0:14
  This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas
• 0:17
  Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former president George
• 0:20
  w Bush. For the agenda and event details,
• 0:22
  visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:25
  and click on the events tab in the
• 0:26
  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
• 0:29
  in Chicago.
• 0:31
  This is Alan Condon back with another episode
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  of the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. And today, delighted
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  to be joined by Kyle Glass, regional CFO
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  and senior vice president of UChicago Medicine AdventHealth.
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  Kyle, a pleasure to have you back on
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  the podcast with us, and I know we're
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  looking forward to seeing you in person at
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  our upcoming Becker's event.
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  For those of our listeners who might be
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  as well acquainted with yourself
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  and the unique makeup of UChicago Medicine AdventHealth,
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  do you mind give us a little bit
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  more background into your your role and your
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  experience at the health system?
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  Yeah. Sure. First, thank you again for the
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  invite to be back on the podcast. Big
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  fan of Becker's what you guys do from
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  health care information and, pulling folks together.
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  So I had a privilege to serve as
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  CFO for our UChicago Medicine AdventHealth partnership here
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  in Chicago.
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  Been with AdventHealth for
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  seventeen years now at this point, the last
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  two years here in our Chicago relationship, which
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  is kind of a unique model,
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  between an academic health system and and a
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  really strong community hospital based system.
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  And so we're very excited about the partnership
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  and what it brings to the Chicagoland, particularly
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  the Western Suburbs area.
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  You know, really feel like it combines the
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  best of academic medicine
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  delivered close to home in a community hospital
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  system. And so part of the what we're
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  excited about is
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  the ability to provide comprehensive community hospital care
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  right where consumers live, work,
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  play in the Western Suburbs,
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  but be able to deliver on those high
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  level tertiary academic services close to home there.
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  And when patients need to have access to
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  this more acute critical
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  service lines,
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  there's a there's a clean pathway for them
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  to translate from our system directly into the
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  academic center at Hyde Park and then back
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  to our suburbs for follow-up care.
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  It's really making it easy for the patient.
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  I think it's the goal of the partnership,
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  and we're about three years into that relationship
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  at this point. It's it's gone very well
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  there as we look at building out more
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  comprehensive service lines here
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  and really how we grow that footprint in
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  the Western Suburbs.
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  Fantastic. Well, I've got some questions here that
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  we're gonna dive into, but I guess maybe
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  just kind of following off from where you
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  left off there, Kyle.
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  Like you said, three years into that relationship,
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  it's quite a competitive market. The Western Suburbs,
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  quite a lot of activity going on. There's
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  some big names, some big systems.
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  Can you kinda give me three years into
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  that relationship, two, three years down the line,
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  where are your biggest focus just in terms
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  of growing that footprint, like you said, and
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  kind of those partnerships?
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  Yeah. You're right. Competitive area. A lot of
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  growth out here in the in the suburbs.
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  Probably, it's a great place to live and
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  work here in Chicago.
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  And so when you look at our our
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  focus is how do we expand access to
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  sort of to some of the tertiary service
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  lines that patients are looking for. Couple key
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  areas that we're excited about in the future,
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  oncology being one of them. So Chicago Medicine
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  being a top 10 program in in The
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  US, how we take the best of their
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  oncology care and provide that right here in
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  in our suburbs.
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  The ability to have patients have access to
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  advanced research and clinical trials to really advance
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  their care. The subspecialized
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  oncology care when you have whether you have
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  prostate or breast or
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  colorectal or or or take your pick of
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  those
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  cancer areas. When you want that care that's
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  specialized to your specific cancer
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  area,
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  you should have access to that right here
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  in your community
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  and then making that easy for the consumer.
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  The ability to navigate from one stop to
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  the next in your care,
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  from your medical oncologist to your radiation oncologist
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  to your surgeon if that's part of your
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  treatment plan, coordinating that with your primary care.
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  All that seamlessly for the patient and ideally
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  very close together in the same location
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  is really what patients and consumers are looking
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  for. Again, it's a big enough disease as
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  it is. How do you make it easy
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  to navigate for patients and their families candidly?
