Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Saria Saccocio, Chief Medical Officer, Essence Health

Transcript

Saria Saccocio, Chief Medical Officer, Essence Health · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

• 0:00
  Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless
• 0:02
  innovation to create world class pharmacy, care, and
• 0:05
  benefit solutions.
• 0:07
  Barriers to care can lead to gaps in
• 0:08
  care, which can drive up the total cost
• 0:10
  of care. Our capabilities work seamlessly together to
• 0:13
  create innovative pharmacy care and benefit solutions for
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  today and tomorrow.
• 0:18
  Our connected health services make the treatment, prediction,
• 0:21
  and prevention of health care's most complex conditions
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  easier and more accessible as we drive organizations
• 0:27
  and people forward.
• 0:29
  This is Haley Rudger with the Becker's Payer
• 0:31
  Podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  Becker's third annual spring payer issues roundtable.
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  I am thrilled today to be joined by
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  Sareya Sacochio, chief medical officer at Essence Health.
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  Sareya, thank you so much for joining me
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  today. Can you go ahead and tell us
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  a little bit more about yourself and your
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  background? Sure, Haley. And what a fantastic conference.
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  I just have to say the voices in
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  the room, the energy that we're feeling here
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  today is
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  fantastic.
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  So and I'm so impressed with the way
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  you said my name. Soria Sancosio. Very good.
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  I'm the chief medical officer for Essence Health,
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  and we are a Medicare Advantage health plan.
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  We've got about 60,000
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  members.
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  We focus on a physician led approach for
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  true value based care.
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  Awesome.
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  Well, to begin our conversation, I'd like to
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  start talking about balancing affordability and quality. So
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  how is your organization innovating to manage the
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  cost of care while maintaining or improving member
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  outcomes?
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  I like to describe the work that we
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  do as an action packed
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  documentary.
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  I'm gonna start with a documentary because it's
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  so important to be factual with what we
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  do and accurate
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  with how we document the clinical story of
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  the patient.
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  Where the action comes from is that PCP
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  engagement that we have. Quality of care is
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  critical in everything we do. Every visit, every
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  time, we focus on taking care of that
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  patient, not just for chronic disease, but for
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  preventive medicine,
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  chronic disease to optimize
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  the vitality of health for our members. So
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  it takes a whole team to do this.
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  And by telling the story,
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  we have an action packed documentary.
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  Well, that was an awesome way of explaining
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  that. Now moving on to my next question,
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  what are some of the best practices or
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  tools that your organization relies on to keep
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  quality of care at the forefront?
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  Well, first of all, Haley, we keep it
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  simple.
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  And I've got an acronym that I use,
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  a PPD.
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  So the clinicians who are listening will get
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  a PPD and what we're looking for there.
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  But for us, it is truly about
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  starting with primary care.
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  That access to a PCP cannot be overemphasized
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  how important that is. The relationship
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  between a patient and their primary care physician
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  is everything
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  because they know how to give good care,
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  But it takes a frequency of access to
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  primary care to ensure that you're covering both
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  preventive and chronic disease.
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  We partner with our physicians
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  and engage at a high level. In fact,
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  they help us develop our program
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  based on what they believe our patients, our
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  members need, and you can't do that without
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  data.
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  And instead of just saying we have data
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  analytics and just like everyone else, we do
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  have a tech stack, of course, but we
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  data enable
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  our PCPs to be very successful
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  and for our members to receive the best
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  care every time.
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  Our tech stack helps them not only see
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  the individual patient as they're in the exam
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  room, but their entire population. Because what often
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  is missed is the patient who doesn't cross
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  the threshold.
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  So we believe that outreach to every patient,
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  every member is critical to good health care.
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  Awesome. Now I wanna take a moment to
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  address health equity, which is a critical focus
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  for many health plans. Can you share an
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  overview of a key initiative here that you're
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  involved in or particularly excited about, and what
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  are you hoping to achieve? I sure can
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  in one word. Community.
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  And community means so many things to us
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  at Essence Health. Community means our team members,
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  And it takes every single one of us
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  to understand what is health equity and why
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  it matters because it does. Whether you're the
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  member in the room
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  or you are the PCP serving this patient,
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  we need to understand how to meet everyone
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  where they are
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  when they need it. So that's something that
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  we do. I'll also say that community engagement
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  is important.
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  So often we try to do our things
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  ourselves as a family physician.
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  I I'm a self starter, and I think
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  I can do everything myself. I can't. It
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  takes a team. It takes a community.
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  And why we're not only partnering
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  with community
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  nonprofits,
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  We partner with the community in our health
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  systems as they already have these relationships. We
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  can do so much more together
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  to have the greatest impact
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  if we focus on the big c. Absolutely.
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  Now for my final question today, I wanna
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  talk about the future of the payer space.
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  So what do you see as the biggest
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  opportunity for payers to lead the charge in
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  transforming care delivery and driving better outcomes for
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  all stakeholders? And how can leaders take a
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  step in this direction now?
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  Well, the latest
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  sexiest acronym
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  is I know you know this one. It's
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  AI. Okay. Okay. We talk about AI every
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  day, and it is so sexy, but we
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  need to demystify
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  Mhmm. AI.
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  It is everyone's job to understand AI. In
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  fact, we all do AI. If you've been
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  on Google lately, you have AI ed.
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  And so whether it's our members
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  that understand AI and how to use it
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  best, our team members, and our primary care
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  physicians. That is critical in the work that
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  we do. Demystify,
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  educate,
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  and let's train everybody up to be successful
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  in that. The last thing I'll share is
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  about technology.
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  For example, with our company, with Essence,
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  we are the first health plan that Oura,
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  Rings, have partnered with. So our Medicare Advantage
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  Plan offers to some of our members Oura
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  access,
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  And this gives us the opportunity
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  to
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  partner for the greatest health and vitality
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  that each member can have, whether it's measuring
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  their sleep, their heart rate, how active they
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  are. All of these things matter. And then
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  we partner with our physicians
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  to create the greatest impact with that medical
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  information now available.
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  Yeah. That's really amazing. I feel like I
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  haven't gone a single day without hearing about
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  the word AI. You know? Mhmm.
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  Mhmm. Well, thank you so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's Payer podcast. Again,
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  this is Haley Recker.
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  We were recording live at the Becker's third
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  annual spring pair issues roundtable. Sariya, thank you
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  so much. Thank you, and have fun at
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  this fantastic conference. Thanks. You too.