Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Simplifying Healthcare and Tackling Rising Costs with Jessica Lopez-Liggett
Transcript
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- 0:58- Hi, everyone. This is Elizabeth Cassello with the
- 1:00- Becker's Payer Issues podcast.
- 1:02- I'm thrilled today to be joined by Jessica
- 1:04- Lopez Liggett, commercial state plan president for Anthem
- 1:07- Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana. Jessica,
- 1:10- thank you so much for joining us today.
- 1:12- Thank you, Liz. It's my pleasure, and I'm
- 1:14- excited to be here with you. Yes. I'm
- 1:16- really looking forward to this conversation.
- 1:18- And before we dive in, I would just
- 1:20- love to hear a bit more about your
- 1:22- role,
- 1:23- and your background coming into it and what
- 1:25- your current priorities are.
- 1:27- Absolutely.
- 1:29- So I have to kinda laugh at this
- 1:31- when I think about,
- 1:32- career and how I landed,
- 1:35- you know, where I'm at today. And
- 1:38- I think, like most, I I will share
- 1:40- with you, health care wasn't the original path,
- 1:43- that I was expected to take.
- 1:45- Early in my career, I thought that I
- 1:47- would,
- 1:48- go into law enforcement, and I really truly
- 1:50- had aspirations to to join the FBI.
- 1:53- And as I reflect on that, a big
- 1:55- piece of that was because I wanted to
- 1:57- make a difference in people's lives.
- 1:59- But as as, you know, it goes, life
- 2:02- happens,
- 2:03- things change,
- 2:04- and sometimes you have to pivot. And so
- 2:06- that is how I found myself in health
- 2:09- care.
- 2:10- And,
- 2:11- you know, it's easy now to reflect back
- 2:14- on the why for the law enforcement
- 2:16- and and my my goals and what I
- 2:18- was trying to do there and and to
- 2:20- translate that
- 2:21- into making a difference in people's lives through
- 2:24- health care. And so it's it's really easy,
- 2:27- to do that. I'll share with you, when
- 2:29- I started in health care, it was really
- 2:31- you know, I was, learning the groundwork
- 2:35- behind, like, the end users experience. So I
- 2:37- started answering phones. I was paying small claim
- 2:40- adjustments,
- 2:41- and just really learning the inner workings of
- 2:44- of the health care,
- 2:45- side of things, like I said, from the
- 2:47- end users experience,
- 2:49- you know, from the ground up. And I'm
- 2:51- proud of that because it makes me connect
- 2:54- through all the decisions and discussions that were
- 2:56- happening,
- 2:57- remembering and recalling that that end user's experience.
- 3:00- So that member that's at the end of
- 3:02- of everything that we do and in the
- 3:04- center of it. And,
- 3:06- and what I'll share is along the way,
- 3:08- I've been fortunate enough to have some incredible
- 3:10- leaders,
- 3:11- and those incredible leaders were willing to challenge
- 3:14- me and invest in me and and really
- 3:16- identify
- 3:17- and,
- 3:19- you know, see things in me that I
- 3:20- I didn't see in myself. And so that's
- 3:23- where the career growth really started to take
- 3:25- off, you know.
- 3:27- And so that experience, I would say, is
- 3:29- what shaped me into the leader that I
- 3:31- am today. So that's really what I believe
- 3:34- leadership's about. It's about creating those opportunities.
- 3:37- For others, it's about building that trust, and
- 3:40- it's really about helping people become
- 3:42- more than they believe that they can become
- 3:44- in themselves. So
- 3:46- I think it's interesting that you considered law
- 3:48- enforcement in college. I really got interested in
- 3:50- forensic anthropology, so that kind of resonates with
- 3:53- me.
- 3:54- It still does, and I I still am
- 3:56- very engaged in a lot of podcasts and
- 3:59- things. So it's it's definitely still an interest,
- 4:01- but different direction for sure.
- 4:03- Very cool.
- 4:04- So given your commercial role and, you know,
- 4:07- you've been in this role for a few
- 4:08- months now, what are some of the biggest
- 4:10- challenges that you're seeing employers face in your
- 4:12- market?
- 4:14- Great question, Liz.
- 4:15- So as I stepped into the role, so
- 4:17- I'm just, about 120
- 4:20- into the new role.
