- GLP ones, Medicare Advantage Headwinds, a Medicaid landscape
- that looks different
- every quarter.
- Their leadership right now means making durable decisions
- in an environment that keeps moving, and the
- organizations pulling ahead are the ones that stopped
- waiting for stability
- before acting. Becker's fifth annual fall payer issues
- roundtable convenes more than 500
- executive level attendees
- and 70 plus speakers November second and third
- at the Swiss Hotel Chicago.
- Two days of senior level dialogue on affordability,
- benefit design, value based care, and the strategies
- shaping how care gets financed
- and delivered.
- Featuring
- celebrity keynote from pro football hall of famer,
- Emmitt Smith. Agenda and registration at beckerspayer.com.
- Click events in the upper right.
- Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
- Becker's Payer Issues podcast.
- Thrilled today to be joined by two leaders
- from UPMC.
- Dan LaValle serves as associate vice president of
- community engagement at UPMC health plan, and doctor
- Brandy Hershberger serves as chief nursing officer and
- vice president of academic affairs at UPMC.
- Doctor Hirschberger, Dan, thank you so much for
- taking the time to be with us today.
- And doctor Hirschberger, I'll turn it over to
- you first. If you could tell our audience
- a little bit more about yourself, your background
- in health care, and what it is that
- you do today at UPMC.
- Sure. So thanks so much for having us
- today.
- So a little bit about myself. I am
- a nurse of twenty three years, a chief
- nurse of eight years.
- I grew up as a baby nurse at
- UPMC, primarily
- in emergency medicine,
- and then I went to the for profit
- for about seven years outside of UPMC and
- came back to UPMC in 2021.
- I started out as the chief nursing officer
- for UPMC East and UPMC McKeesport
- and then transitioned into this role in 2022.
- Currently in this role, I am responsible
- for the nursing and allied health pipelining, building
- our pipelines
- to gain a stronger workforce.
- Additionally, I oversee
- our eight UPMC proprietary
- schools of nursing along with our 11 UPMC
- allied health schools
- that are UPMC
- owned and operated.
- And then additionally,
- just maintaining
- our academic partnerships
- and really ensuring
- all of our students have a great clinical
- experience when they come to UPMC.
- So thanks so much for having us today.
- Wonderful. Thanks, Brandy. How about you, Dan?
- Oh, thanks, Jacob, for having us. Brandy, you
- are wonderful. It's always fun to do this,
- you know, with you. I'm Dan LaValle. I,
- I'm a I'm a native Yenser as we
- say. My my grandmother had a a bakery
- on the University of Pittsburgh's campus for about
- sixty years. And,
- you know, probably fortunately for the community, I
- don't have those baking skills. I watched her
- make an incredible difference in the community, but
- I chose,
- health care. And I've been, at UPMC for
- the last twelve years.
- I lead our community engagement team,
- on the health plan side of UPMC, which
- includes a wonderful team that meets people where
- they are every single day and high rises
- out in the community and also builds,
- signature community programs that we call it, like
- our pathways to work program, which we'll talk
- about today. We have two neighborhood centers that
- function as, partnership, community centers,
- in Pittsburgh and Eery as well, although we
- do a lot of this work, and it's
- just so meaningful to me. So it's great
- to be here.
- I love it. A legacy family thing for
- you, Dan, of community engagement in some way,
- shape, or form.
- Always. And my great grandfather was actually a
- baking apprentice when he came here from Germany.
- So it's full circle. We're talking about apprenticeship.
- That's awesome. I didn't know that, Dan. I
- was a new I should have shared that
- before. It's wonderful.
- That's awesome. Well, appreciate you both taking the
- time to chat with us today.
- Staying on the the lines of community engagement,
- Dan, and all the work that you, your
- teams, everybody at UPMC is doing. Talk to
- us a little bit about the latest on
- workforce development.
- I know the the health system, the health
- plan has a lot of different
- initiatives here and progress
- to talk about, in this space. UPMC health
- plan specifically has achieved,
- lasting assistance for those on Medicaid to find
- meaningful careers within the broader health system.
- For our audience who might not be familiar,
- give us some of the details there, and
- what's the latest progress?
- Thanks so much, Jacob. It it has been
- an incredible year. We just passed our eleven
- thousandth person,
- hired off our UPMC for you Medicaid plan
- into UPMC with leaders like Brandy.
