Healthcare Rethink

John Petito, SVP of Transformation at SCAN Health Plan joins the podcast to share his story and how his work is helping enable new types of healthcare coverage for diverse populations.Join us to hear how Health Plans are beginning to evolve their approach to addressing the needs of older adults and the LGBTQ+ community with personalized healthcare coverage.SCAN Health Plan has been focused on Keeping Seniors Healthy and Independent since 1977 when it was created by a diverse group of seniors to better address older populations health care coverage needs.SCAN was born from senior activists in Long Beach, California determined to improve access to the care and services they needed so they could stay as independent as possible. Listen in and join the impact being made!

From myPlace Health, Rhiannon Iorio Perry MPH and Rob Schreiber MD join the podcast to share their stories and efforts to expand health at home for seniors across the United States. myPlace believes building a new care model—one that provides care and dignity, focusing on the social and physical well-being of elder populations—is the only way to enable their members to enjoy their life to the fullest as they age in their own preferred place, on their own terms, and where they feel the most comfortable.They discuss:The significant challenges elderly patients face today and how hard is it to navigate services that are crucial for getting at home health and other basic needsHow the myPlace PACE (the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) model has impacted their membersThe cost to the US healthcare system and toll on families and caregivers if more thoughtful senior care models aren’t adoptedHow is myPlace health is addressing social health barriers within the elderly populationListen in and join the impact being made!

We have now entered a universe of “determinants of health” ranging from medical debt to housing to medication access to transportation…literally all things impact health that happen outside a doctor’s office.So is healthcare taking this into account? How are we helping those with substance abuse, rare cancers and unmanageable chronic conditions?On today's episode of Healthcare Rethink, host Brian Urban, sits down with Claire Manneh, Head of Provider Research at Datavant, to talk about how the intuitive approach of tokenizing data is transforming how the healthcare ecosystem is reaching patients and improving lives!Tune in to learn more about Claire’s public health background and her path to Datavant on this energizing episode!The two discuss:What tokenization means and what it can do in healthcare and beyondHow Claire’s work impacts health equity, health improvementClaire’s hopes for enabling lasting positive impact across the eco-system relative to data tokenizationClaire Manneh is the Head of Provider Research at Datavant. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and Government; Public Health Degree, Political Science, and Government.

A lack of health insurance can be detrimental to anyone if there is any medical emergency or accident that occurs in that span of time. Healthcare costs are high even with insurance. Without insurance? Astronomical and simply unaffordable for many. So, it should come as a concern that in 2021, 8.6 percent of Americans did not have health insurance. That’s almost one in every ten people.What needs to be done today to improve health equity and ensure everyone has access to appropriate medical care and services?On today’s episode of Healthcare Rethink, Host Brian Urban speaks with Dr. Omar Lateef, President and CEO at Rush University Medical Center, Dr. David Ansell, Senior VP for Community Health Equity at Rush University Medical Center, and Dr. David Nash, Founding Dean Emeritus, Jefferson College of Population Health, to discuss how health equity has gained traction since the COVID-19 pandemic, what consequences inequalities in health access create, and what changes have been stirring the past few years to address this gap.The group also discussed…1. Dr. Lateef’s 2021 investment in health equity education, workforce development, community-based clinical practice, and health equity research2. How the Jefferson College of Population Health is creating health equity-conscious doctors, nurses, and pharmacists as leaders 3. How the health equity institute partnership with BMO Financial Group will facilitate meeting basic needs of individuals in the U.S. through its workDr. Lateef explained how COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of health equity. “All of a sudden, it seems to folks like Ansell and Nash that the world is finally understanding how important it is to have equitable access to care, access to procedures, access to primary care doctors, access to safe border, food, all the rest, and the amazing impact that all of these factors have on health.”“So, we created, with a generous donation from BMO Financial, a health equity institute that’s not only about solving the problem, but training the next generation of healthcare leaders who will help solve the problem as well,” Dr. Ansell added. Dr. Nash brought up Jefferson College of Population Health is facilitating adoption of health equity in their curriculum for tomorrow’s health leaders. “The mission of the school is to continue to build a different type of leader for the future, where the issues that Dr. Ansell and Dr. Lateef described about the social determinants of health, racial discrimination, putting these issues deeper into the medical curriculum nursing curriculum, and pharmacy curriculum. And we do that in all kinds of ways. Online master’s degrees…building relationships with many other schools, research in this area, our scholarly peer-reviewed journal, our annual conference, my book…this is a generational issue which were not going to fix tomorrow, but we now have more than a decade of helping to create a different kind of leader for whom these issues are a core part of their training,” he stated.Dr. Omar Lateef is President and CEO of Rush Medical University Center and was previously Chief Medical Officer. He is a 2021 recipient of the Mayor’s Medal of Honor in Chicago and has assisted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by serving on the National Advisory Council for Healthcare Research and Quality of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Dr. Lateef’s BS is from the University of Florida-Gainesville and his medical degree is from Des Moines University. Dr. Lateef completed his residency at NYU Downtown Hospital and his fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. David Ansell is Senior VP for Community Health Equity at Rush University Medical Center and was the first Chief Medical Officer there while serving as associate dean and senior vice president for clinical affairs. Prior to working at Rush, Dr. Ansell was chairperson of the Department of Internal Medicine at Chicago’s Mount Sinai Hospital. He co-founded the Sinai Urban Health Institute, helped establish the nonprofit Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Taskforce, and helped create the Center for Community Health Equity in Chicago. Dr. Ansell is a two-time author and earned his BS from Franklin and Marshall College and his doctoral degree from SUNY Upstate Medical University as well as a master’s degree in public health from the University of Illinois. Dr. David Nash is Founding Dean Emeritus of Jefferson College of Population Health and Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. He has a BA in Economics from Vassar College, an MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and an MBA from The Wharton School. Dr. Nash is a board-certified internist, has held a variety of governance positions, and has earned a multitude of accolades such as the Philadelphia Business Journal Healthcare Heroes Award and honorary distinguished fellow of the American College of Physician Executives.

