Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Harlon Pickett, President of Eagle Care Health Solutions

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Harlon Pickett, President of Eagle Care Health Solutions · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

• 0:00
  Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless
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  innovation to create world class pharmacy care and
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  benefit solutions. Our connected health services make the
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  treatment, prediction, and prevention of health care's most
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  complex conditions
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  easier and more accessible as we drive organizations
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  and people forward. Ever North Home Based Care
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  provides value based care that helps patients with
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  multiple chronic conditions
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  and social determinant of health barriers get the
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  care they need and the personalized experience they
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  deserve. We serve patients who struggle to navigate
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  the health care system by bringing high quality
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  primary
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  and preventative care services to the home. By
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  providing clinical care and support services that provide
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  whole person care, we improve health equity, access,
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  and outcomes for the populations we serve.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  payer issues roundtable.
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  I'm joined right now by Harlan Pickett. He
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  was the president of Eagle Care Health Solutions.
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  Harlan, thanks for being here. We'd love to
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  have you briefly introduce yourself to start us
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  off. Absolutely. It is my pleasure to be
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  here. It has been an absolutely extraordinary event
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  thus far.
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  Once again, my name is Harlan Pickett. I
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  am the founder and president of Eagle Care
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  Health Solutions.
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  We are a disruptor, I guess, is the
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  best way to say it. Innovative in the
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  way that we build plans for employers
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  and, in some cases, individuals
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  that really are outside the norm and provide
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  people, crazy enough, Grace,
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  0
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  cost
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  health care.
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  Wonderful. Well, thank you for being here. Excited
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  to hear more about this.
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  Let's start our conversation
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  though with growth goals. So from improving member
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  experience and expanding value based care to controlling
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  costs, payer executives have ambitious growth goals for
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  the rest of the year and looking into
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  2025.
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  So in your role, what is your top
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  priority, and how are you planning to get
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  there?
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  It's very interesting to think about growth goals
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  from our perspective because
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  we have to meet folks where they are.
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  And not everyone is ready to embrace
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  some of the
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  different things that we do. So we meet
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  them where they are. And that starts with
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  a
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  crazy innovative thing called asking the employer what
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  your benefits
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  should look like. What would you like? We
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  even talk to the employees
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  and ask them what is important to them.
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  And
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  that's part of our growth model because it
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  helps us better understand
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  the folks we're working with.
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  And we do have growth goals, but it's
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  interesting enough, it's more about
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  adding the right fit.
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  We will turn folks away because they're not
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  ready or we will
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  even introduce them to other folks and say,
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  Hey, you know what? I know someone over
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  at Scentivo.
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  You might be a better fit for Scentivo
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  right now. We'd love to stay in contact
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  with you, collect some data and see if
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  we can help you in the future.
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  But
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  the growth that we focus on
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  is a growth of people having better access
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  to health care.
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  Sometimes that means that EagleCare is a solution.
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  Sometimes that means something else is a solution.
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  But if we give them better access to
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  health care, then our growth
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  model has been achieved.
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  Absolutely.
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  And going off of that at an industry
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  level, how would you describe the biggest barriers
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  to effectively serving and engaging your members?
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  What opportunities do you see for large scale
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  improvements, and how are you implementing that in
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  your current strategy? Yeah. That that's a interesting
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  question because we face a very
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  strange barrier. And that is,
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  what do you mean
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  that the plan is
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  30% less than what I have right now,
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  but all of the health care is free
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  to the employees?
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  That's not possible. It sounds too good to
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  be true. What's the catch?
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  Why haven't I heard this before?
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  It's a very interesting thing to have to
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  discuss with someone. Right? The first thing they
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  think of is, okay, well, this must be
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  some type of HMO model where there's all
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  these hoops you gotta jump through to get
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  any care. So it's not really anything different.
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  But you have to explain to them what
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  we're really doing, the steps that we're taking
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  to provide access to healthcare. And once you
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  really are able to get down and explain
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  to them what's happening, and you kinda remove
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  that
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  this is a term that I heard recently
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  that I really like. You remove that reek
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  of gatekeeper
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  from them because that's a terrifying thing for
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  people. Oh, I can't do anything without a
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  gatekeeper. When you remove that
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  and they see that what you're really doing
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  is value
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  and evidence based medicine and providing
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  true access to health care, reestablishing
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  that
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  doctor patient relationship
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  and what's possible there,
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  that changes the game. And the light switches
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  and especially if you're talking to people in
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  my generation, a little bit older, they're like,
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  you mean, like, back when I was a
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  kid? You mean back to kind of access
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  to care we had when you get caught
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  up the phone and actually talk to your
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  doctor?
