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Welcome everyone to the Becker Health care podcast

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series. I'm Mariah Muhammad, Writer, and moderator with

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Becky Healthcare, and Thrilled Have with me today,

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Drew Thompson, Head of Sales of North well

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direct. Drew is very nice to have you

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on the podcast today. To get a start

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would you mind please introducing yourself and selling

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us a bit about your background.

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North Sure. Thanks for having me Really excited

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to to speak with you today.

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I'm drew Thompson, the head of sales at

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at North Direct that been with North Director

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for about

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3 years has been in the employer sponsored

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healthcare space for over 15

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started my career at United healthcare,

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in the new business sales capacities, and then

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I spent some time at a third party

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administrator, a boutique, Tpa where I led the

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New York office. So it's been a nice

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view of the healthcare landscape and working at

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a large

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national insurance carrier, a small

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Tpa and now on the North direct side,

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as part of the healthcare care delivery system.

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Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving us

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that background. So

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with what you're doing right now, what are

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the biggest issues you're following in health care

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this year?

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Sure. So, you know, North 12 direct, we

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are a direct to employer

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network.

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We tried to self insured employers. In the

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small to bid market space and typically working

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with employers between 105000

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and when we go all the way upstream

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to jumbo employers will offer them our,

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provider network in the New York Metro region

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through

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various Tpa partners. But, 1 of the biggest

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things that we're seeing right now now is

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year over year, double digit

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increases on a fully insured basis. And even

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some self insured, you know, groups that with

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stop loss they're seeing excessive increases from the

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traditional

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carrier model. So we're working with employers in

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that hundred to 5000

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space. They are really stressed with, you know,

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Hr teams that are not like a jumble

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and employer that are fully blown out and

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are analyzing,

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you know, their costs on a on a

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weekly and and monthly basis where

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these employer groups are

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really really

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relying on their consultant broker partners partners to

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advise them on what the best solutions for

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their

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organization and they're just struggling year over year

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with

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a 10:12 percent increase because health care trend

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is is

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that is what it is on a plain

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insured basis. So what we try to do

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is we're trying to

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provide different alternatives in the marketplace with power

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direct to employer approach with our,

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network of over 31000

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providers,

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with contracted rates that are

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significantly

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low as traditional carriers including United Sign and

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Ae, where we can bring that

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regional network and and wrap with a national

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carrier or a network for any

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members that are living outside the have kids

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in college gone of the new

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region, but also

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access inside of our region as well.

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Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving

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us that insight.

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Is there anything that you are most excited

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about or anything that's making you nervous, whether

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it's something that you're working on personally or

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anything else that you're seeing in the news?

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Yes. Mean, I think what we're doing here

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at North world Direct is obviously very exciting.

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I think in general across the market,

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employers are starting to look at alternative ways

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to access their health care,

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because they're faced with these double digit increases

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every year and their you know, being

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subject to looking at their renewal options from

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the traditional carriers and just seems a lot

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of the same year over year for them.

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So, they're starting to explore

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like, our offering a direct to employer relationship.

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They're starting to

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explore captive models where they and group their

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risk with other employers on a self funded

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basis. They're starting to look at reference based

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option. So what we're seeing in the market

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across the country is that employers

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in that mid market space where

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historically they've been conservative. They've been told where

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moving to a self insured

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plan for a 500 life group is too

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risky.

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They're they're peeling back the curtain on that.

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They're realizing that it is not. There are

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programs in place with reins insurance and stop

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loss that takes all the risk off a

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table from my organization instead of, you know,

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lining the the pockets of the big insurance

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carriers on a fully insured basis, the they

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can move self funded, and they can pay

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their claims as they're incurred and protect all

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of the downside risk of a a large

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claim

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or the overall liability

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of the company through stop loss and reins.

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So we're really excited to seeing market shift

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best especially in the New York Metro region

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where

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this market is typically

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80 percent fully insured and 20 percent self

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insured,

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where you go in the middle of the

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country and you're seeing the exact opposite employers

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in those areas in that mid market space

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are 80 percent self insured and 20 percent

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fully insured. So

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exciting to see that the market, the consultants

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and brokers are really starting to talk about

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self insurance as the path forward for

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employers in that mid market space.

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Yeah. Yeah. That definitely does seem very exciting.

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And, Drew, before I let you go, the

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last time I really want to ask you

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is

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your opinion, what of the most effective healthcare

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care leaders need in order to be successful

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in the next 2 to 3 years.

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I think, you know, leaders whether you're

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In a healthcare leader at an organization

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in a in a Hr capacity and C

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suite capacity or even

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a consultant or a broker you have to

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challenge the status quo. Right? Where we've been

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in this hamster wheel of of buying insurance

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from, you know, the big insurance carriers for

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the last 30 years.

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Look at different alternatives,

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being be open to creative ideas.

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And if you are in that Hr suite,

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if if you go into a renewal meeting

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and you're seeing all the same, you should

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be challenging,

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you should be asking what else is out

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there, what else can I do to?

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You know, avoid this cost trend that year

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over year never seems to go the other

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way or never seems to to stay flat.

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So really challenge that and,

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you know, make sure that you're offering

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a health care plan that is broad in

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coverage for your employees, but also is is

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monitoring the bottom the bottom line And, Now,

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I would end that with...

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It is very interesting in the space that

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we work in day in a day out

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that for an employer.

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Health care, the benefit offering that you're offering

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your employees is probably the second to third

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largest line item in in your business. Right?

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Know, payroll 1

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rent and and or at least could be

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2 with active could be exchanged with your

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health care plan. So 2 or 3 could

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be, the rent or mortgage on the buildings

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that you own or your healthcare benefits and

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from our perspective, it's 1 of the least

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amount of it's 1 of the things that

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has the least amount of time and focus

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that's put on it from the C suite

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at these organizations, but it's 1 of the

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biggest cost drivers of an organization year over

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year. So my suggestion for the leaders at

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organizations really dive in and understand what's driving

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the cost of your employee benefit plan plan

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because there are ways to to bring those

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costs down and there are ways to make

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sure that you are are chart a course

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for the future we're sustainable for your organization.

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The Wonderful. Thank you so much for his

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final thoughts, Drew. This has definitely been. In

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a we're a discussion. So, again I wanna

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thank you so much for coming on Becker

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health care. I'm gonna look forward to connecting

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with you soon.

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Thanks so much for and appreciate the time.