From the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Health Equity Director Bryan O. Buckley DrPH, MPH joins the podcast to share his story and efforts to progress health equity for disadvantaged families across the US.NCQA is committed to evolving equity in healthcare through services, programs and next generation accreditations aimed at supporting Health Plans, Healthcare, Government and Employers.On this episode we discuss… 1. NCQA’s programs that outline how healthcare professionals can improve equity at practices and clinics2. The evolution of health equity and why equity is vital to the healthcare ecosystem3. How the team at NCQA organizes and reaches their goals “Think of it like a Justice League. We have so many superheroes involved within our company. Look at them as the health equity champions to help coalesce the work that's being done in each unit or division, and that in many ways is how we build up our team. Don't think of it so much as a team, but I like to think of myself as the watchtower really helping to be a space for people to co-collaborate, talk shop, talk about the challenges that we see from different stakeholders and also think about who do we need to partner with, who’s missing at the table and so forth. And so that would be how I define the health equity team. It’s many different people involved in many different departments, really building on that collective intelligence we all need to truly make health equity sustain itself moving forward,” said Buckley. Dr. Bryan Buckley is a healthcare professional and researcher and is also the Director of Health Equity Initiatives at the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Buckley started his career in equity in public health and is a graduate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Michigan State University.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s research shows consumers generated $88 billion in medical debt as of June 2021. The CFPB’s research also indicated a vast majority of low-income individuals of all races and ethnicities were more likely to incur medical debt than the national average. This national crisis threatens equitable healthcare in the United States. Thankfully, companies are working to make medical debt a thing of the past.Enter RIP Medical Debt. They’ve helped wipe away $6.7 billion in medical debt for 4.2 million families. How’d they, do it? That’s the question Brian Urban of the Healthcare Rethink podcast wanted to know.Eva Stahl, VP of Public Policy at RIP Medical Debt, and Priscilla Keith, VP of Program Management at RIP Medical Debt, joined Urban to discuss their mission to eliminate medical debt from the U.S. equation and how RIP Medical Debt is succeeding in those efforts.The discussion includes:• Who RIP Medical Debt is and what they do• Enlisting the government to help promote RIP’s mission to end medical debt• The connection between medical debt and the determinants of health“Medical debt is a drag,” Stahl said. “It’s a drag on the economy, and it’s a drag on your physical and mental health and financial well-being as an individual. There’s a lot of finger-pointing on who’s to blame for it, but the reality is, it is stressful for individuals, and it hampers our growth as a nation.”Priscilla Keith is a lawyer and a creative, bold leader who sees the big picture and distills complex concepts into simple facts. She leverages strategic, legal, and operational expertise to help people and organizations skate to where the puck goes by taking them from problem identification to goal attainment. In addition to her work with RIP Medical Debt, Keith lectures at New York University.Eva Stahl is an experienced leader with expertise in program development, grants management, coalition building, policy analysis, strategic coaching, and campaign development. Stahl is an adept public speaker, facilitator, and trainer of community partners and state consumer health advocates. She has extensive practical experience overseeing and directly contributing to campaign efforts to protect essential health programs, including the Affordable Care Act and the Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Hospitals had a rough 2022 as they faced higher labor and supply costs, volatile patient volumes, and fragile payer relations. More than half of hospitals in 2022 are expected to result in negative margins, according to Kaufman Hall. Kevin Holloran, Senior Director at Fitch Ratings, said 2022 was “one of the worst years ever in healthcare,” and he projected hospitals would face a bumpy 2023. On this episode of Healthcare Rethink, Jonathan Wiik, VP of Health Insights at FinThrive and Kevin Holloran dig deeper into financial performance for health systems and hospitals.Topics covered: • Headwinds affecting the not-for-profit hospital sector and what is driving those headwinds• Advice for CFOs and recommendation to insulate operations and profitability• Thoughts on M&A activity• How the future of payer/provider collaboration may look• Issues affecting profitability from labor to patient volumes and possible impact from recent legislation