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  Excited about the continued growth of our neurosurgeon
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  neuroscience service line and what that looks like
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  going forward, the ability to actually advance to
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  to provide advanced level neurosurgery,
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  neuroscience care
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  right here in Hinsdale in particular,
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  and the growth of that program,
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  expansion of some of our key orthopedic partnerships
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  across the Western Suburbs, again, making that easy
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  to access, how do we help patients get
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  in more timely
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  for care, but also help keep patients healthier
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  by providing access to nonsurgical
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  options
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  within our network for care.
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  And the last thing I'll touch on is
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  how do you provide advanced access. Right? I
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  think one of the things that patients and
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  consumers struggle with the most, how do I
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  get in timely? So I need to see
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  my primary care and I need to see
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  my specialist.
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  I don't wanna wait thirty, sixty, ninety days
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  to get in. How do you expand your
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  footprint for primary care, put it somewhere close
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  to where the patients are,
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  and then get them in timely
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  and then help them navigate to the next
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  level of care with the same level of
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  speed?
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  Patients are really looking for that as they
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  shop around for access. I think,
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  both the university and AdventHealth are very excited
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  about how
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  to deliver that differently
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  in the suburbs.
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  Mhmm.
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  Yeah. I I mean, it's such a to
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  your point, I mean, fantastic two fantastic institutions
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  coming together. New Chicago Medicine, Affen Health, very
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  competitive market. I love some of the key
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  focus areas and service lines that you're focused
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  on, like you said, oncology, neurosciences,
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  orthopedic care, really expanding access to some of
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  those territory service lines.
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  When thinking about your market now more broadly,
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  it's it's been a big,
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  lot of activity there in terms of what
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  we've seen with Prime Healthcare recently acquiring, I
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  believe, nine hospitals
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  in in and around your market from Ascension.
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  I believe they're planning to acquire one more,
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  entering a market where they've never had a
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  presence in before. It's we're starting to see
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  some systems kind of take a little bit
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  of a a a page out of that
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  playbook in other geographies
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  across The States. But
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  how are you looking at that move by
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  a new entrant, a new competitor, a large
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  one like Prime? Obviously, you different yourself in
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  quite a substantial way. With being with the
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  the the partnership with UChicago Medicine, but does
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  that come into your your factoring at all
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  in terms of a competition
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  standpoint,
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  growing your service lines, how you differentiate yourselves
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  from other big nonprofit systems
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  coming into your market?
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  Yeah. It it's a great question. I think
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  you're always obviously watching what your competitors in
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  the market are doing and making sure that
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  that you're matching your service levels,
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  to to meet the demand from what the
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  consumers are looking for and and not falling
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  behind in the market. At the same time,
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  I think the larger focus is continuing our
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  growth strategies that we'd already laid out.
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  And from a brand perspective,
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  if you feel strongly about the quality of
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  care we provide and and the differentiators that
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  we provide within our system,
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  you're not necessarily focused on what someone else
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  might be choosing to do in the market
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  versus the strategies that you know that you
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  have that will help drive growth. And a
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  lot of that being the focus around putting
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  the consumer at the center of care.
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  So you you probably seen if you know
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  anything about AdventHealth that, whole person cares is
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  core to what we provide.
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  And when you put the consumer first in
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  what you're doing,
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  the rest falls in line behind that. And
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  so when you when you're focused on how
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  do I make this easy for the consumer
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  to get the right level of care, make
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  it easy to navigate along the way,
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  and make sure I care about them as
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  a person,
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  then that that's your focus of the system
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  and less so on what others in the
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  market might be focused on.
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  If anything, how do you make sure that
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  the overall market served as it needs to
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  be? And sometimes it actually involves relationships with
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  with other systems, other organizations
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  too. Because the ultimate goal should be how
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  we make the community better, how do we
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  drive a different level of care for the
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  community as a whole.
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  And that's where we're our focus is largely
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  at versus
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  just trying to match or adjust to or
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  or pivot based on what someone else in
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  the market
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  is. It's how do we actually focus on
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  the needs of the consumer. And if you're
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  focused on that,
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  the rest seems to work itself out pretty
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  well. Mhmm. Focus on your control was on
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  your own your own strategy, your own market
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  rather than growing for the sake of growth.