- 4:21- And so what I've spent the first several
- 4:24- weeks
- 4:25- doing is just listening, and I think any
- 4:28- good leader would would do that in their
- 4:30- first days.
- 4:31- And the listening that I did was across,
- 4:34- you know, like, our associates,
- 4:36- our provider care partners in the community,
- 4:39- employers,
- 4:41- broker partners that we do business with, and
- 4:43- and community organizations.
- 4:45- And what's become very, very clear is that
- 4:48- the many challenges that we face and that
- 4:50- we're focused on here in Indiana are the
- 4:52- same challenges that are being felt in health
- 4:54- care nationally. So
- 4:56- for me, what I, you know, I'm grappling
- 4:59- with is
- 5:00- not only is the biggest challenge
- 5:02- the rising health care costs, it's also making
- 5:06- health care feel less overwhelming for the people
- 5:08- that we serve.
- 5:10- Think about when you have somebody that's dealing
- 5:12- with a new diagnosis,
- 5:13- you know, they're caring for an aging parent,
- 5:15- or quite frankly, just trying to choose a
- 5:17- health benefit for their for themselves and their
- 5:20- family.
- 5:21- Those individuals shouldn't have to become experts in
- 5:24- our industry
- 5:25- just to navigate the system.
- 5:27- And I was reminded of that this week,
- 5:30- ironically,
- 5:31- as I was preparing for this. I took
- 5:32- a a phone call from a family member.
- 5:35- The family member reached out because they know,
- 5:37- you know, what it is that I do,
- 5:38- the industry that I work on, and they
- 5:40- said, I have some questions for you. And
- 5:41- as they begin to describe the questions and
- 5:44- some of the things that they're dealing with,
- 5:45- I was reminded very, very quickly how complex
- 5:48- our system actually is. When an individual has
- 5:51- to go between and learn terms and about
- 5:55- codes and different ways claims are paid and
- 5:58- they're getting bounced all around,
- 6:01- that's not okay. And that's that's some of
- 6:03- the things that we need to we need
- 6:04- to solve for. So when I think about
- 6:07- lowering health care costs, when I think about
- 6:08- simplifying experience, I really kind of bucket it
- 6:11- into three
- 6:12- three lens, you know, looking at it through
- 6:13- three different lenses.
- 6:15- One is improving the cost of care in
- 6:17- general, and I think that we do that
- 6:19- through strong provider partnerships. And I have some,
- 6:21- you know, a great example of of something
- 6:23- that we're doing here innovative in Indiana.
- 6:26- The second lens that I would I would
- 6:28- share with you is
- 6:30- the work
- 6:31- to help people stay healthy before they actually
- 6:34- need the health care. And that actually excites
- 6:37- me because we're thinking about health care now,
- 6:39- not just at the point that somebody gets
- 6:41- an, you know, gets an illness and needs
- 6:43- to seek care. We're trying to think about
- 6:45- ways and think about health care in the
- 6:48- sense of how do we keep these people
- 6:49- healthy? How do we keep them healthy? And
- 6:52- so you have to do that because by
- 6:53- investing in part prevention,
- 6:55- and you also have to invest in the
- 6:57- barriers that individuals experience in the community. So
- 7:00- food insecurity, housing, things that are outside of
- 7:03- the health care system, but that may impact
- 7:05- their ability to access it.
- 7:07- And then the third lens is all around
- 7:09- the simplification.
- 7:19- Experience?
- 7:21- And when we talk about
- 7:22- technology,
- 7:24- it's such a you know, AI is such
- 7:25- a buzzword for for many people.
- 7:28- But I think about
- 7:31- technology
- 7:32- making health care human. So you have to
- 7:35- make sure like, health care is extremely personal.
- 7:38- And so the technology should be used in
- 7:40- such a way that it makes the experience
- 7:43- human,
- 7:44- and it should work so well that they
- 7:45- they don't even know that it's that it's
- 7:47- happening. And so that's that's some of the
- 7:50- things that I, you know, feel like we're
- 7:51- we're faced with to solve for.
- 7:54- I think the encouraging part for me as
- 7:56- I step into this leadership role here in
- 7:58- Indiana is that I truly believe we're uniquely
- 8:01- positioned here in this state,
- 8:03- to lead this work and this effort,
- 8:05- not only,
- 8:07- you know, to to make an impact here,
- 8:09- but to be that fourth to to be
- 8:12- the leader in in solving for some of
- 8:14- this for the nation. And I think that's
- 8:15- because of the strong partnerships.
