Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Bob Sarkar, President & CEO, Arkansas Health Network

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Bob Sarkar, President & CEO, Arkansas Health Network · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  To address the most pressing issues in healthcare today, Becker's 11th annual,
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  This is Laura Duda with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Bob Sarkar,
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  president and c e o of Arkansas Health Network. Bob,
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  it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  Thank you, Laura. Same here. It is a pleasure is all mine.
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  And thank you so much for hosting me and, and for this podcast.
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  Look for looking forward to it. Laura.
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  I'm excited to speak with you today because I know Arkansas Health Network
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  recently received its URAC accreditation, which is a huge accomplishment.
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  Congratulations,
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  and I'd love to know more about what the accreditation entailed and how you are
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  celebrating with your team. But before we dive into the discussion,
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  can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and your background?
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  We'll be happy to. Laura. Um, Bob Sarkar. I am the president,
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  c e o of Arkansas Health Network, um,
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  which is a clinically integrated network based in Arkansas.
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  And I have been in the industry for over 30 years now.
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  Had the pleasure and been blessed to have worked with several high
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  performing organizations, um, like Kaiser Permanente,
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  advocate Health, um,
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  Provina Premier or Premier Health Presence Health Aetna,
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  and to name a few. And I've been in this role for the last eight,
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  around eight years or so. So enjoying every moment,
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  every minute of it. We have a great team here.
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  Bob,
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  I know that you're such an amazing leader and I really appreciate all the work
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  you're doing.
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  Can you share with us the process for achieving the Iraq accreditation?
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  What was that like and how did you prepare?
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  I'd be happy to. And before I get into Iraq,
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  I just wanted to share a little bit more about Arkansas Health Network.
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  Arkansas Health Network is, as I mentioned, uh,
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  is a clinically integrated network. Um,
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  it is the largest clinically integrated network or c i n we call them, um,
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  in, in the state of Arkansas.
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  It is also one of the national best practices in value-based care, or value hub,
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  as we call it in our commoner health lingo.
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  It is fully owned subsidiary of C HS and Vincent slash Commoner Health,
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  which as you may know, is the largest non-profit health system in the country,
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  parochial health system in the country. And so it, uh,
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  Arkansas Health Network happens to be a national best practice in,
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  in value-based care, value hub, and, um,
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  and also from a clinical and financial standpoint happens to be, uh,
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  one of the most successful ones in the industry as well as in Arkansas.
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  And so I have been in my role now, as I said, um,
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  just around 80 or so. So our,
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  our major goal, our, our mission, if I may call it of Arkansas Health Network,
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  is to drive meaningful,
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  measurable improvement in quality health and financial sustainability for
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  our patients in Arkansas and provider community in Arkansas through
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  excellence in value-based care. So what we have started doing is,
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  since Arkansas Health Network was formed about, around 10 years ago,
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  um, and have we have been taking risk, financial and clinical risk,
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  um, we have been taking upside downside risk now, um, and,
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  and with appropriate, uh, guardrails with appropriate clients and partners,
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  we are positioning ourselves to take, uh, even capitated risk and beyond.
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  And so with that in mind, with the work that we have been doing,
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  consistently seeing successes year over year, both in quality processes,
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  um, technology as well as in financials, we basically,
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  basically thought the best approach at this point for us is to
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  ensure that we work with a,
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  a third party like URAC or N C Q A, um,
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  who would assess us to independently, um,
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  to see how we are doing and how our standards are of d different processes that
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  we follow.
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  So we worked with URAC for the last year and a half plus,
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  um, and, um,
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  and went through the entire traditional process.
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  And U rac, as you may or may not know, um, we,
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  we know about URAC because they work quite a bit with payers,
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  but they're also getting, uh,
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  expanding their portfolio to work with provider and provider organizations like
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  the CIS and providers practices and health systems.
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  And IFAC was founded in 1990,
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  an independent non-profit accrediting agency, um,
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  or entity.
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  And it uses evidence-based measures actually for quality improvement in
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  healthcare. And, um,
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  so UAC symbol of accreditation is a,
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  is a symbol of excellence for organizations to showcase their
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  validated commitment, quality, and accountability.
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  So we went, um, and partnered with urac, as I said, about a year and a half ago,
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  um, plus ago. And then we went for two types of accreditation.
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  One is clinical integration, 1.0, which is basically population health,
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  uh, which is our core competency of Arkansas Health Network.
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  And that comprises of 35 broad standards and several
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  granular standards underneath it and underneath them.
