Relentless Health Value

Nathaniel (Nate) Lacktman is a partner with the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP, where he is the chair of the firm's Telemedicine Industry Team. He advises health care providers and technology companies on business arrangements, compliance, and corporate matters, with particular attention to telehealth, digital health, virtual care, and health innovation. Working with hospitals, entrepreneurs, and start-ups to build telemedicine arrangements across the United States and internationally, his practice emphasizes strategic counseling, creative business modeling, and fresh approaches to realize clients' ambitious and innovative goals. Go to foley.com/telemedicine or healthcarelawtoday.com to learn more.

The biggest pay-for-value program in history is the Medicare Star ratings initiative. I heard on a Navigant podcast recently that for every star a Medicare plan gets, it earns 8% more revenue, between the financial rewards for improved performance and the increased enrollment. Then we have MIPS and APM. Today I speak with John Gorman, founder and executive chairman at Gorman Health Group (GHG). His expertise and candor is like a ray of sunshine into the shadowy interworking of health care business models.

John Gorman is founder and executive chairman at Gorman Health Group (GHG). In this role, he has led the development of the industry's leading consulting practice and several entrepreneurial ventures in government health programs. John's work focuses on Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act strategy, governance, and turnaround of distressed health plans. Prior to founding the firm, John served as assistant to the director of Health Care Financing Administration's Office of Managed Care where he provided day-to-day management and served as the external liaison for the Medicare and Medicaid managed care programs. During the 1993 debate on national health care reform, John was chief lobbyist on health care financing issues for the National Association of Community Health Centers, an organization of federally-funded primary care clinics for the medically underserved. John's career in Washington began as press secretary and staff director for US Representative John Conyers, Jr (D-MI), then chairman of the Government Operations Committee. Find out more information at gormanhealthgroup.com, or follow John Gorman on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Alex is a partner/managing director in Parthenon-EY, where she works primarily on growth strategy projects. She helps clients define and implement their strategy and build organizational capabilities to deliver sustainable business results through both organic and inorganic approaches. She is a thought leader in the industry and specializes in asset repurposing and optimizing value propositions. Prior to joining EY, she was the senior vice president of Walgreens Corporate Strategy.

Alex has over 30 years of experience working on strategic growth and risk mitigation engagements. She began her career with Arthur Andersen and after 10 years moved into consulting with Mercer as the leader of the National Health Care Analysis Unit, helping to architect one of the first health data analytics platforms.

Alex has worked globally with Fortune 500 companies and has developed and implemented large-scale strategy, operations, and financial projects. Her domain expertise in health care and life sciences includes hospital operations, pharmacy and drug manufacturing, patient clinical intervention programs, employer benefit plan designs and funding, commercialization, and growth strategies, including mergers and acquisitions.

Alex has been quoted in numerous articles in Forbes, the Chicago Tribune, Business Insurance, Workforce Management magazine, Crain’s Chicago Business, and other industry publications. She is on the editorial board of Inside Patient Care magazine.

Read Alex’s  list of employer actions to reduce pharmacy costs here.

You can learn more by emailing Alex directly at [email protected].

Alex is a partner/managing director in Parthenon-EY, where she works primarily on growth strategy projects. She helps clients define and implement their strategy and build organizational capabilities to deliver sustainable business results through both organic and inorganic approaches. She is a thought leader in the industry and specializes in asset repurposing and optimizing value propositions. Prior to joining EY, she was the senior vice president of Walgreens Corporate Strategy. Alex has over 30 years of experience working on strategic growth and risk mitigation engagements. She began her career with Arthur Andersen and after 10 years moved into consulting with Mercer as the leader of the National Health Care Analysis Unit, helping to architect one of the first health data analytics platforms. Alex has worked globally with Fortune 500 companies and has developed and implemented large-scale strategy, operations, and financial projects. Her domain expertise in health care and life sciences includes hospital operations, pharmacy and drug manufacturing, patient clinical intervention programs, employer benefit plan designs and funding, commercialization, and growth strategies, including mergers and acquisitions. Alex has been quoted in numerous articles in Forbes, the Chicago Tribune, Business Insurance, Workforce Management magazine, Crain's Chicago Business, and other industry publications. She is on the editorial board of Inside Patient Care magazine. Read Alex's list of employer actions to reduce pharmacy costs here. You can learn more by emailing Alex directly at [email protected].

Sean Erreger is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW, MSW) in New York State with an undergraduate degree in psychology. Sean has over a decade of practice experience in a variety of settings, including foster care prevention, psychiatric emergency room, adolescent day treatment, and adult inpatient. Currently, he is a clinical case manager for children and adolescents at risk of inpatient psychiatric hospitalization and/or out-of-home placement.

Alex Akers is vice president for business development with Health Catalyst, a Utah-based, next-generation data, analytics, and decision-support company. He has been with Health Catalyst since 2015. Alex began his career in health care consulting, working for KPMG and Accenture in their health care strategy practices, and then shifting to revenue cycle reengineering with Stockamp & Associates. His passion for technology in health care really took off after he joined Microsoft and was responsible for health care strategy in their payer segment. After a stint with Grand Rounds in San Francisco, Alex landed at Health Catalyst.

