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This is Laura D with the Becker Healthcare

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care podcast.

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I'm thrilled today to be joined by Doctor

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Edward J, Chief Q Officer at Inland Empire

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Health Plan. Doctor. Jonas is a pleasure to

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have you on the podcast today.

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Well, thanks so much for having me.

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Now I'm really looking forward to our discussion

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and learning more about what you're doing it

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in inland impact higher, But before we dive

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in, could you tell me a little bit

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more about yourself in your background?

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Sure. So I've served as I fees chief

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quality officer since 20 21. I'm also an

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internal medicine physician and prior to joining I

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hp. I have the blessed operative team to

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serve in various roles at different organizations.

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I guess I say that for the past

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10 to 15 years, I've been sitting at

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the intersection of clinical care,

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data innovations technology and public health. An Ash

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chief Quality officer, my job is to drive

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our commitment to providing the highest quality of

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care, And we do that by innovating in

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all areas across our health plan from giving

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payment incentives to our network doctors who have

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higher quality outcomes.

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For using data in impactful ways to increase

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member engagement,

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and the key to making this seamless is

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in partnerships. Both of our internal teams and

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with our external community partners.

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Well, it's great to hear. And definitely a

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lot can be gained by those strategic partnerships.

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Now From your perspective, what are the big

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trends and headwind that you're following right now?

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Well, whatever we do, it's always about putting

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the members at the center of our universe.

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A big trend we're following to do this

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is by addressing the social drivers of health.

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This concept is really about looking at what's

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affecting our member's ability to stay healthy.

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It includes things like access to food,

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transportation, stable housing and more, and we have

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teams that are dedicated to helping our members

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get these types of resources so that they

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can thrive.

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There's also been a big trend in ethic

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emphasis,

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especially over the past few years or so

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on leveraging strong partnerships outside the traditional clinical

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setting. For example, through our partnerships, We're able

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to bring services like mobile health and vaccine

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clinics to rural communities.

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And as an example, we're also increasing our

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programming and efforts that are 3 community wellness

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centers

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located in San Ad bernardino,

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Riverside and Hill, which are free to all

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community members

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And the benefit is that if you are

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an Hp member, you can go to these

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centers to meet with a community health worker

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for 1 on 1 support.

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Address things like care coordination,

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enrollment supported more.

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And along with these trends are the natural

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headwind.

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That come with working on something relatively newer

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to the healthcare ecosystem as a whole. And

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learning how to work better and more seamlessly

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and more effectively

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with all the stakeholders involved,

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especially as we collectively work toward improving how

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we deliver and provide high quality care,

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Now I'm proud to share that we've taken

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a big step towards this as we at

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Hp recently received our health equity accreditation through

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the National Committee for quality assurance.

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And this important designation reflects our ongoing pursuit

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of ensuring that all our members

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receive culturally appropriate care.

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Making sure that we're keeping up with the

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best practices when it comes to collecting important

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demographic data,

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tracking, trending and strat find members in a

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non biased way.

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Working towards ethical use of data,

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analytics and advanced techniques such as

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artificial intelligence and machine learning and And again,

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we can only accomplish this by working alongside

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our providers,

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community,

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stakeholders and regulators

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to ensure that is better together story.

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Well, it's great to hear. You know, I

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really appreciate you talking through some of these

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different points as digital technology transformed as possible

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in healthcare care and using data.

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To really have have a great perspective on,

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you know, the best plan forward and really

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help treat patients what... And give them what

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they need. Now, you know, from your perspective

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too, well, how are you thinking about growth

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for the future at Inland?

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Well, growth is exciting to me, and it's

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1 of the things that brought me. To

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Ie fee.

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Our bold strategic plan is focused on 3

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key areas,

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optimal care, fiber and health and organizational strength

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and I'll just talk about the first 2

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today.

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The first 1, optimal care

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ensures our members receive the care, they need

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to live their best lives. And we hope

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to deliver the right care at the right

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time in the right setting by the right

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provider.