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  And then we also went for another accreditation,
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  accreditation on employer based population health, um,
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  and which is 1.0 and has 20 standards,
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  several granular level standards underneath them. And, um,
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  employer based population health is one of the LA latest, um,
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  accreditation that URAC came up with. And Arkansas Health Network Network,
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  we became the first c i n in the industry to be dually accredit
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  with both integration 1.0 and employer based population health 1.0.
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  So this is almost like a trailblazing effort that we made and a unique,
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  um,
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  effort that we made in the industry as a provider organization to be dually
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  accredit with those two accreditations, which generally are, um,
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  associated with payers. So this, this is, we are proud of,
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  this is a lot of work with everybody's hands on deck from the provider
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  perspective, from our management team perspective,
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  our team's perspective and, and resources from our common spirit,
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  health divisional national, as well as the market perspective. Um,
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  a lot of efforts as you, as I may or may not have already shared with you,
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  um, Arkansas Health Network is the largest net c I n.
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  It now comprises of 3,600 plus providers and
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  around 20 hospitals, inpatient facilities,
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  and about 25 skilled nursing facilities in our network. At this point.
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  We are managing around 140, uh,
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  thousand lives, uh, in,
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  at this point in value-based care lives in Arkansas at this point.
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  That's really impressive and huge amount of responsibility you have for your
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  patients and community members.
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  Thank you for talking us through that process and giving us a step-by-step view
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  of the accreditation and potential outcomes. From your perspective,
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  why is it so meaningful for you to undergo the Iraq accreditation?
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  How are you able to rally your team and achieve great results?
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  You know, as I said, Arkansas Health Network is a statewide network. Now,
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  we started from Central Arkansas focused, but now we are statewide network.
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  We have strategic partnership with Arkansas Children's Care Network,
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  which already had a URAC accreditation. It's a,
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  it's a pediatric c i n state only pediatric c i n that had a
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  URAC accreditation in clinical integration.
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  And we also have strategic partnership with, with, um, N Health, uh,
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  c I N in northwest Arkansas.
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  So we have several strategic partnership apart from a large portfolio of
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  presence across the state. Um,
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  the reason why we wanted to ensure that we go through this rigorous,
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  if I may call that way,
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  but methodical journey with urac were three.
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  One is clinical, uh,
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  which basically the reason why we wanted to go through this is to,
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  because it helps validate our excellence in utilization of
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  evidence-based solutions. Basically, URAC validates our excellent,
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  our, our, our excellence in utilization of,
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  of those resources and solutions that we have in our portfolio.
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  The second one is, uh, is quality demonstrates a commitment,
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  uh, our commitment to continuously improve quality and process.
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  And so it has a, a quality improvement perspective as well. Um,
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  and then the third one is very much, was very much strategic.
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  It, uh, generally, as I shared with you, this is, uh,
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  tradition that are generally done by, by payers, uh, by doing,
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  uh, taking up, uh, this acquisition by being accredited. Uh,
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  we think that it provides a competitive edge to us from the payers perspective.
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  We now, uh, speak the language. We know, I,
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  we understand the language that the payers set up to do,
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  and the board of directors of UAC are generally, um,
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  the blue crosses of the world, anthems of the world,
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  the u the United of the world, and the signal of the world.
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  They have created those, those standards and now those languages rather,
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  if I may call them that way. And now we have learned the language.
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  Hopefully this brings much more alignment,
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  alignment between which is much needed in the healthcare delivery system.
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  And the, and payment model system of the,
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  of the country of our healthcare landscape brings much more closer alignment
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  between,
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  between payers and providers because what we are generally doing is in our value
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  based care, which is the, the equation of value is quality of work cost.
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  We have high quality and low cost. Hopefully that res resonates into,
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  translates also into high experience patient experience,
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  high provider experience, which is our quadruple aim, improving quality,
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  bringing cost down, improving experience for providers as well as patients.
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  And so it it aligned with our strategic initiative of
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  improved clinical outcomes,
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  improved quality and meaningful relevant strategic initiative.
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  Certainly in particular today's healthcare landscape,
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  as more and more organizations are trying to figure out value-based care and the
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  alignment and partnership strategies they need with insurers as well as other
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  organizations is so meaningful to see how you've been able to move the needle.
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  Now, how will your team continue to build on this success in the future?
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  Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so as you may know,
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  this was a journey and we executed our urac, um, accreditation jour,
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  uh, agreement in, uh, if I recall the exact date. It was, um,
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  30th, June, 2021. And then we also involved, uh,
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  a consultant called Integral Health Solutions to help us learn the ropes, um,
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  you know, the tricks of the trades, so to speak, in this, in this journey.