00:00 The purpose of podcasts. 01:40 Industry-specific podcasts as a great way to absorb information and make unproductive time productive. 05:15 Getting context through podcasts. 05:40 Podcasts helping with work-life balance. 06:00 “It’s a way to get creative.” 06:35 Finding new podcasts through keyword searches and apps like Pocket Casts and Overcast. 10:50 What it means to subscribe to a podcast. 11:20 Following timelines to seek out specific information vs being a casual listener. 12:10 Alex’s podcast recommendations. 13:35 Sean’s blog, stuckonsocialwork.com, and his self-guided course on social media ethics for social workers. 14:15 Using podcasts as a way to help make the workday less mundane while gaining a better sense of various topics. 16:30 How Sean gets most of his podcasts—through Google Play or iTunes. 20:30 Sean’s podcast recommendations for social work.

Sean Erreger is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW, MSW) in New York State with an undergraduate degree in psychology. Sean has over a decade of practice experience in a variety of settings, including foster care prevention, psychiatric emergency room, adolescent day treatment, and adult inpatient. Currently, he is a clinical case manager for children and adolescents at risk of inpatient psychiatric hospitalization and/or out-of-home placement. Alex Akers is vice president for business development with Health Catalyst, a Utah-based, next-generation data, analytics, and decision-support company. He has been with Health Catalyst since 2015. Alex began his career in health care consulting, working for KPMG and Accenture in their health care strategy practices, and then shifting to revenue cycle reengineering with Stockamp & Associates. His passion for technology in health care really took off after he joined Microsoft and was responsible for health care strategy in their payer segment. After a stint with Grand Rounds in San Francisco, Alex landed at Health Catalyst. 00:00 The purpose of podcasts. 01:40 Industry-specific podcasts as a great way to absorb information and make unproductive time productive. 05:15 Getting context through podcasts. 05:40 Podcasts helping with work-life balance. 06:00 "It's a way to get creative." 06:35 Finding new podcasts through keyword searches and apps like Pocket Casts and Overcast. 10:50 What it means to subscribe to a podcast. 11:20 Following timelines to seek out specific information vs being a casual listener. 12:10 Alex's podcast recommendations. 13:35 Sean's blog, stuckonsocialwork.com, and his self-guided course on social media ethics for social workers. 14:15 Using podcasts as a way to help make the workday less mundane while gaining a better sense of various topics. 16:30 How Sean gets most of his podcasts—through Google Play or iTunes. 20:30 Sean's podcast recommendations for social work.

Pharma companies are not exactly tops on the trust scale for reasons you can infer yourself—or listen to EP148 with Jennifer Miller on the Good Pharma Scorecard. Pharma can easily become an echo chamber for a point of view that is consistent with the organization's profit aspirations. So, how do you become more trustworthy? One way is with certified medical affairs personnel. Today I speak with Will Soliman, PhD, BCMAS, president and CEO of the Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs (ACMA).

An experienced senior executive with several years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, Will has held key positions where he was instrumental in launching a variety of innovative platforms in medical affairs. He speaks frequently regarding the ever-changing role of medical affairs at most major medical affairs conferences and is currently president and CEO of the ACMA, whose primary mission is to create industry standards and goals for medical affairs professionals. Will has held key management roles across the industry within medical affairs, such as at Eisai, Retrophin, Gilead Sciences, Abbott Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Merck. Will previously also served as vice president of medical and scientific affairs at CME LLC, a leading provider of continuing medical education to health care providers nationwide. He also has worked on the strategic management consulting side with companies such as Veeva Systems and often provides medical affairs consultancy services for Bain, McKinsey, BCG, Atheneum Partners, and Alpha Insights. He has published extensively and led a number of initiatives focusing in the areas of ischemic heart disease, dyslipidemia, diastolic heart failure, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, where he has collaborated with some of the nation's top research institutions, such as the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, the Washington Center for Weight Management & Research, the Yale School of Medicine Digestive Diseases Program, and the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Weight & Eating Disorders. Will was most recently invited to speak at the Center for Medical Technology Policy's (CMTP) conference on Comparative Effectiveness Research to help inform payers, health care policy makers, physicians, and patients on the most effective ways to design clinical trials to better address gaps in medicine. He also presented at the 2014 annual American Diabetes Association (ADA) Conference on preventing the progression of type 2 diabetes among prediabetic overweight and obese individuals. In 2008, Will published a book entitled The Rise of Chemistry: Implications for Industry and Education. You can learn more at medicalaffairsspecialist.org.

Sandra is the chief operating officer at SinfoníaRx. SinfoníaRx is a leading provider of MTM services. Through a comprehensive suite of innovative health care solutions, SinfoníaRx provides direct support to health plans, health systems, provider organizations, and pharmacies. SinfoníaRx’s team works directly with patients, caregivers, and providers to ensure the most effective and safest medication therapy possible.

Todd started his professional career in telecommunications and spent 8 years in the field of business development until entering the pharmacy technology sector in 2004. Todd helped to build a small software systems design company into the most recognized long-term care pharmacy management system in the pharmacy industry, SoftWriters, developers of FrameworkLTC. He then launched his own company, Pharmacy Technology Resource, which started from a small popular blog about pharmacy operators leveraging technology better to gain efficiency and maximize profitability. In 2009, Todd launched the pharmacy industry’s first podcast about the business of pharmacy dedicated to health care professionals called the "Pharmacy Podcast Show." In the fall of 2014, several pharmacists joined Todd, and the "Pharmacy Podcast Show" was transformed into the Pharmacy Podcast Network. Today the audio-blog is the US health care system’s largest network of podcasts dedicated to the profession of pharmacy. After several successful years in the world of pharmacy software and health care tech consulting, Todd found a new career in the field of opioid addiction recovery in business development and strategic marketing with national leader New Season, headquartered in Orlando, Florida. He has been with New Season since June 2016.