- 8:17- We've got great employers, great community partners. We've
- 8:20- got great care par partners, and they're
- 8:23- all genuinely,
- 8:24- ready to help solve for this. So I
- 8:26- think that's that's a great place for us
- 8:28- to be.
- 8:30- Yeah. So I have a few follow ups
- 8:31- from that. I know you mentioned you have
- 8:32- that provider partnerships
- 8:34- example, and you've previously chatted with Becker's about
- 8:37- the orthopedic network that you have going on.
- 8:39- So could you fill us in on, how
- 8:41- everything's been progressing on that front and what
- 8:43- you're looking to next?
- 8:45- Absolutely. So that was one of the first,
- 8:48- discussions I was able to have with you
- 8:50- all, and it was very exciting in that
- 8:51- first thirty days. And the excitement around that
- 8:55- really truly, Liz, was because I was at
- 8:57- the beginning of of that work starting in
- 8:59- 2023.
- 9:00- I think I shared it was two years
- 9:02- in the making before it actually launched at
- 9:04- the beginning of this year. And how that
- 9:07- came to fruition was, employers came coming forward
- 9:10- and they were saying, listen. We need
- 9:13- to create some sort of navigation
- 9:16- to simplify the experience and get our members
- 9:19- to the highest quality,
- 9:22- low cost,
- 9:23- providers for
- 9:25- some of these centers of excellence. So you
- 9:26- have, like,
- 9:28- groups of, providers that maybe specialize in the
- 9:31- really good. Their, you know, efficiency, their effectiveness,
- 9:34- their quality rates are really, really high, but
- 9:36- they also have the ability to drive that
- 9:38- at a at a lower cost rate.
- 9:40- Employers know that we have access to the
- 9:42- data, so we should be able to identify
- 9:44- that and help steer their their members.
- 9:46- And so that's how that work started. We
- 9:48- quickly identified hips and knees. So orthopedics was
- 9:51- one of the the higher costing,
- 9:54- majority of, you know, high cost claims were
- 9:56- coming through. Large amounts, I think, for top
- 9:58- conditions was what I would say, not necessarily
- 10:00- high cost claims. Top condition that most employers
- 10:03- were experiencing.
- 10:05- We leaned into a provider partnership. OrthoIndy was
- 10:07- the first to the table,
- 10:09- and they were willing to sign on. First,
- 10:11- they had to meet the quality metrics. Once
- 10:14- we got through that, they were able to
- 10:16- sign on. And what we were,
- 10:18- expecting is up to a 50%
- 10:20- reduction
- 10:21- for those particular procedures by going through the
- 10:24- centers of excellence. So it was OrthoIndy.
- 10:27- Fast follow was Franciscan Forte, and I'm proud
- 10:30- to say there's going to be another, orthopedic
- 10:33- center that's also going to join.
- 10:35- And,
- 10:36- what we're seeing now is early savings of
- 10:38- about 15,000
- 10:40- per
- 10:41- orthopedic case that is coming through that employers
- 10:44- are experiencing through our HealthSync network. So
- 10:47- it's
- 10:48- it's taken off.
- 10:50- I I think I announced at that time
- 10:51- too, this is one lever, and now we're
- 10:53- at the point where it's like, okay. What's
- 10:55- next? And employers are asking, what's next? And
- 10:57- so we're looking at expanding that to GI
- 11:00- services,
- 11:01- cardiac services,
- 11:03- some other, you know, elective procedures like colonoscopies.
- 11:06- So we wanna continue to expand that because
- 11:09- of the early successes that we're already seeing.
- 11:13- That's really exciting to hear the next possible
- 11:15- directions there.
- 11:17- Another thing you mentioned at the beginning was
- 11:20- making health care human and thinking about really
- 11:22- responsible ways of deploying technology and AI.
- 11:26- Do you have an example of where you
- 11:28- think that investment
- 11:29- translates to making health care more human?
- 11:32- What's your what's front of mind for you
- 11:34- as you think about what's next with AI
- 11:36- use?
- 11:37- Absolutely. So I I talked about that being
- 11:39- more human and that it should work so
- 11:41- well that people don't even know that it's
- 11:43- working. So it should be so behind the
- 11:45- scenes that it's it's not even a a
- 11:46- topic. The people should just feel it.
