Ep 114 – Preparing the Workforce for the Future of Population Health Equity, with Dr. Jim Walton, Christina Severin, Dr. Joy Doll, and Dr. Richard Walker

While there have been meaningful improvements in healthcare delivery over the last decade, they have not catalyzed the transformation necessary to advance health value and equity. The promulgation of health policy and the implementation of new alternative payment models have created a landscape for experimentation in value-based care, yet the seismic shift needed to facilitate long-term and sustainable improvements has yet to occur. The key enabler for the future of our industry is workforce readiness to deliver on the promise of high-value, high-quality care that delivers equitable outcomes for all.

This week on the Race to Value podcast, you are going to hear from a distinguished panel of industry experts on the importance of workforce development in value transformation.  Workforce development will drive success in value-based care by ensuring industry capability, and it will help underserved communities thrive through population health interventions that improve societal outcomes and reduce inequities.

As you listen to this discussion with Dr. Jim Walton, Christina Severin, Dr. Joy Doll, and Dr. Richard Walker, think about how the scale and impact of workforce skill and knowledge is either a force multiplier or an impedance for change. If you want to learn more about affordable educational pathways for reskilling and upskilling in preparing for risk-based payment after hearing this discussion, please reach out to the Institute for Advancing Health Value – your partner in developing a competent workforce to win this Race to Value!

Episode Bookmarks:

01:30 The key enabler for the future of our industry is workforce readiness to deliver on the promise of high-value, high-quality care that delivers equitable outcomes for all.

02:00 Workforce development will drive success in value-based care by ensuring industry capability, and it will help underserved communities thrive through population health interventions.

03:00 The Institute for Advancing Health Value – your partner in developing a competent workforce for the future of value-based care

03:30 Introduction to expert panelists:  Dr. Jim Walton, Christina Severin, Dr. Joy Doll, and Dr. Richard Walker

06:00 The imperative to ensure health equity and reduce disparities in our most vulnerable populations

07:00 Dr. Walker shares the vision to serve underserved populations through reengineered primary care

08:45 How TVP-Care access to care with both a “high touch” and “high tech” model that reaches patients in their homes

09:30 Dr. Doll on how CyncHealth addresses health equity through data democratization within a longitudinal health record and community-based SDOH support ecosystem

10:30 Dr. Walton speaks to the importance of building an engaged ecosystem and how GPG realizes that “equity is a valuable business model for the future of private practicing physicians”

11:00 The impact of burnout and moral injury and how that will become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” without a value-based business model and workforce strategy

12:00 “We must have an ROI attached to social interventions; otherwise, we are just tilting at windmills.” (Harnessing AI/ML for predictive risk stratification of the patient population)

13:00 Christina Severin on how C3 approaches team-based care, social interventions, behavioral health in its FQHC network

14:00 Establishing a diversity, equity, and racial justice committee and building a data infrastructure to drive health equity

16:00 How CMS is integrating health equity in every stage of payment model development, including the new ACO REACH program

17:30 Christina Severin discusses on ACO REACH is a great step forward in program redesign to have a more adequate benchmark that represents the complexity of the population

18:30 Taking the time to understand the legacy of white supremacy in this country and how it impacts healthcare delivery

20:00 Dr. Walker on the importance of developing trust with patients to overcome prior harms inflicted on minority populations

22:30 Dr. Walton discusses the intersection of the civil rights movement and the story of the American healthcare system

23:30 “To effectively upskill and reskill the workforce for the future, they must be grounded in the historical arc of racism in our country.”

24:00 How “Crossing the Quality Chasm” ignited a 20-year movement toward Patient Safety and why something similar is needed to elevate Health Equity

26:00 “It’s not about the patient who has lack of trust that needs to change. The system has to be more credible and trustworthy.”

27:00 “Workforce development requires exposing students to the history of inequities, giving them real-life experience in a value-based arrangement, and using technology to identify patients in need of intervention.”

27:30 Dr. Doll on empowering workforce transformation through resilience, challenging the status quo, and leaning in to uncomfortable conversations

31:00 Advancing the aims of value-based care through culturally competent care and how Higher Education can eliminate implicit biases in teaching and learning

32:30 Dr. Doll speaks about the need for scholarships to eliminate barriers to accessing education in minoritized populations

33:00 Referencing the work of Peter Cahn in interprofessional collaborative practiceand how to overcome structural racism in higher education in healthcare

34:30 Being more thoughtful with language and avoiding “trigger words” in the workforce (ex: midlevel providers)

36:00 “We have not trained health professions outside of silos. Education is still very new in the accreditation requirements for interprofessional learning.”

36:30 Dr. Walton on how “cultural competencies are table stakes in the workforce” and how he designed a student program to support health equity advancement in his ACO

38:30 “Health equity must have a pro-business strategy. You shouldn’t have to go to the nonprofit world to sacrifice to make a difference in the world.”

40:00 Dr. Walker on how WGU is leading the way in workforce development for the future of Value-Based Care and Population Health Equity

41:00 “Inequity is not having the tools or the capability to get what you need so that you can have the kinds of good outcomes that you expect. Disparity is bad outcomes based upon a population.”

42:00 Dr. Walker addresses the research about improved patient care outcomes with providers sharing the race and ethnicity of their patients (“It’s not about the fact that you look like me…it is trust.”)

43:00 How workforce training programs can be reoriented towards educating professionals on how to foster trusting patient relationships

44:00 Christina Severin: “We need to raise awareness of how white supremacy has created SDOH. Interprofessional programs can do this my making health equity a core focus in their curriculum.”

47:00 The disruption of Healthcare and Higher Education – the two most dysfunctional industries in America!

50:00 Dr. Walker on the need to integrate all interprofessional roles in healthcare education (CNAs are just as important as doctors!)

51:30 Dr. Doll on the current lack of innovation in education (ex. the gap between rigid academic requirements and what the industry really needs, time constraints in training, lack of interprofessional training)

53:00 Christina Severin speaks to the PCP shortage, how most patients don’t need MD level of care, and how her ACO uses telehealth navigators

55:30 The need for educational programs in peer specialists and recovery coaches to support team-based value-based care for SUD and behavioral health

56:00 Dr. Walton: “CMS has put the stake in the ground for health equity, and that can be the catalyst for how we prepare the workforce for the future.”

58:00 Creating a value-based care simulator to train the workforce for the future