The Becker's team is excited to announce the
launch of our new CFO and Revenue Cycle
podcast.
Tune in for conversations with finance experts from
the top hospitals and health systems. We'll discuss
key trends and ideas to drive meaningful change
in the industry. Look for Becker's CFO and
Revenue Cycle podcast wherever you listen to episodes.
This is Scott King with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
Bob Poznanovich,
chief growth officer at Hazelyn Betty Ford Foundation.
Bob, how's it going? Thanks so much for
joining us today. Hey. Great, Scott. Thanks for
having me. I think we're gonna have a
great conversation and kinda dive into, you know,
a lot of the big opportunities and challenges
in health care today. But before we dive
into all that, can you please just tell
us a little bit more about yourself and
your background?
Sure.
I am the chief growth officer at Hazel
and Betty Ford, which has lots of different
areas of responsibility
in developing the relationships and partnerships
with the business the business to business communities
that refer patients to us and partner with
us. But I also represent
the entire,
enterprise
as far as making,
our product services,
available,
to the communities we serve. And as a
nonprofit, we have a long history
of knowledge sharing. So it's trying to create
those pathways that help it help more patients
get help and for us to share our
knowledge,
with the industry.
I've been here for about fifteen years, and
prior to that, I was the founder and
CIO of AIR Health, which is a behavioral
health company.
And then prior to that, I did,
twenty years in the high-tech, mostly startups.
Wonderful. Appreciate you sharing all the background. I
feel very interesting.
And getting getting to the great work
at Betty Ford, I'm just curious what
accomplishments you're most proud of from the past
year.
Yeah. I think well, I think in the
past the past year has been yeah. I
think we if we look at the addiction
treatment world today and we look at the
changing patient
expectations
and then the patient needs, I think the
thing that I'm most proud of, I think
that we're most proud of, that we accomplished,
last year
is
our evolution of our mission
and our care to do more integration
of mental health and substance use and to
create new
co occurring
mental health and substance use substance use disorder
programs,
and that we're opening up new service lines
and new facilities to support the growing needs
of these more complex patients. I would also
say I I I
do wanna miss the thing I think that
we're most proud of too. One of the
things that we're most proud of too is
that last this year, we celebrated our seventy
fifth anniversary. You know, Hazel Betty Ford was
one of the pioneers in addiction treatment. They're
founded back in 1949.
And then in 1982, we merged with the
Betty Ford Center who also celebrated,
you know, its fortieth anniversary. So we had
a lot of years of of first or
or or or years of recognition last year.
But I think also that,
our continued focus through some general
generation generation of,
of donations
generous donations that we've been able to establish
a national center for for family and children
so that we could continue to evolve treatment
to the families, which is really important in
need, and to children whose parents are struggling
with substance use that we continue to expand,
you know, our research and care and to
share that knowledge and care with anybody in
The US who needs that help.
I wanna ask you about
technology.
I'm sure, obviously, developments technology help
you and your colleagues with the work you
do with Betty Ford. But is it also
does it also create challenges when you're when
you're dealing with patients and people you're trying
to help and and
how there's such easy access to things that
they might be abusing or attempted to abuse?
Yeah. I mean, that that's a really good
question. I think that that's one of I
think our challenges moving forward
is
how do we meet the changing expectations
of consumers
as it relates
to how they want how they
look for care,
how they engage in care, and what they
expect care to look like.
One of the initiatives that we're working on
and that we've worked on
over the last couple of years is to
create
new digital patient pathways
to kind of make make help us meet
patients where they're at
in not only their disease, but also in
their decision making process.
So we can make care more accessible
and easier to access,
more confidential.
And I think,
you know, we're faced with some of the
challenges of emerging new of new tech companies,
you know, who keep moving into the the
behavioral health space
who,
you know, are are are bringing a lot
of solutions to market quickly. And how do
we compete with that while we're still holding
true to, you know, our long term model
of care? You know, combining that that science,
evidence based therapies with spiritual, mental, physical well-being,
as well as communities. I think that's the
challenge for us is to be true to
our model, but also to evolve it in
a digital world.
What are the big organizational goals you've set
for 2025?
To continue to integrate
and expand,
our mental health
and substance use treatment
and to continue to to hire,
the staff recruit and hire and retain the
staff that is qualified
to
deliver these different,
forms of treatment,
to meet
the, again, the complexities of the patients,
that we're seeing.
What headwinds do you anticipate for the next
year or two? Well,
that's a great question. If you, you know,
I think if you think of us as
an organization,
I think that we're we've got a lot
of challenge. I mean, the things that pop
up always are, you know, payer payer reimbursement
rates.
I think if you look at digital security,
you know, and and rev cycle management and
staff retention, as I mentioned, I think those
are all the issues facing,
the organizations. If I think about me specifically,
you know, in in my organizational
growth,
I think,
I think it is,
continue to grow demand
and to understand,
the changing
patterns of consumers
to to find effective,
ways to acquire patients,
while the cost of acquisition is growing.
I think we see a lot of patients
today using kind of that word, that shopper,
who are more confused trying to navigate behavioral
health, you know, as ever before.
I think many of them are turning to
doctor Google
and,
you know, finding easy access on ramps
that,
may not be what they need, but maybe
what what they were trying to do. And
then what happens to those patients and where
do they fit fall into,
the cracks when, you know, those levels of
intervention
don't provide the help they need?
You know, what do they do next? I
think, you know, the headwind is
is trying to,
look at new ways to to engage patients
and to provide the services that they're looking
for and then to expand our continuum
to support them in the way they wanna
be supported so that, you know, the emphasis
on digital and virtual product development will be
important.
You shared a lot about your career at
the start of the podcast.
How are you evolving as a
leader?
That's a really good question too.
Yeah. We we put a lot of work
into our DEI initiatives this year,
and I think that that's opened my eyes
to opportunity for inclusion.
I think as an individual,
I am
really working to understand
the crossroads
of traditional patient care
and and the digital world. So I personally
been investing a lot of time and effort
into,
technology,
AI,
and,
growing need to bring technology into all of
our patient interactions.
And one of my areas of responsibility
is our first call for help teams. And,
you know, how do we continue to evolve
that patient journey? How do we use AI
to help make our
first call for help,
staff
more effective?
And, you know, how do we use technology
to better understand
our patients, their needs, and to personalized care
for them? You know, on a on another
personal level, since we're talking today, Skye, I
will share that. I am excited today to
to that I am celebrating my thirtieth year
of recovery.
Not only am I a Hazel and exec,
but, thirty years ago, I was a Hazel
and Betty Ford patient.
And I think, you know,
living my life's journey in recovery,
being able to mix that combination of business
and recovery
experience
to helping us guide, you know, where we
need to go in the future and then
also, you know, how I practice those principles
at all of my affairs,
you know, within, our organization
has been something that I've been focusing on.
Well, a big congratulations on that, Bob, and
thank you very much for sharing. I'm sure
that experience has made you a huge asset
to everybody you're helping over there. And thanks
so much for joining us. It was a
great conversation, and I look forward to working
with you again soon. Thank you. Thank you
very much.