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  Like, other systems maybe trying to do, but
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  potentially some downfalls in terms of strategy down
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  the line, what what you've all seen there.
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  I guess last follow-up on this call before
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  I kinda jump to some of these prepared
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  questions that we have. I think with your
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  CFO or your your strategy hat on,
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  kinda looking more broadly when we think about
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  hospital consolidation, kind of, recent quarters and what
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  we expect for the for the coming quarters.
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  No doubt there's some real challenges out there
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  in terms of the the expiration of the
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  enhanced premium tax credits of the ACA subsidies.
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  Medicaid cuts coming down the pipeline at the
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  2026,
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  into 2027.
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  No doubt that's gonna drive a lot of
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  the hospital consolidation on the independent hospital side,
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  large system snapping up some community hospitals and
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  whatnot. I guess, kind of what's your kind
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  of prediction, I guess? Do do you anticipate
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  more of this happening across the board? What
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  does that mean for the independent hospital and
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  the large academics as as these,
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  trends starts to take flight parts to to
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  to accelerate, excuse me, in light of some
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  of these financial challenges coming out of the
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  pipeline.
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  Yeah. The headwind you touched on there around
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  the the legislative changes, obviously, a big area
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  of focus.
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  And we're all watching that closely to see
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  how that lands. And you look at the
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  state of Illinois, for example, the number of
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  patients we have enrolled in Medicaid today,
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  the number of patients we have enrolled in
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  the ACA plans.
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  You look at the reduction of that enrollment
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  starting this year. The enrollment numbers are coming
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  out as as well as some of the
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  cuts in the federal funding that supports some
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  of the expanded programs the state actually is
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  deploying.
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  It will mean hospital systems will have to
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  address their strategies,
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  and, unfortunately, patients will will be impacted by
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  that. Anytime you have these legislative changes,
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  all the people are the ones that that
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  feel that, consumers are the ones that feel
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  that.
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  And so a lot of the worst can
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  be around managing
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  how you adjust your strategies to fit with
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  the new reimbursement environment is in some of
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  those places,
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  and still focus on how you provide the
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  right level of care to the patient.
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  Know that they may have less choice in
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  the market or less access to other systems
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  because
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  their status might be different, not having access
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  to the Medicaid resources or, again, the health
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  insurance resources that are provided when you're
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  an exchange plan member.
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  As far as how it relates to hospital
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  systems or or health care providers,
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  there are a number of providers that that's
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  their core business model
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  and and that exist in communities that need
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  that level of service.
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  And so with the health system, the larger
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  health systems have to figure out in Illinois
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  across the country is how do you help
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  make sure patients don't lose care in those
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  communities when that's
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  that's their core reimbursement model.
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  So in communities where we have one of
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  our facilities sits in a community that's 50%
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  Medicaid based.
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  And
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  when patients start losing that coverage
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  and that hospital's financial reality looks very different,
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  how do you not make patients drive two
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  hours over the next community for basic level
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  care?
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  Because hospitals aren't viable. And so I do
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  think it will
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  drive more consolidation in the health care industry.
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  A lot of policies you see coming out
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  are pushing that direction.
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  You know, it becomes more and more difficult
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  to operate as a stand alone hospital or
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  as a smaller system.
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  I also think it will it will reduce
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  access to care ultimately.
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  Mhmm. When you when you start taking away
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  the resource that help people get access or
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  get into clinics, get into hospitals,
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  and have access to care in the outpatient
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  setting,
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  it negatively impacts what happens when they have
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  to come through for more emergent level care.
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  Ultimately, the health of the community suffers.
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  And there are gonna be a number of
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  places you see across the country that
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  that are dealing with different reality.
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  And the downside of that is it will
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  mean patients struggle for access
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  and and struggle to maintain the same level
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  of care. And so much of health care
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  where the cost issue is is is that
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  by the time you get to the inpatient
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  setting, it's it's the most expensive option for
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  health care. And so how do you actually
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  when when you reduce the resources that provide
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  access to that outpatient services
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  and force those patients to come through the
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  ED for their only level of access to
• 12:14
  care,
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  it'll it'll drive cost back into the system
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  in a different way,
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  but ultimately not keep patients healthier or communities
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  healthier.
