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This is Rosie Talaga with the Becker's Healthcare

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Podcast.

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Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by Nirajah

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Kakehri, founder and CEO of North Texas Team

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Care Surgery Center, to talk about some of

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the biggest trends in the ASC industry.

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Doctor Kakehri,

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it's a pleasure to have you on the

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podcast today.

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1st, can you please take a moment to

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introduce yourself and your work in the industry?

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Hi, everyone. Thank you for having me here.

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We love Becker's. We love coming every year.

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I am one of the founders of North

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Texas Team Care Surgery Center. I'm a retired

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dentist, actually.

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And right now, my job predominantly

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is in the financial area. I take care

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of the billing section of my company,

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oversee all of that, oversee all the coding.

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We don't do it in house, but I

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over do the all the oversight on that

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currently.

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Thank you. So our first question today is

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the ASC volume across the country is expected

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to increase by 16%

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by 2032.

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With this growth, what are the most pressing

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challenges to maintain a positive patient experience?

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I think we have to know who our

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patients are more than anything.

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What is their demographic that they're coming from

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and address that correctly?

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We also have to address the comorbidities that

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a lot of these patients are going to

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be having in the future, obesity being number

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1.

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So we have to make sure that the

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patients that we are bringing to the ASC

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are in fact appropriate

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for the ASC itself.

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And

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as

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the population

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growth

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goes towards an ASC, we also have to

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make sure that we have safety equipment guidelines,

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everything that can address the needs of that

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particular,

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patient in general. So we've seen more and

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more procedures

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go into the ASC

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23 hour stays.

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Just make sure you have the life safety

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equipment that your staff is trained, that they're

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able to concretely

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take care of all of the patients that

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that that you're bringing there. Know, you wanna

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make sure that everybody's up to date, CPR,

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ALS, BLS, whatever it is that they need,

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we wanna provide that so that they have

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it. That's great. So being equipped for the

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needs of each patient.

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And then looking at what strategies have worked,

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what strategies have your organization seen work when

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tackling some of these challenges? And what's one

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recommendation you have for health care leaders to

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stay ahead?

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So I think it's really important to have

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a patient needs to have access to health

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care,

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which is one of the reasons why we

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opened our ASC in the first place because

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in the current space that we're at, there

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are hospital systems,

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but there's no true

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ASC in that area.

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And so we were very happy that we

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could open it and stay afloat

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for the patients in that underserved area. We

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have,

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a large

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Medicare population

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as well as, managed care

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health organizations

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that use our facility as well in terms

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of the patient population.

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So just trying to provide that service to

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the patient is really important, I think.

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Now transitioning from the patient to more of

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the

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provider side, how can leaders ensure that their

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staff are well equipped to help patients navigate

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the financial aspects of their care? How does

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this benefit patient to provider relationships?

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So we have this question because health care

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is expensive,

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and it's becoming more expensive. And a lot

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of people,

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they are choosing

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not to have health insurance or they're under

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insured or their deductibles are through the roof.

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So how do you

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how how can you provide care for somebody

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who, you know, has all these financial challenges?

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So one of the things, obviously, we try

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to do payment plans, we try to do

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CareCredit with them, we try to,

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give them some sort form

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of financial,

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options to them to do this. In addition,

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they we also have a other program, and

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we call it a bundled pricing

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program. So let's just use an example. Patient

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has a $10,000

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deductible.

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Their insurance,

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you know, for them to use the insurance,

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it might cost them 7 or 8,000

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for a,

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a simple procedure

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that

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in our bundle pricing program, maybe they can

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pay that one price. Maybe it's 1500, maybe

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it's 2 $1,000,

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you know, and it's much more economical for

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them. So then they don't use their insurance,

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but they just use the cash program,

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and that's what they do. So those are

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other choices that we can give them. And

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so that's worked extremely well.

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We've had people come from across the United

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States actually to use that because they, they

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honestly did not have the insurance or people

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from other countries have come to. And where,

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for example, in Canada, they might've had to

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wait to have a total knee replacement done.

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You know, they have a waiting system.

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And when your number comes up is when

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it's your turn. But they found that our

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bundled price was cheaper for them in the

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long run, plus they could get it done

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as soon as possible. So we've had people

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come like that and have their yeah. It's

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really a good deal. That's that's great insight.

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And it also shows it goes back to

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the problem with access to care. Access to

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care. If it's easier for them to get

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it done quickly or at a better price.

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You can give everybody insurance. That's not the

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problem. Right. The

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problem is how are they gonna pay for

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it? The other problem is then how do

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they pay for the co insurances? How do

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they paying the co pays? How are they

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paying the deductibles? You know, we have to

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address those needs. It's much easier for a

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patient to

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to pay $2 or $3,000

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than

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shell out $2 or $3,000

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every single month to have that. So I

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think we have to look at the big

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picture sometimes.

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That's great. Well thank you so much for

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joining us today, Doctor. Kikiri.

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It's been a pleasure and I look forward

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to connecting with you again. Thank you so

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much guys. Thank you for having me here.