- I I just can't even imagine how wonderful
- this has been over these past seven years.
- We started our Pathways to Work program that
- we called it, in partnership with our State
- Department of Human Services about seven years ago
- when they had asked us to help, you
- know, our Medicaid members find work if they
- were interested.
- And it really, you know, built into a
- program that I couldn't even imagine to back
- in in 2019. We went through the pandemic,
- of course, when one in three of our
- neighbors were, you know, filing jobless claims, but
- we still needed,
- leaders in our hospitals and community to care
- for those that were sick at that time.
- And even as the pandemic, you know, ended,
- the need in the community to help individuals
- find life changing careers did not go away.
- And it's just been, you know, incredibly beautiful.
- We really started the program off with trying
- to provide individuals
- who were work ready and had skills into
- careers at UPMC, whether they were in nursing
- with Brandy or I'm calling on the phone
- to make sure people had the coverage and
- the and the medical,
- you know, information and supplies that they would
- need, especially during those challenging times. But then
- what it did is it kinda taught us,
- you know, that, of course, we can support
- individuals in finding a career they might be
- ready for, but it was also an opportunity
- to build new training programs
- and get into new sector apprenticeships as, Governor
- Shapiro and, Labor Secretary Walker here in Pennsylvania,
- you know, have called it, and that has
- really changed the game for us. Brandy will
- go through all the wonderful work that she's
- leading on apprentice on apprenticeships.
- And I think that the most beautiful thing
- is, you know, I'm I remember growing up
- here, you know, as a as a young
- child watching, you know, how Western Pennsylvania became
- a place to build national models to care
- for our communities, whether it's the Children's Health
- Insurance program or other, you know, programs. We
- feel like we have that now too with
- workforce development for those, you know, who who
- really need it. So, you know, I was
- looking at a story this morning, Jacob, from
- one of our team members who was,
- you know, sharing that, you know, we have
- them share every Monday, you know, stories that
- they have from the past week. And, you
- know, one that really struck me was an
- individual that, you know, was homeless and, you
- know, was struggling and but had skills and
- just fallen on hard times,
- and was able to get into a career
- at UPMC, but had expressed an interest in
- joining an apprenticeship down the road, which I
- now I know the game has changed because,
- you know, we've gotten to that point. So,
- it's just so wonderful.
- Shout out to our incredible
- folks on the facility side. They started our
- first apprenticeship. It's called a facilities maintenance technician.
- Kelly Noll, our leader on that side, was
- so wonderful. And that success
- allowed us to work together to build all
- these new programs that Brandy has, and she's
- just the the the best leader and someone
- I look up to very much. And, you
- know, we're we're having a good day in
- the neighborhood as we say here in Pittsburgh.
- And and that story you just shared there,
- Dan, that that singular story, one of 11,000
- out there now,
- that that is all comes back to UPMC
- and your pathways to work program. It's amazing.
- Just just the human story, but also the
- scale here that you're talking about.
- You you teed Brandy up in terms of
- all the different health care apprenticeships
- that are available across the system.
- Brandy, do you wanna talk a little bit
- about that? What's available today?
- And then how you see this all trickling
- down? How this all helps address the workforce
- challenges, not just locally, but how you think
- other systems across the country can really learn
- from UPMC and scale this in their markets
- as well?
- Sure. Absolutely.
- I think that the majority of people are
- used to apprenticeships
- being in, like, electrician
- or, you know, facilities and so forth.
- Well, we were innovative and we wanted to
- bridge this into the healthcare apprenticeships.
- And last year, we were able to get
- approved,
- the first in Pennsylvania,
- an R and R or registered nurse resident
- or an LPN to RN
- apprentice. So we currently
- are running,
- with that apprentice currently at our UPMC Schools
- of Nursing located in Erie, Pennsylvania.
- Additionally, we were able to get our surgical
- tech apprenticeship
- approved along with pharmacy technician
- apprenticeships
- and
- our imaging or diagnostic
- tech apprenticeship
- approved. Now these apprenticeships,
- they help individuals
- who never thought healthcare
- was a career that was possible.
- And they gain valuable related technical instruction
- or on the job training,
- along with their academics
- that really train them to take their certification
- or licensure
- exam at the end
- and they learn and they're actually mentored by
- the experts
- in our healthcare
- arena today.