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And we hope to accomplish this with a

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variety of programs and tactics

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whether it's providing meaningful

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financial incentives to our members

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or if it's physically finding ways to provide

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helpful office support to our clinics,

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and everything in between, and we're always looking

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for ways to innovate. For example, late last

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year. We launched our first I p quality

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focused innovation challenge, to creatively address some of

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the harder challenges we're facing when it comes

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to achieving the quality goals in our region.

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So that we can transform health in the

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communities we serve.

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In this challenge, we basically invited industry experts,

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healthcare professionals,

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innovators

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to submit their creative solution on key opportunity

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areas, including how to better engage your

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populations with their preventive care,

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out address family units as a whole when

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providing care,

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out of leverage data, at a national State

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and local level and how to better engage

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our members,

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and we got some really creative ideas and

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solutions some of which we're thinking about piloting

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on today.

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And as for our second strategy, we're focusing

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on vibrant health, which really aims to reinvest

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resources back into the Inland empire to increase

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support for our members.

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For example, we've recently provided funding, for I

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foundation, which is a separate 05:01 c 3

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to explore the development of blue zones, which

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you might have seen on Netflix

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these are communities that optimize policy, neighborhood design,

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food systems, social networks to provide a complete

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community.

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Centered all around Wellness,

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and we're also looking for ways to address

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provider burnout and physician shortages in our region,

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For example, the Inland Empire has 1 of

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the lowest ratios of primary care and specialty

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physicians per 100000

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people in California.

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We don't have enough specialty and behavioral health

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providers to serve a current fast growing population.

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So we established. A health scholarship fund to

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close the gap on that care ratio. The

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scholarship we offer basically removes the financial burden

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for students,

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and in exchange, they agree to stay in

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the Inland empire, a minimum of 5 years

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after

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graduation to serve our communities

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And today I'm pleased to assure that we

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currently offer

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50 full rights scholarships per year

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through 3 medical schools.

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Loma Melinda University,

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University of California

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Riverside, and California University

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of science and medicine,

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and it's important to call out that more

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than 30 of our current scholars grew up

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in the region and 50 percent are identified

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as first generation medical students who grew up

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in a low income housing setting.

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And these are just a few ways we're

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not only thinking about the future, but also

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intentionally investing in it,

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I love that. I think that's such a

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great example of ways that you've made a

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really big difference as a population changes as

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things grow and and, you know, really having

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that quality focused innovation in mind. Now before

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we wrap up here, I was wondering, can

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you tell me about a project or initiative

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from the last year or so that yielded

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the best results?

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Well, there could be a few. But 1

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that stands out in particular for me is

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our pay for performance program, also known as

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p for p.

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These are basically incentive programs to reward our

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I hp network providers who meet key quality

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improvement measures.

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Where we provide financial rewards based on both

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year over year improvements

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and achieving top tier quality performance outcomes,

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We currently offer 7 different programs under the

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structure. And last year, our budget was over

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283000000

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dollars.

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This year, when we're able to increase that

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by 5000000 dollars for a total of over

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288000000.

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Now I know that's a lot of money

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but the collective good of this program can't

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be fully understood until you know the numbers.

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But let me add a little more context.

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Through this incentive program, we've engaged nearly 900

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primary care locations, 267

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Ob,

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32 hospitals,

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15 independent physician associations and 10 urgent care

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centers, all in service as of better supporting,

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more than 1500000.0

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I member, in our region. And here's the

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connection to outcomes as the engagement rate of

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our P program has increased versus 2 have

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our quality measures. In fact, we saw over

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30 quality measures improved last year. These are

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measures that have both state and federal regulatory

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oversight and impact and is also relates to

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member health outcomes, and it really inspires me

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personally to see that all of these numbers

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boil down to our court purpose

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to give our members the highest quality of

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care, and there's just no better purpose than

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that to

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Agreed. That that's amazing to hear in just

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really strong strong results. Doctor. John, thank you

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so much for joining us on a podcast

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today. This has been a really fascinating discussion

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and I appreciate your time, I look forward

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to connecting with you again soon.

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Thanks, for. Appreciate it.

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Shin