- 11:49- And,
- 11:50- I think a couple of examples I have
- 11:52- is, one, we have a digital claims experience.
- 11:55- And so
- 11:56- what we are really investing in is AI
- 11:59- and technology that can speed up the efficiencies
- 12:02- for our associates. So, again, we're we're keeping
- 12:04- people in in the center of this. It's
- 12:06- not about technology and systems taking over.
- 12:10- So if you can support our people to
- 12:13- get to,
- 12:14- answers more quickly,
- 12:16- then you can improve,
- 12:18- timely pay you know, claim payments,
- 12:21- which is sometimes a a burden that providers
- 12:24- will complain about that they don't have timely
- 12:26- payments. And so that's one of the ways.
- 12:28- Very basic, very simple. But, again, Liz, people
- 12:31- shouldn't even know. It they should just feel
- 12:33- it that it's working.
- 12:35- Another area is through services.
- 12:37- So,
- 12:38- again, taking the work off of our clinical,
- 12:42- you know, individuals, our doctors, our nurses that
- 12:44- are having to review those cases to determine
- 12:47- medical necessity.
- 12:48- In old days, they would have to go
- 12:50- through and flip through, you know, medical policies,
- 12:54- hundreds of pages. It could take them, you
- 12:56- know, days sometimes to get through all of
- 12:58- that to get to a a decision. So
- 13:00- what we're doing now is deploying technology behind
- 13:03- the scenes to get that information to them
- 13:05- more quickly so that they can make decisions
- 13:08- more timely. So improving those,
- 13:10- those approval processes,
- 13:12- again, making and creating more efficiencies. So those
- 13:15- are just two very basic ways, but I
- 13:17- think it's a good example of
- 13:19- how it should just work and and people
- 13:22- shouldn't feel it.
- 13:23- And thinking big picture about your role, what
- 13:27- surprised you in the first few months of
- 13:28- you having this title,
- 13:30- and what are you looking forward to diving
- 13:32- in more with as you go forward?
- 13:35- Surprises? I don't know if it's necessarily in
- 13:37- a surprises. I've been fortunate enough to be
- 13:39- with the organization for nineteen years.
- 13:41- And so and, you know, I've been in
- 13:43- Indiana for three and a half years,
- 13:46- coming over from the Missouri market.
- 13:48- And so I don't know that there's necessarily
- 13:51- surprises,
- 13:52- but I think what excites me is that,
- 13:55- again, talking about Indiana kinda leading the way,
- 13:57- we have a lot of innovative partners here.
- 14:00- I believe
- 14:02- what we have is an opportunity not only
- 14:04- to shape where the health care future is
- 14:06- headed,
- 14:07- but to shape how we get there as
- 14:08- well. I mean, leaning into that, that's that
- 14:11- is what excites me and wakes me up.
- 14:12- It energizes me every day. I think about
- 14:14- the incredible provider partners, some of the work
- 14:17- that we're doing there.
- 14:19- The employer is not backing away or shying
- 14:21- away from innovative ideas. They're open to a
- 14:23- lot of a lot of different ideas. We've
- 14:26- got passionate associates. My team members, they volunteer.
- 14:29- There's, you know, a number of hours every
- 14:31- single month that are spent,
- 14:33- giving back to the community that we work
- 14:35- with and then all the community organizations and
- 14:37- partnerships that we have there. So I just
- 14:39- I think by bringing all of those, groups
- 14:42- together, that collaboration and that partnership, and, again,
- 14:45- going back to not just shaping where we're
- 14:47- headed, shaping how we get there. And and
- 14:50- that's really truly what excites me.
- 14:52- Do you have any advice for any other
- 14:54- people who work in the commercial space as
- 14:56- they are navigating,
- 14:58- you know, the cost trends that we've been
- 15:00- seeing and the pressures that employers are facing?
- 15:03- I would say,
- 15:05- we don't all you know, you can't
- 15:07- we don't all have the answers individually. That's
- 15:09- the first thing I would say.
- 15:11- You need all of the partnerships that I've
- 15:13- mentioned a couple of times now. You need
- 15:15- the provider partners. You need,
- 15:18- the legislators, the policymakers.
- 15:20- You need, the community organizations. You need the
- 15:23- employers. We need all of those individuals to
- 15:25- sit down at the table and lean into
- 15:27- the conversations and work together collectively to solve.