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  So it's a little hard to envision what
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  the win is long term,
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  but the system will obviously have to adjust.
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  And I think there are
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  there are individual hospitals and or health systems
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  that that are looking at a a very
• 12:37
  grim reality over the next
• 12:39
  two to three years as some of these
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  impacts fully
• 12:42
  roll into the model.
• 12:44
  Mhmm. Yeah. It's unfortunate. You've already seen a
• 12:47
  a handful of hospitals close, just in January
• 12:50
  year already.
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  Doesn't seem like there's much respite coming down
• 12:53
  the pipeline from a financial standpoint, but I
• 12:55
  guess all eyes on the primaries maybe at
• 12:57
  the time of recording, we're awaiting a senate
• 12:59
  vote on funding and whatnot. So no doubt
• 13:01
  some, allies on on what's happening on Capitol
• 13:04
  Hill for potentially some rollback of somebody's quotes
• 13:06
  are coming down the pipeline. I guess it
• 13:09
  it ties directly into our next question, Kyle,
• 13:11
  in terms of we may have already touched
• 13:13
  on it in a lot here, but in
• 13:14
  terms of are there any other kind of
• 13:16
  big priorities or headwind specifically for you,
• 13:19
  at UChicago Health this year that you're focused
• 13:21
  on or a lot of what we just
• 13:22
  touched on there?
• 13:24
  Yeah. So, obviously, Ken and Norwood, we talked
• 13:26
  about with the the legislative impacts and the
• 13:28
  the exchange plan changes and all of that.
• 13:30
  And so we'll be watching that closely and
• 13:31
  what happens to the the members that we
• 13:34
  have in our communities
• 13:36
  and how do we actually start to prioritize
• 13:38
  resources to help them get navigate to where
• 13:40
  they can get access to care or can
• 13:42
  get signed up for the right type of
• 13:44
  coverage that they need.
• 13:46
  A lot of that's about educating patients.
• 13:48
  Obviously, in our current environment too, you're seeing
• 13:50
  patients being a little bit hesitant to come
• 13:52
  in for care depending on what their status
• 13:53
  is
• 13:54
  and see how you provide the right safe
• 13:57
  environments to make sure people get care when
• 13:59
  they need to, and again, have access to
• 14:01
  resources.
• 14:02
  Priority standpoint,
• 14:04
  we touched on some of that earlier too.
• 14:07
  Patient access remains the top earliest. How do
• 14:09
  we make it easy for the consumer to
• 14:10
  navigate, move throughout our system,
• 14:13
  find us when they need us,
• 14:15
  and then get to their next level of
• 14:17
  care?
• 14:18
  Ideally, keep them out of the health care
• 14:19
  system and keep them healthy where they're where
• 14:20
  they're at. A couple key technologies we're really
• 14:22
  excited about that we're rolling out this year,
• 14:24
  a streamlined referral process that makes it a
• 14:26
  lot easier for physicians in our network to
• 14:29
  be able to move patients to the system,
• 14:31
  with a lot less friction within the software
• 14:34
  that we have today.
• 14:36
  And that's something that we're excited to deploy
• 14:38
  later this year,
• 14:39
  focus on
• 14:41
  a lot more
• 14:43
  access for patients to their families when they're
• 14:45
  in facilities too. So
• 14:46
  deploying more smart room tech technology
• 14:49
  across our platform
• 14:51
  so that providers can have access to patients
• 14:53
  whether they're they're in the hospital or in
• 14:55
  their office, but also as families have access
• 14:57
  to their patients in their own facilities.
• 14:59
  Again, how do you make the experience better
• 15:01
  for the consumer
• 15:02
  and your providers if it all possible?
• 15:05
  And really,
• 15:07
  excited about the continued evaluation
• 15:10
  expansion, if you will, of of AI platforms.