- And they're guaranteed employment,
- along which helps them to fill those key
- positions in our workforce
- that we so need to provide access to
- our patients and quality of care. And these
- were instrumental
- across the board to give opportunities,
- to our folks out there.
- Absolutely. And it sounds like this really does
- span the whole gamut of of possibilities in
- terms of employment. It's not just clinical, but
- you mentioned electrical work even, Brandy. It's it's
- fascinating. Exactly.
- Dan, what else is out there for you
- all in terms of workforce development training efforts
- beyond the apprenticeships, and what's coming next? Give
- give the audience
- a little bit of a teaser in terms
- of plans to expand your efforts here. Oh,
- yeah. Jacob, thank you for that. And it
- is, you know, it's beautiful. We have been
- able to expand our overall pathways to work
- for across the Commonwealth. So anybody who has
- any type of barrier to work, no matter
- what it is, can reach out to our
- exceptional team, and they'll help them through, hopefully,
- a career at UPMC, but we also have
- many other, you know, partners that do that
- work. So that has been tremendously exciting as
- we look to serve the entirety of the
- Commonwealth. But what's coming up next is related
- to a milestone that we just had, actually,
- which is beautiful. So we had, relaunched a
- program that we call Freedom House two point
- o, and you all might, know a little
- bit about Freedom House. It's been on, multiple
- episodes of recent, TV series and,
- had an Emmy winning documentary. It was about
- the beginning of emergency medical service in this
- country in the sixties that happened right here
- in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh to
- help serve communities that were underserved that really
- had no emergency service there, you know, at
- any time. And it, you know, of course,
- came into what, you know, we all know
- is the model across the country to serve,
- you know, those in need. And, you know,
- it's it's how EMS was built across the
- country. But we really realized we had a
- a need here, you know, in Western Pennsylvania
- and across the Commonwealth to train people in
- preemployment,
- trauma informed,
- six week program that was beautiful to get
- individuals into high need careers that we had.
- We just reached our five year anniversary of
- relaunching that program. I was so special at
- the the last graduation to have one of
- the original
- members of Freedom House in the sixties join,
- you know, and talk to the graduates and
- share quite a bit about that.
- And so we're continuing to expand that program.
- And the best part is that we're launching
- and we just launched an EMT apprenticeship program
- based on that model. So that will, of
- course, serve those that would become EMTs within
- UPMC.
- But the best part about apprenticeships,
- Jacob, is that if you if you if
- you build them and you get them registered
- like like Brandy talked about, they can be
- replicated
- across other organizations and training providers across the
- Commonwealth. And I think that's why, you know,
- secretary Walker in particular has been, you know,
- such a a great partner in helping us
- push this because we can start this year
- and then work with, you know, other systems
- and training partners, you know, to do this
- work. So we're really excited and, you know,
- all of Brandy's work is gonna continue to
- expand, not just here, but across the country.
- It's a perfect segue that the the the
- replicability of the these these models across the
- country. Can you speak to that for the
- audience listening in,
- wanting to replicate the work that UPMC is
- already doing on the ground?
- How can they also have their their educational
- institutions
- strengthen the local workforce pipelines like you all
- have? No. Of course, Jacob. And it was
- something that was certainly new to me. I
- had to learn it's taken Brandy and I
- years to to get this down. I think
- we're there. Because here's the deal. No matter
- where you are across our wonderful country, you
- are in a place that has a workforce
- investment board. Every single county in America has
- that. And they are the place where employers
- like us, also Medicaid plans who are looking
- to help our members find work, and then
- educational
- institutions can go to build training programs that
- can be then invested in with federal or
- state dollars or private dollars. And what they
- taught us is that, you know, especially here
- in Pennsylvania too, if you can build a
- program like our Freedom House two point o,
- which was not apprenticeship but led to it
- of course, that there are dollars there that
- if you blend and braid the funds together,
- that can be put into these programs no
- matter where you are. And I think that's
- the best thing. So anyone out here, you
- know, interested in building a program like this,
- whether it's an apprenticeship or a preemployment training
- program, find your workforce investment board in the
- county that you're in, and they'll help you
- see how this can be replicated and done.