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  That that care right there. That's what we're
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  bringing back. Wonderful.
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  And shifting gears just slightly toward,
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  advice that you have for leadership.
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  Keeping pace in today's dynamic health care landscape
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  is challenging. So I'd love to know what
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  advice you would share with peer leaders who
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  are looking to grow businesses while keeping members
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  top of mind. Yeah.
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  The member experience
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  and the focus on the member. Yeah. Too
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  many times,
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  I think our plans
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  get misaligned.
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  Our senate our incentives are not aligned. If
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  your plan is not aligned on the member
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  experience and the member access to health care,
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  then your members are probably not going to
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  be happy in the future. I was blessed
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  to be on a panel about consumerism
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  during this event. And one of the things
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  I think that struck me is the fact
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  of how different people think consumerism is. What
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  does that look like?
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  The consumers are expecting
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  more and more.
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  As we are deep, deep in this digital
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  age, they expect to have access to things
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  on their phone. They expect their wearable devices
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  to let them know if their blood pressure
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  is up or if, their little monitor is
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  telling them that their blood sugar is up
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  or down or all of those things. They
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  expect to have access to all this. So
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  if we're not incorporating these things or at
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  least preparing
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  to incorporate these things in our health plans,
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  we're gonna be falling behind. And someone else
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  is gonna take that place.
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  And good luck surviving those times whenever you're
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  not ready. And we're really not even talking
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  about AI here. I mean, that's a whole
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  another ballgame. We could go down that pathway
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  on the AI. But you've got to embrace
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  these things.
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  At least start the process now.
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  Because if you don't, you're gonna be so
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  far behind by the time
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  you look up and say,
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  it's too late. And I wanted to make
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  a little side note there because I think
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  this is funny. This is something that I
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  had to personally deal with.
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  I grew up in the Terminator age. And
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  so everything with AI is a Terminator. Right?
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  So I've gotta get over my fear of
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  the Terminator so that I can embrace AI.
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  It's it's kind of a funny little thing.
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  I've had a few talks about that, that
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  it is a different thing from our generation
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  to because AI has a different thing than,
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  say, someone in your generation
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  that the Terminator movies were gonna be terrible
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  by then.
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  So I like that analogy.
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  Well, as we are wrapping up our conversation
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  today, are there any closing remarks remarks you'd
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  like to share on the podcast?
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  I really would. I I think that there
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  is a lot of things that people can
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  do,
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  but
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  telemedicine is something
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  that I I love and hate. I mean,
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  I'm gonna tell you I love it because
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  I think it gives some accessibility to people
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  that don't have it. But I will tell
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  you, this is a very interesting thing that
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  dynamic me. And I wanna share this because
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  I think it's very important to get this
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  out. Behavioral health has become such a big
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  deal. Right? So no one debates that. It's
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  become big, big issue, behavioral health.
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  But we expect that having a virtual
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  or a tele
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  counseling service is going to be easy or
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  accessible for some people.
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  I will say that it's not. There are
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  people in some cases, it may be an
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  unsafe place to have that conversation, even if
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  it's digital,
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  even if it is
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  voice.
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  And if you don't provide them a place,
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  you can still have that digital. But if
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  you don't provide them a
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  place to have that conversation,
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  there's no chance that they'll have it and
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  there's no chance they're going to get better
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  grace.
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  We offer one of the things we offer
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  is in office, in primary care office
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  access to that even if it's digital. You
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  can speak to a psychiatrist
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  under the guise
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  of a primary care visit because it can
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  be in a clinical setting without someone knowing
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  you're talking to that kind of physician because
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  that person may not want you to be
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  there.
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  So it's just opening up those opportunities and
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  meeting clients in a position where they can
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  actually share
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  what's happening with them and feel comfortable doing
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  that and not have the fear of the
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  repercussions that could happen. Because behavioral health, I
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  mean, it it's it's a big deal, and
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  we need to make sure that we're taking
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  care of folks.
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  Absolutely. Well, thank you for sharing your insights
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  today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again, we
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  are live at the 2024 fall payer issues
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  roundtable.