• 15:12
  And and the the challenge in the health
• 15:14
  care systems, we're not graduating to produce enough
• 15:16
  physicians or nurses,
• 15:18
  and that's not getting better if you look
• 15:20
  at the outlook. And so how do we
• 15:21
  actually
• 15:23
  help make our clinicians more efficient, help make
• 15:25
  our patients better educated
• 15:27
  by putting the right tools out there
• 15:29
  that take care of some of that basic
• 15:31
  work and a lot of AI
• 15:33
  resources out there
• 15:34
  that just streamline the process, balance that against
• 15:37
  making sure that the care that's provided is
• 15:39
  appropriate
• 15:40
  still has the same
• 15:42
  quality level position supervision, nurse interaction,
• 15:45
  all those things, but utilizing the software to
• 15:47
  make that work easier
• 15:49
  and
• 15:50
  a better experience for the patient ultimately as
• 15:52
  well. Clear areas of focus as we move
• 15:54
  throughout the next twelve to eighteen months and
• 15:57
  and really look at an ever changing health
• 15:59
  care landscape.
• 16:00
  Mhmm. Yeah. Kyle, I'm so glad that you
• 16:03
  brought up AI at the end. It seems
• 16:04
  like I I doubt you can go through
• 16:05
  a conversation at the boardroom level, at leadership
• 16:08
  level that Yeah. It doesn't come up. But,
• 16:10
  I mean, it it is. I mean, to
• 16:12
  your point, without to to to shy away
• 16:14
  from it, there is obviously so such opportunity
• 16:16
  there. And maybe maybe if I could just
• 16:19
  end on one question on AI, maybe specifically
• 16:22
  as it relates to CFOs and and maybe
• 16:24
  the revenue cycle.
• 16:26
  Kind of doing a lot of these podcasts
• 16:28
  recently. I spoke with,
• 16:30
  CFO at Cleveland Clinic, Dennis Laraway,
• 16:32
  CFO at Mayo Clinic, Dennis Dalen recently
• 16:35
  about the same question in terms of big
• 16:38
  big opportunity and AI specifically in the revenue
• 16:40
  cycle.
• 16:42
  It seems like
• 16:43
  providers are at a playing catch up in
• 16:46
  terms of what the health plans have been
• 16:47
  using AI and automation for quite some time.
• 16:50
  I guess, no easy answer. I don't expect
• 16:52
  you have an answer here, but I guess,
• 16:55
  where do you see this kind of AI
• 16:58
  arms race for lack of a better term,
• 17:00
  going when the providers are kind of more
• 17:03
  deeply integrating AI automation into the revenue cycle,
• 17:06
  playing catch up to where health plans are.
• 17:08
  No doubt they've got their own tools that
• 17:09
  they're embellishing at the moment. But where does
• 17:12
  it all kind of end up? Is it
• 17:13
  kind of a zero sum game where you'll
• 17:15
  have AI denying claims? Again,
• 17:17
  I'm not sure if you have any thoughts
• 17:19
  on that as it goes, you know, two
• 17:21
  or three years down the line as as
• 17:23
  AI undoubtedly becomes more embedded across revenue cycle
• 17:26
  on both sides of the health care equation.
• 17:28
  Yeah. I I think it is it does
• 17:29
  feel at times like a bit of arms
• 17:31
  race
• 17:32
  between what what the payers are investing in
• 17:34
  from tools and and resources there on on
• 17:36
  the AI side,
• 17:38
  what providers are having to invest in for
• 17:39
  the same thing,
• 17:41
  to reduce the burden of paperwork and and
• 17:43
  documentation.
• 17:44
  And
• 17:45
  ultimately, I guess, maybe I'll start with where
• 17:47
  I hope it goes. Mhmm.
• 17:49
  Then in the future, the systems are automated
• 17:51
  enough that the the interaction between health system
• 17:53
  for providers and
• 17:55
  and payers becomes more seamless because of that
• 17:58
  automation.
• 17:59
  And so the ability to send information back
• 18:01
  and forth and reduce
• 18:04
  just the amount of time it takes to
• 18:05
  get things approved or things reviewed.
