Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless
innovation to create world class pharmacy care and
benefit solutions. Our connected health services make the
treatment, prediction, and prevention of health care's most
complex conditions
easier and more accessible as we drive organizations
and people forward. Ever North home based care
provides value based care that helps patients with
multiple chronic conditions
and social determinant of health barriers get the
care they need and the personalized experience they
deserve. We serve patients who struggle to navigate
the health care system by bringing high quality
primary
and preventative care services to the home. By
providing clinical care and support services that provide
whole person care, we improve health equity, access,
and outcomes for the populations we serve.
This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Health
Care podcast, and we are recording live at
the 2024 payer issues roundtable.
I'm currently joined by Jordan Taggart, who is
the senior vice president of payer and PBM
growth at Vida Health. So, Jordan, thank you
for being here today. We'd love to have
you start by introducing yourself and telling us
a little bit more about your role. Great.
Yeah. Thanks so much for having me.
As you said, I lead all of our
growth initiatives for health plans, PBMs,
TPAs,
and really kind of that whole area of
the market. I'm really focused on developing partnerships
that we can build together with with those
organizations that bring
Vida solution out to self insured employers, to
Medicare members,
and really, you know, serve all lines of
business. What we do at Vida is, we
provide a
virtual cardiometabolic
clinic solution that really focuses on helping members
manage their diabetes and obesity,
but really importantly, addressing the
numerous
other co occurring chronic conditions and mental health
that usually
occur, when members are struggling with those types
of challenges. So really comprehensive model that we
deploy in partnership with health plans and PBMs
across the country.
Alright. So let's start our conversation today talking
about growth goals. So from improving member experience
and expanding value based care to controlling costs,
payer executives have ambitious growth goals for the
rest of this year and looking into 2025.
So in your role, what is your top
priority, and how are you planning to get
there?
Yeah. Growth,
in my title is definitely what I wake
up thinking about every single day.
And
I think we're we're all focused on growth,
but I think the the big thing that
we're focused on at VIDA
is growth with partners that really align with
our clinical philosophy,
and those that really think about managing conditions
holistically.
Our approach has has always been on really
growing populations, but really targeting the right populations
that
are appropriate,
for care. And so the way we think
about growth is really prioritization
around finding those partners, whether they be self
insured employers, health plans, PBMs, and others,
And really putting together the pieces of how
all those parties work together.
So our priorities are really on, again, the
coordination and integration
of all those large enterprises
that, in the end, serve the member.
And oftentimes, it can be really confusing for
a member to navigate,
particularly in the space that we're in, which
is, you know, diabetes and obesity.
And going off of that, at an industry
level, how would you describe the biggest barriers
to effectively serving and engaging members?
What opportunities
do you see for large scale improvements, and
how are you applying this in your current
strategy?
Yeah. A a couple big ones that come
to mind. You mentioned value based care.
Value based care is where I've spent most
of my career in some form or fashion,
either on the provider side, on the health
plan side, from the solution side, thinking about
different ways
to achieve the promise of value based care.
And I think some of the challenges we
continue to run into
is the siloed nature with which a lot
of us approach that problem and a lot
of the industry approaches that problem.
It's really important, again, when you think about
the member and really actually driving down costs
while improving clinical care,
which is, again, the promise of value based
care is putting together
the coordination of all these organizations that need
to work cohesively.
So for us, that means,
again, the employer who's providing a benefit,
for obesity, for example, covering GLP ones for
the management of of obesity
in place, and then looking to their health
plan, their PBM, and then a solution like
VITA to exchange data,
to make to coordinate care with the existing
provider network, to make sure that,
really, you can look at the value of
of the solution.
And
that coordination
tends to be a challenge, particularly with organizations
that all move at different paces and have
different priorities.
And shifting gears to health equity.
As health equity becomes increasingly cemented in payer
strategies,
how is your organization addressing health disparities? And
can you share examples of measurable successes to
date?
Yeah. Thanks for asking. Health equity is a
big part of how we think and about
our clinical model and the way we've designed
it.
VIDA was really created to address a multitude
of complex conditions.
And in doing that and serving such a
broad population
of people that come to us in different
places in their health journey,
Some looking to just lose a couple pounds
and some that suffer from a multitude of
of conditions and anxiety and depression and are
not getting the care that they need from
their existing
network.
And so the way we think about HealthEquity
is not deploying a singular intervention or a
single solution, a one size fits all,
but really personalizing the treatment plan around where
the member's ready to start. And some of
some people are not ready to think about
changing their diet or nutrition
without addressing the anxiety that occurs
because of the the challenges that they have
on a day to day basis because of
some of those conditions. So
our approach is really around
personalization. An example of that would be we
have 25
plus customized meal plans for different cultures.
We have completely localized our experience in our
provider network to be available in Spanish
for different
cultures,
and we measure this. Right? We we recently
did a study that looked at
2 different populations
in the Medicare space,
one that was an underserved population with limited
food access
in a rural area and a population,
an urban population and looked at differences in
a one c reduction and outcomes,
we had the same outcomes.
So there really are no disparities in the
clinical model that VIDA delivers based on that
study. And we really take that to heart
in trying to make sure that we can
adjust our model of care and really our
solution to meet a member's needs that's ready
to engage and not turn them away because
we don't have an option for them to
use.
And as we wrap our conversation
today, I'd love to get
some advice that you would like to give
to maybe peer leaders who are looking to
grow their businesses while keeping members top of
mind.
Yeah.
It's maybe 2 things that I've gotten from
some mentors in the past.
One is
in
growth is a big growth value based care,
big themes of of of this conference and
of this
conversation.
I think one is
to make the hard decisions about what not
to do. And
I know a lot of people say that,
but it's really hard, particularly in a growing
organization,
a small organization,
but big organizations too, to to make those
choices. It's easy easy to chase a lot
of things, but they can that can often
be distractions from just focusing on the core
business and getting really good at that.
So I think one is making sure to
make hard decisions about what not to do,
And the other is to just be patient.
You know, most of my days are spent
with, you know, Fortune 50 organizations,
and everyone has different priorities.
So you have to really recognize
that the people that you're engaging with might
not have the same kind of day to
day priorities as you. And it's really important
to just, I think, be patient
and understand,
where other people are focused to make sure
that you're meeting their needs and and not
focusing so much on your own.
Wonderful. Well, Jordan, thanks so much for joining
today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Again, we're
recording live at the 2024 payer issues roundtable.
Thanks for having me.