- And I think the best part is that
- we have collaborations
- with, you know, other hospital systems, other payers,
- other, you know, educational programs across the country
- because we all learn better together, and we're
- just so,
- excited, you know, to lead in that way.
- And, of course, we've had our challenges with
- it, you know, and we're open about that.
- But that's the best thing, and that's how
- you can scale these programs, you know, and
- really, you know, turn them into national models.
- Brandy, anything you'd add there? Advice for other
- leaders listening in on how to continue to
- expand models like these?
- Yeah. Dan's spot on. Partnership with our workforce
- boards are essential.
- And then, you know, with our institutions,
- our middle and high schools, our other healthcare
- arenas in our community,
- we have to be on this venture together
- because
- we're all facing the same workforce challenges. So
- we have to come together to have the
- same common goal
- to implement
- things such as apprenticeships
- in our communities to provide sustainable workforce in
- the state of Pennsylvania.
- And it's essential, like we are really opening
- up the doors for our middle and high
- school students and partnering
- with our high school and middle schools to
- come in to have immersive
- experiences.
- And we have several.
- So Baldwin High School comes into UPMC McGee,
- they experience
- every level because
- for a student, they always hear about nursing
- and physician. I wanna be a nurse or
- I wanna be physician,
- but news flash, not everybody does,
- but we have so many multitudes
- of positions
- that students get to explore and say, yes,
- I wanna be an imaging techs,
- a tech. I want to be a surgical
- tech. I want to do this. So there
- are so many
- avenues behind the scenes, even non patient facing,
- such as finance, human resources, the health plan,
- that we can show them, allow them to
- shadow an experience.
- And some will say, it's for me or
- some will say, no, it's not for me.
- But that is that partnership that we
- need to have that essential for our young
- to grow and to progress into careers,
- that they wanna be into.
- Absolutely. No. It's a great reminder there and
- and great bits of advice from you both.
- Before we go, what else are we missing?
- Any other details?
- Last little bits you wanna add in for
- the audience today. Brandy, you wanna start us
- off?
- I will say,
- fortunately,
- all of our apprenticeships
- have been filled thus far because we've had
- a huge interest and that's the good part.
- But stay tuned
- because if you're interested in any one of
- our health care apprenticeships,
- they will be available
- in the year to come
- on upmccareers.com,
- and it will have that apprentice
- right there in the job category so that
- you can apply.
- But I'm hoping people listening to this today
- will take these apprenticeships
- as soon as we have outcomes, and you
- can run with it. You can run with
- it, and you can build your own apprenticeships
- in health care
- that can help feed your workforce and create
- meaningful careers for our community.
- You know, Brandy and Jacob, as I was
- listening to you there, Brandy, you know, I
- I think the most beautiful thing is I
- think about a couple individuals I know who
- are in our apprenticeships and have gone through,
- you know. You have people that we, of
- course, they were on our Medicaid plan, part
- of our family that we call it at
- UPMC already. And then going through a training
- program, becoming a nurse, becoming an imaging tech.
- When Brandy explained, you know, that incredible career
- to me and how you can start at
- a younger age, get some credits, go have
- very minimal debt, and be making a difference
- in our communities. And I think what is
- so beautiful, you know, someone who might have
- been on Medicaid, had a challenge and buried
- her work, you know, gets through these programs
- and then is serving the very community
- that they grew up in, you know, I
- there's nothing greater in in my mind, you
- know, than that. And that's that's who we
- are at UPMC. That's our mission. That's how
- we wanna show up, and we'll continue to
- do this and highlight this so that, others
- can,
- see. And hopefully, we can, you know, have
- this as a national model to support our
- communities that makes us all stronger.
- And, Jacob, if I can just add one
- other thing, we have actually a second career
- who is going into our farm tech apprentice
- that wants to try something different. So it
- doesn't matter what age you are
- and you want a different career choice,
- apprenticeship
- is the way to go.
- Yeah. That's a great last point there, Brandy.
- Appreciate that hook on. Thank you both so
- much. Please keep us updated on the expansion
- of Freedom House, how everything goes with the
- EMT apprenticeship. We'd love to hear the progress
- there and and what you achieve.
- But thank you both so much for taking
- the time and for sharing your expertise
- with our audience. We really appreciate it. If
- you'd like to listen to more podcast from
- Becker's Healthcare, you can visit beckershospitalreview.com.