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  And then we hired a desktop review by URAC on, on,
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  let's say, recall the exact date. It was, um, August, um,
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  30th of 2022. And then we had an onsite, uh, review by urac,
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  by URAC Surveyors who came on site on,
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  on January 31st of this year.
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  And in both this desktop as well as onsite review,
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  we got a hundred percent of, of this possible scores.
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  And then what we have in this journey that we have learned, uh,
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  are several standards, as I said, about 55 standards in total. Um,
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  and that we are, are we doing well or not? Now that we are, uh,
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  we know where we stand, uh,
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  from a third party who has given almost like a gold seat of approval, uh,
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  on our, through our accreditation.
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  What we plan to do is we know since proactive care management is our core
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  competencies backed up by next generational, uh,
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  pop health management platforms, IT and information system platform and other,
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  uh, and other areas of care delivery, um,
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  we know that there are areas of opportunities not just uh,
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  in our immediate, uh, vicinity, but throughout Arkansas.
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  And there are opportunities as it relates to behavioral health,
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  uh, areas especially after pandemic. Um,
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  so we will be focusing using those methodologies with those modalities that we
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  have learned and standards that we have and discipline that we have learned from
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  URAC journey. We will be focusing on behavioral health, patient care,
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  patient proactively as much as we can and possible. And then we are,
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  we be going to be focusing on social determinants of health and which is a major
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  area of our going to be our focus, especially post pandemic.
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  And then we are also going to be ensuring that, um,
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  as next steps that we are not just keeping the,
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  these competencies or capabilities that we have, uh,
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  shortened and within our own team, we are going to be sharing this, uh,
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  through a ready to use playbook within our,
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  our own family of Kim Commons Health. Uh,
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  so we are creating a this point, um,
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  a turnkey playbook for our own common health, um, uh,
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  family across, we are across 21 states as you may know.
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  And then we are also going to be creating some resources for the entire in
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  healthcare industry, um, through webinars possible, uh, learning tools.
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  Um, so, so that everybody in the industry,
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  in the country learns from what we have learned while we continue to ourself
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  learn and make the base best use of, uh, of,
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  of these resources and competencies.
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  That makes a lot of sense.
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  It really sounds like a great plan to make sure that you're able to serve
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  patients in a meaningful way. Before we wrap up our conversation,
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  I wanted to ask,
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  where are you seeing some of the best opportunities to provide better patient
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  care in the next two to three years? What does that look like for you?
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  You've got such a unique vantage point with your,
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  the patients you serve in Arkansas as well as being the head of an A C o,
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  which is very progressive in its own right.
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  Yes. Yeah. Thank you for your kind words.
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  So one area that we are noticing that we need to ensure that we speak with one
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  voice are the disconnects with certain states, especially on Arkansas here,
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  our reimbursement rates, uh, are quite, quite low. And I, it,
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  I won't be surprised if I say this way,
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  and you won't be surprised if I say Arkansas has probably the lowest, um,
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  all in has the lowest reimbursement rate.
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  So we are ensuring that we are aligning with the,
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  with the payer community aligning, um, to show that we have,
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  that we continuously bring value, uh, to the payers as well as to their,
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  to our common combined patients across the state.
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  So the, the goals in the next generation,
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  next few years and beyond are going to be ensuring that there is
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  appropriate level of reimbursement, uh, for the care, uh,
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  whether through direct fee for service and or through fee for value.
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  And because, um, as we know, um, uh,
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  unless there is alignment between payers and and providers, um,
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  there won't be any synergy coming down to the patients as well as to the
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  providers. And, um, while we are moving towards that,
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  we are also ensuring that these best practices, if I may call them,
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  and the, and the competencies that we have gained, uh,
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  will also address some of the areas of, of excellence, um,
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  in our care delivery and reimbursement.
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  While there continues to be shortage of, of clinical staff across the state,
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  um, this will create these competencies.
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  We will create the place to be, to work, uh,
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  as we continues to shine ourselves and hopefully with our partners
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  across the state and in the region, um,
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  that it is a place to get best care,
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  best place to practice medicine and best place to work.
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  So there are multiple multifaceted approaches,
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  multifaceted areas that we are focusing on with,
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  with our journey and competencies and accreditations.
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  Thank you so much Bob and I look forward to interacting with you at the November
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  c e o plus c f o Roundtable in Chicago. I'm really looking forward to that.
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  It's always great to see you and I hope you have a, a great rest of your day.
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