- 15:31- No one organization
- 15:33- is going to have the answer to solve
- 15:35- and be able to reduce health care costs
- 15:37- and create a simplified experience alone, and I
- 15:40- think that's the advice and recommendation.
- 15:42- If you if you believe that you're gonna
- 15:44- go in and you have the answer for
- 15:46- all,
- 15:47- I think you'll find out that you don't.
- 15:49- You really do need those partnerships.
- 15:51- And so that's that I believe that's the
- 15:52- advice I would extend. Is there anything else
- 15:55- that you wanna share while I have you
- 15:56- here, Jessica?
- 15:58- I think, you know, just you know, you
- 16:00- talked about employers and and the the difficulty.
- 16:03- I think just going back to understanding the
- 16:05- why behind the work that we do. So
- 16:07- it's not just the employers. It's the member
- 16:09- experience. It's the administrative burdens that we're trying
- 16:11- to solve for our provider partners.
- 16:13- Let's not forget the why.
- 16:16- I think the other thing that I would
- 16:17- leave you with and, we didn't really touch
- 16:20- on it is one of the, I believe,
- 16:22- overlooked strategies that we haven't spent a lot
- 16:25- of time talking about is,
- 16:28- recognizing that health
- 16:30- starts long before somebody enters the health care
- 16:33- system.
- 16:34- And,
- 16:35- what we show is statistics
- 16:37- show 80% of someone's health happens outside of
- 16:40- the health care system. So I think that
- 16:42- we need to have more focus
- 16:44- and more attention and more time spent understanding
- 16:48- what the individuals are facing, those barriers that
- 16:51- that are preventing them from accessing the health
- 16:53- care or getting getting to the health care,
- 16:56- before
- 16:57- it it's too far or, you know, a
- 16:59- health condition has went too far. And so
- 17:01- I think that that's,
- 17:03- something that I would leave us with as
- 17:05- a challenge to lean into that conversation more
- 17:08- because I do believe it's overlooked.
- 17:10- And maybe just as a follow-up to that,
- 17:12- are there certain patterns you've noticed with the
- 17:14- commercial population
- 17:16- in regards to things that could be preventable?
- 17:19- Are there conditions? Are there just gaps in
- 17:22- access?
- 17:23- Anything you can think of that you've seen
- 17:24- as a trend. I feel like I have
- 17:25- a lot of these conversations in the Medicaid
- 17:27- space, so I'm just curious about the commercial
- 17:30- market in particular.
- 17:32- That's a great question. So we have an
- 17:34- experience center that we will bring employer groups
- 17:36- through, and we personalize that. We upload their
- 17:38- data,
- 17:40- from their employee demographics. And one of the
- 17:42- most profound moments throughout in that experience center
- 17:45- is near the end when we put up
- 17:48- a heat map that identifies the social determinants
- 17:51- of health and the concerns that their specific
- 17:55- employee population may be dealing with. And it
- 17:57- it's really an moment because what they'll see
- 18:00- is that they have employees that live in
- 18:02- food deserts.
- 18:03- They don't think about
- 18:05- health care access or benefits
- 18:07- that,
- 18:08- that solve for that. You have,
- 18:11- employees that live in areas where transportation
- 18:14- isn't is an issue. So that's what we
- 18:16- mean. You know, I say, like, this is
- 18:18- overlooked
- 18:18- a lot. If you have somebody that's worried
- 18:21- about,
- 18:22- can they keep a food a roof over
- 18:23- their head? Can they can they put food
- 18:25- on the table? Or can they even get
- 18:27- a ride
- 18:28- to work? If they're worried about those things,
- 18:31- they're not worried about scheduling a preventive exam.
- 18:34- They're not worried about
- 18:36- checking the symptoms that potentially means they have
- 18:39- high blood pressure and, you know, could lead
- 18:40- to bigger issues. So
- 18:43- that's,
- 18:44- you know, I think that's something that, you
- 18:46- know, is profound,
- 18:47- and we need to spend some more time
- 18:49- looking into.
- 18:51- Well, Jessica, thank you so much for taking
- 18:53- the time to chat with me today.
- 18:55- Absolutely. It was my pleasure. Thank you for
- 18:57- having me. Of course. And to our listeners,
- 19:00- if you'd like to hear more podcasts from
- 19:02- Becker's Health Care, you can visit beckershospitalreview.com.
- 19:06- Thank you.