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Imagine this. You're at the Swiss Hotel in

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Chicago surrounded by top executives from leading insurance

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companies and health systems.

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Welcome to Becker's fall payer issues roundtable,

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November 4th through 6, 2024.

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Picture the excitement as you gather business cards

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from over 500 executive level attendees,

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building invaluable connections.

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Feel the energy as you participate in over

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26 educational sessions led by 90 elite speakers.

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Envision yourself engaging in lively discussions about new

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health plans, hospital at home models, behavioral health,

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and price transparency.

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Now imagine being inspired by keynotes from boxing

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legend, Sugar Ray Leonard, and 4 time NBA

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All Star, Chris Webber. Their stories will leave

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you motivated and ready to innovate.

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Don't miss out on this unique opportunity. Get

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registered today. Visit beckershospital hospitalreview.com

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and click on the events page to find

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the conference website. That's the beckershospitalreview.com

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events page. See you in Chicago.

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This is Laura Dirdo with the Becker's

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Healthcare podcast.

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I'm thrilled today to be joined by Ananya

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Banerjee,

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chief commercial officer at Aledade. Ananya, it's a

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pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

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Alright. Thank you so much, for inviting me

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to the podcast.

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Well, Ananya, I'm really excited to have you

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here. I know it's going to be a

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great conversation,

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and it'll be,

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fantastic to spotlight some of the things that

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you're doing and validate. But before we dive

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into our broader conversation, can you tell us

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a little bit more about yourself and the

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background?

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Absolutely. Not a Sophie. I wanna thank you

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for having me on your podcast.

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A little bit about myself. I'm Ananya Banerjee.

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I'm Aladate's chief commercial officer. I've been with

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Aladate for about 2 years now.

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I've tried to Allocate. I've been,

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on both the pair as well as the

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provider side.

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Just wanted to share a little bit about

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Allocate for those who might not be familiar.

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Allocate is the country's largest network of PCPs.

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We have presence in over 45 states in

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DC.

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We serve around 2 and a half 1000000

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patients

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across the 45 states in DC.

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That's great to hear. And, you know, really,

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powerful,

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influence that you have on an important community.

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Now from your perspective, what are some of

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the biggest issues that you're following in health

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care today? What's top of mind for you?

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Great question.

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I think 2024

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has been a year of many, many changes.

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And while some of the things, you know,

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keeping a close eye on the 3 biggest

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issues that I'm tracking have probably been

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consistent,

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across many, many years now. The first is

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just access. Right? Like access to quality care,

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especially in rural America.

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It's been an issue for several decades now,

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and I think,

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solve, or at least partially solve the

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challenges and quality access.

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The second issue that, you know, I've been

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tracking is around cost of care. Again, that's

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been,

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something that, you know, multiple stakeholders

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are trying to solve for. And I think

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for us, one of the advantages that Allerade

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has is that we've been doing value based

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care across

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Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and commercial

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that gives us panel coverage to to truly,

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tackle cost of care across multiple

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segments and across all age groups of,

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patients.

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The third thing that I'm tracking is around

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physician independence.

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It has become

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extremely difficult for physicians

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to get financial stability with just fee for

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service revenue.

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So,

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part of the what we what we've been

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able to help physicians with

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is making sure that they also have additional

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value based care revenue sources.

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And, you know, we now have a track

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record where

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more than 98,

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percent like, 98, 99% of physician practices

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have actually been able to get,

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a shared savings bonus check.

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Wow. That's helpful to know. You know, really

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interesting to think about some of the different,

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trends in the cost of health care and

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especially, as you mentioned, in some of the

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rural communities,

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making sure you have access to care and

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really,

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expanding the way that you can connect with

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that part typical community.

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From your perspective, when you're looking at some

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of the things,

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that are are coming down the pipe, what

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are you most excited about and what makes

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you nervous?

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Yeah. I think I'll I'll take the most

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excited about question first, probably.

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What excites me, Laura, is just the the

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impact that Amity has been able to create

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in the last 10 years. And, you know,

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when I think about the future, the the

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level of impact we can have for our

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patients, for our community, and for our practices.

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So one one example I'll give is just

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around the strength of SaaS physician network. We

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have

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over,

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1900 practices right now. We work very, very

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closely

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with about 30 health plans across our 45

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states.

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And I think, you know, what we've been

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able to do is truly be the easy

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button for both the practices as well as

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theirs to create the level of change and

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the level of impact that we are trying

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to achieve.

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45% of our practices are in medically underserved

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areas, which, you know, has been

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tremendous,

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in terms of the the impact that we

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generated

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for

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the physician groups as well as, you know,

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these,

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the the patient population that we serve.

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You know, it's great to hear and, really,

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you know, will be cool to see the

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results and, you know, definitely interested in what

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you're nervous about as well.

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Yeah.

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I think what,

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makes me nervous is the level of physician

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burnout.

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You know, it's something,

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that truly

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worries me because there's so much administrative

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burden

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that the sessions have to solve for today

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that you know a lot of them are

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considering leaving the workforce.

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What gives me hope, though, is there's so

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many people,

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you know

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companies that are trying to address it.

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We at Allerade has been trying to focus

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on it and and tackle it in multiple

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different ways. Like, our the Allerade app actually,

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is able to

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hook into a 100 different kinds of EHR.

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We have

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EHR overlays that, you know, help with easing

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some of that burden. We're also extensively using

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AI so that the the things that can

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be automated and can be, you know, take

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taken out of the daily kind of grind

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of things to make it easier,

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in the long term for physicians.

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That's so helpful to know. Like you said,

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I know that, clinician burnout

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is really a challenge, and so having that

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technology to support some of those different initiatives

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I could imagine

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is really helpful,

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and can make a big difference for clinicians.

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Now looking ahead, what do you think most

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effective healthcare leaders will need in order to

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be successful in the next 2 to 3

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years, especially considering

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some of the challenges that you've already mentioned?

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That's a very thoughtful question, Laura. I think,

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my vantage point,

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we're

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all trying to, you know, make health care

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better.

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You know, we've we've very aligned

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in terms of our goals, but we don't

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always

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go in the same direction.

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I think focusing on alignment across different stakeholders

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so that we can actually go in the

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same direction

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would be immensely important.

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Alignment in terms of goals, in terms of

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incentives, and how we do the work

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will help us get more efficient and do

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more good. You know, our mission at Allerade

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is to do more good for our patients,

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for our, physician, for health plans, and for

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society in general. And I think the most

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efficient way for us to get there is

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by driving alignment

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across

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the different,

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you know, partners that we work with.

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I love that. And I can imagine, you

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know, having that type of, partnership and alignment

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focus, you know, is really a great leadership

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quality and something that will really serve,

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upcoming leaders as well as those who are

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established well in the future.

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Anania, thank you so much for joining us

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on the podcast today. This has been a

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really fascinating conversation and I look forward to

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talking to you again soon.

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Thank you, Laura. It's great to meet you,

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and thank you again for inviting me.