Introduction

People are only as healthy as the communities they live in. In this episode, discover how Elevance Health is reimagining  the healthcare system, and strengthening our communities in the process with a data-driven strategy. Learn how Elevance Health leverages community data to paint a more complete picture of an individual’s health, making healthcare journeys more personalized and equitable. You’ll also hear why analytics must have a seat at the business table, the importance of extending data democratization beyond the organization, and the need for change management along the journey. 

Tune in to learn:

• How Elevance Health forms holistic views of patients’ heath by connecting community data (03.55)
• Why analytics should sit at the business table (13:08)
• How to understand your customers as individuals, learn their business problems, and meet them where they are (19:10)
• Why data democratization should go beyond the organization (21:16)
• How to engage in a new relationship with data with natural language (35:35)

Key Quotes:

• “Once you're sitting across from a community-based organization and you're helping them with where to focus efforts, having data in that conversation and being able to show, well, here are where our members are located and here are the members that have a chronic need for food or for transportation. Using data in that conversation is a game changer.”
• “Analytics should be at the table, not a takeaway from the table. So I think analytics, when they’re sitting around the table with the business when they're making decisions or they're working through a problem, is a very different construct than traditional models where the business convenes, works through a problem, then decides well we need more data, or we need data to drive a decision here, go ahead and put in a ticket or seek additional data and bring it back."
• “I think training is critical. I've seen far too many dashboard wastelands where you have dashboards sitting out there that are accessed very little, but have really, really good information. What that tells me is there wasn't a good amount of training. There is not a strong communication plan. There's not a robustness of really ensuring that the solution is oriented to the problem that it was created to solve.”

Mentions: 

• The Data Chief: How Healthcare Data Can Save Lives with Truveta CEO, Terry Myerson
• Doula Care Found to Improve Maternal Health Outcomes Study
• Advancing Health Together 2023 Report
• Radical Candor by Kim Scott 
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Graham McCown
• Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman

Bio: 

Robert Garnett serves as Vice President for Government Analytics and Health Benefits Cost of Care at Elevance Health. In this role, he leads a data-driven organization supporting analytics and insights for Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial and enterprise customers in the areas of population health, cost of care, performance management, operational excellence, and quality improvement. 

Prior to his current role, Robert served as President and CEO, Amerigroup Tennessee, where he was responsible for the strategic, fiscal, regulatory, and operational leadership of the health plan. In his role, he was also responsible for building and managing state and local relationships and fostering new growth and strategic opportunities within Tennessee’s TennCare Medicaid program. 

Prior to his promotion to President in 2018, Robert served as the Chief Operating Officer and previously the Director of Medicaid State Operations, leading all day-to-day health plan operations and execution, customer service, quality management, and regulatory oversight from 2014 to 2018. He served in a similar operational leadership capacity for Amerigroup Georgia from 2011 to 2014. In addition to these roles, Robert supported South Region Medicaid with business development & implementation, and strategic operations.

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