Relentless Health Value

"Dr. Google" has a bad rap in some health care circles. If you doubt my words, go on Instagram and do a search for "Doing battle with Dr. Google." But let me give you a tip: Pretending Dr. Google doesn't exist or telling patients to quit it with the internet—these are tactics that are always followed by #doomed. The best way to help your health care brand, organization, and clinicians and patients is to ensure that patients can find credible, accurate content on the internet, which they will be searching whether you like it or not. Another way to help your health care brand, organization, and clinicians and patients is to help patients and their families better process and use the information that they do find on the internet. Today I speak with Chris Cullmann, head of innovation and engagement at Guidemark Health. Chris offers up some key insights and practical advice to help you help patients and clinicians. Chris also curates a great Twitter and LinkedIn feed. You can learn more at guidemarkhealth.com, or find Chris on Twitter at @cullmann and LinkedIn at Cullmann. Chris Cullmann is the head of innovation and engagement at Guidemark Health, a leading marketing agency. Chris is a veteran in digital marketing with more than 2 decades of experience. Health care has been a focus of his career, technology a passion, and strategy a craft. A career in professional communication has allowed Chris to explore emerging platforms, channels, and data to create industry-leading customer experiences. Chris is actively involved in the health care innovation space and is an evangelist for the adoption of digital in health care.

Today I speak with François de Brantes, senior vice president at Remedy Partners and a noted expert in episodes of care and bundled payment initiatives. François also actively supported the launch of the Leapfrog Group, created Bridges to Excellence, and led the development and implementation of PROMETHEUS Payment.

Today we're talking episodes of care payment models, otherwise known as bundled payments. Just to catch you up if you're unfamiliar, this type of payment model means that a health care provider packaging together all the services needed during an episode and charges a guaranteed price for guaranteed quality of care. If we're talking about government payments, about 50% of, for example, knee surgeries are paid for right now in an episode of care fashion. In the private pay landscape, that number is lower but growing. Bundles have advantages to purchasers (ie, employers or taxpayers who are the ultimate payers) because it's possible to predict and compare the target price they'll pay. But it's also important for consumers who are partial payers in most cases. Bundles make health care prices transparent in a way that fee for service (FFS) can never manage. Today I speak with François de Brantes, senior vice president at Remedy Partners and a noted expert in episodes of care and bundled payment initiatives. François also actively supported the launch of the Leapfrog Group, created Bridges to Excellence, and led the development and implementation of PROMETHEUS Payment. You can learn more at remedypartners.com. François de Brantes is senior vice president of commercial business development at Remedy Partners. He has spent nearly 20 years advocating for, and working to transform, the US health care system by improving incentives for providers and consumers to encourage value-based decisions. Prior to joining Remedy Partners, he was executive director of the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3), a not-for-profit company that designed programs to motivate physicians and hospitals to improve the quality and affordability of health care delivery. Early in his career at General Electric, he was involved in many strategic programs that rewarded providers for better performance. He has written extensively about the topic, including his 2013 book, The Incentive Cure: The Real Relief for Health Care.

Population health is a great idea, but success depends less on great ideas and more on great implementation. Today I speak with Arshad Rahim, MD, MBA, FACP. Dr. Rahim is senior medical director of population health at Mount Sinai and a wealth of information on what it takes to successfully implement a population health initiative and manage to get paid for it IRL (in real life).

Arshad Rahim, MD, MBA, FACP, is a practicing physician and a health economist at his core. He enjoys a track record of building innovative health care businesses, including Mount Sinai Health Partners, Healthgrades, and Sg2. As the senior medical director for population health at Mount Sinai Health System, Dr. Rahim is responsible for driving physician performance for 3000 physicians within the Mount Sinai Clinically Integrated Network, focusing on key utilization, cost, and quality metrics. Dr. Rahim has a bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University, an MD from the University of North Carolina, and an MBA from Emory University. He completed his internal medicine residency at Yale University and Northwestern University and is an actively practicing hospitalist at the Mount Sinai Hospital.

I had a hard time coming up with the title for this episode. I decided to go with “Integrating Social Determinants of Health Into the Clinical Workflow” because Dr. Ram Raju gives some very actionable advice to this end. I could have called it the Social Determinants of Health Movement. Not a whole lot of guests could pull off these titles, but Dr. Ram Raju on the podcast today can certainly do so. He’s been on top health care influencer lists around his work in social determinants of health for years

Ram Raju, MD, brings vast executive leadership experience and a keen understanding of New York's health care delivery system to Northwell Health. As senior vice president and community health investment officer, he evaluates the needs of Northwell's most vulnerable communities and provides solutions for them by collaborating with community-based organizations. He's responsible for promoting, sustaining, and advancing an environment that supports equity and diversity, and helping the health system eliminate health disparities. Prior to Northwell, Dr. Raju served as president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals from January 2014 to November 2016. Dr. Raju also served as CEO for the Cook County Health and Hospitals System in Chicago, the nation's third-largest public health system, where he improved cash flow by more than $100 million and changed the system's financial health during his tenure from 2011 to 2014. Dr. Raju served as vice-chair of the Greater New York Hospital Association and currently sits on the boards of numerous city, state, and national health care organizations, including the American Hospital Association, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Asian Health Care Leaders Association. Dr. Raju earned a medical diploma and Master of Surgery from Madras Medical College in India. He underwent further training in England, where he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He later received an MBA from the University of Tennessee and CPE from the American College of Physician Executives.

Steve Watson is CFO of a company with 500 employees and also a consultant to other CFOs through his work at Summit Path Group. Steve helps other CFOs buy employee benefits. And this is a noble thing to be doing these days when many CFOs are starting to wake up to the fact that their organizations are at the point where another “only 4% to 6% increase in health care costs this year” is the 4% to 6% that puts their organizations over the line where they have to take control of their health care spend.

Steve Watson, CPA, SHRM-SCPAs a CFO/CHRO, Steve was frustrated each year with rising health care costs for his employer and employees. In 2012, he decided to make a change. First, he decided to fix the misaligned incentive that he had with his broker. Then he and his broker moved on to fixing the way his insurance was purchased from the insurance carriers. Now Steve is sharing this process with other employers through his consulting company Summit Path Group, whose mission is to lower employee benefit costs by sharing best practices from around the country with local employers and advisers. For more information on direct primary care, listen to EP184 with Alex Lickerman, EP198 with Eric Parmenter, and EP215 with Caroline Znaniec.