• 18:09
  You know, there are a lot of resources
• 18:10
  out there, but
• 18:11
  payers having access to look directly at the
• 18:13
  medical record to answer the questions and so
• 18:15
  it avoids the back and forth.
• 18:17
  Ultimately, if we end up in a place
• 18:18
  where that reduces
• 18:19
  the burden and the friction for the patient,
• 18:22
  that's the right place to get to. If
• 18:24
  it ends up at a place where we're
• 18:26
  just trying to delay care and put more
• 18:29
  tools in place to create more barriers,
• 18:31
  then it's only making the ecosystem more challenging
• 18:34
  and and sort of feeding into the frustration
• 18:35
  I think people already feel
• 18:37
  about not knowing what their status is.
• 18:40
  You know? And it it probably feels like
• 18:42
  we're tilting more in that direction than anything
• 18:44
  right now.
• 18:46
  But my hope is that more and more
• 18:47
  tools are invested there and companies move into
• 18:50
  the space on how do we
• 18:52
  streamline the process both for providers and for
• 18:55
  for payers
• 18:56
  that those systems talk to each other much
• 18:58
  better and reduce the amount of paperwork that
• 19:00
  actually a patient has to deal with
• 19:03
  or a family member who's trying to navigate
• 19:05
  care has to deal with,
• 19:07
  would be an ideal state.
• 19:09
  But today, it feels like we're we're a
• 19:11
  ways away from that at this point,
• 19:14
  and still trying to figure out the right
• 19:16
  tools,
• 19:18
  just to combat the tools that are being
• 19:20
  used against you oftentimes to to make that
• 19:22
  more challenging. So
• 19:24
  my hope is that we end up in
• 19:25
  the right place, the consumer, and
• 19:27
  and the industry sees that progress as a
• 19:29
  value add for both
• 19:31
  the provider and the payer.
• 19:33
  Ultimately, if you make the process easier, it
• 19:35
  takes cost out of the model for both
• 19:36
  of us. But But today, I don't think
• 19:38
  we've gotten that state yet and still have
• 19:40
  a lot of work to to do to
• 19:41
  get to that point.
• 19:43
  Yeah. No. I I appreciate it. Really interested
• 19:45
  to kinda get where where you hope it'll
• 19:47
  get to ultimately, would you say you're an
• 19:49
  optimist, a pessimist, or a realist as it
• 19:51
  comes to what potentially might happen down the
• 19:53
  line there?
• 19:54
  Yeah. That's about as optimistic of the answers
• 19:56
  you probably get from a CFO.
• 19:58
  The realist in me says
• 20:00
  we might be further away from that than
• 20:02
  we'd like to be.
• 20:04
  And in the meantime, we're just trying to
• 20:05
  reduce the burden that
• 20:07
  that patients feel for paperwork, but also Mhmm.
• 20:10
  The amount of time and effort that our
• 20:12
  teams are having to put in to
• 20:14
  the the back and forth process where systems
• 20:16
  are just not connected as well as they
• 20:17
  should be.
• 20:19
  And there's a lot more friction points in
• 20:20
  that process than
• 20:22
  it really should exist.
• 20:23
  Again, if your ultimate goal is how do
• 20:25
  I get care to the patient appropriately?
• 20:28
  Yeah. Yeah. Certainly, a big opportunity there and
• 20:30
  no need some partnership collaboration on the payer
• 20:32
  provider front to work towards at least some
• 20:35
  sort of a win win win for payers,
• 20:36
  providers, and, of course, the the patient in
• 20:38
  the middle of it all. Kyle, can't tell
• 20:41
  you how much I enjoyed this podcast. A
• 20:43
  real pleasure having you on. Certainly learned a
• 20:45
  lot. No doubt our listeners will will really
• 20:46
  appreciate this one as well. Really looking forward
• 20:48
  to having you speak at our upcoming event
• 20:50
  as well. Kyle, thank you so much for
• 20:51
  taking the time today.
• 20:53
  Thank you for the time. Very excited about
• 20:54
  the conference coming up in, in April, and
• 20:57
  appreciate again the the work that Beckers does
• 20:59
  and and what this podcast does for the
• 21:00
  health care industry.