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Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.

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I'm Mariah Muhammad, writer and moderator with Becker's

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Healthcare, and I'm thrilled to have with me

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today Chris Wassel, president of marketing and strategic

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partnerships at Advantage Healthcare. Chris, welcome to the

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podcast. We're very excited to have you, join

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us yet again.

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To get us started, would you mind please

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introducing yourself and telling us a bit about

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your background and or, organization?

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Yeah. Sure. Glad to be here. So,

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yes, again, my name is Chris Wassel. I'm

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the

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president of marketing and strategic partnerships for Vantage

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Healthcare.

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Vantage is the largest physician practice of its

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type in New England, providing services to

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skilled nursing facilities

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and assisted living communities.

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My background, I have over twenty years experience

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in health care operations,

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development, value based payment consulting and network

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development, and

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technology

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development as well.

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Prior to Vantage, I was co managing partner

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for post acute care planning services.

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It was an organization that provided

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post acute care management and consulting services to

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ACOs

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seeking to build

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and operate post acute care provider networks.

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And I was also a cofounder of Accounticare,

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an information technology company that

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provides systems and services to physician practices

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and various organizations

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participating

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in value based payment arrangements

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around

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the care of older

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adult,

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patient populations.

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Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing that

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background with us. So, Chris, so what are

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some of the biggest issues you're following in

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health care,

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for 2025?

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Yeah. So 2025 is a busy year for

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us, I'm sure, for a lot of other

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organizations.

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But at Vantage,

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we're

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launching several

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initiatives this year,

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and there's really four initiatives that we're working

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on

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that are major undertakings for us this year.

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So the first is,

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we're participating

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in a new

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MSSP

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ACO, sound physicians

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ACO,

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and that ACO so we're expanding our patient

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population that we're covering. We in the past,

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we participated in an ACO that

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covered our skilled nursing facility patient population

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and now we've added our assisted living population

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to that. So we have well over 4,000

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patients in the ACO. So that's

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a big undertaking.

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Secondly,

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we are preparing

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for

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CMS'

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new

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model rollout, which is the team episode

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model.

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In our market,

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most of the hospitals in the markets that

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we serve

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will be mandated to participate.

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And so

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given

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we have an extensive network across

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New England,

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we're very well positioned to

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help those hospitals,

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manage those

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episodes

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as patients

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mile the hospital on the post acute care

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side.

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So

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we're targeting

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those hospitals

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to work with them in the coming year

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on that initiative and also

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working with other

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network partners, home care agencies and

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rehab groups

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and such.

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And then there's a couple of other CMS

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programs that we're starting this year,

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one being the

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CMS Guide program, which is focused on

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dementia patients and in our case, dementia patients

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that reside

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at home in assisted living communities.

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So we have a partner that we're launching

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that with,

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so that's exciting as well. And then lastly,

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CMS

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in the last year announced

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the new advanced primary care management

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program,

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which and, kind of replaces chronic care management,

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which we

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have launched on a limited basis. And so

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we're going

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to launch that this year as well

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in both the skilled nursing facility and assisted

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living

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environment. So

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with all that going on, I think

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for us,

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with any of these initiatives, but with so

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many

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going on this year,

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I'd say our number one challenge is,

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with all these programs is collaboration

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with

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our skilled nursing facility and assisted living partners

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and home care groups and rehab groups, trying

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to bring

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all those stakeholders together,

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bring them up to speed,

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bring them on board,

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and develop

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and integrate with them. So it's a pretty

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major undertaking.

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So I think I feel really

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I think we feel very comfortable

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managing these different programs.

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But again,

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I think

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the probably the thing that we are most

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concerned about is making sure that

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all of the rest of

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key players and stakeholders

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that we're able to

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get them on board and all working,

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you know, together

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towards the same same goal. So it's a

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it's a pretty,

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you know, major challenge for us, but I'm

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I'm sure we'll we'll get there.

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Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Thank you so much for

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giving us that that background. Is there anything

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that you're,

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seeing in the news or anything that you're

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doing at Advantage Healthcare,

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that's making you a little bit excited for

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this year or anything that's making you nervous?

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Yeah. I'd say so,

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you know, for this this year, we're

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we're excited about the greater acceptance and interest

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in seeing in the senior living space around

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value based care and CMS

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programs.

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In the past, a lot of the

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most part, the ACOs

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have focused on patients in the community, not

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in long term care.

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A lot of

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the programs, whether

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you talk about chronic care management and so

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forth, were developed for

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ambulatory care and patients, again, in the community.

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But

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now

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we're launching those programs in

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skilled nursing and assisted living. So we're excited

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about that. But

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that being said,

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there are a few things that

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do make us nervous.

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And

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so

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stability with CMS

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is important in the short term.

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If there are any changes to these programs,

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the time and effort that we are investing

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will be

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at risk. So again, we're

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investing our time and resources in multiple programs

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and there's

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obviously with

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potential

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changes

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at CMS and then obviously, there's a lot

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going on

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politically and so forth where

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we have some concerns. So hopefully, things,

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in the short term will remain stable

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and then we'll continue to move forward as

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we invest our time and effort into

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launching these programs. So but it makes us

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nervous.

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In the long term,

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we hope that CMS

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can

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begin to move from voluntary

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and pilots to mandatory

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programs and models

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that are in place for the long term.

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We

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feel that there have been enough

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there's been enough experimentation

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around

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various

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value based payment initiatives and it's

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really time to settle permanently on

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payment models that will be

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that will operate under going forward, so make

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the full

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shift from fee for service to value based

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payment.

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These models have been

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different models have been

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tried out and piloted

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and such

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now for almost fifteen years.

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And so again, the stability is important.

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Some of these models are put in place

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and they run for five years and then

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they sunset and

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it would be from our perspective, it would

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be

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good to

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settle in

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on certain models and make that ship. So

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it's a little concerning that

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so it's unclear when that's going to happen.

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So that makes us us a little bit

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nervous too because it

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just you just get concerned around further changes

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in the future. Again,

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I think all

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us and

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organizations

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in this space

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are looking for as much stability as possible.

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So we know what the rules are that

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we're operating under, so that

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all the work that we're putting into this

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really has

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you know, we're able to run for the

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long term.

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Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Thank

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you for sharing that. And, Chris, before I

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let you go, the last thing I want

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to ask you is, in your opinion, what

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would the most effective health care leaders need

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in order to be successful in the next

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two to three years, do you think?

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Yeah. I think I think the the thing

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that will impact all of us the the

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most,

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and what I think healthcare leaders

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really need to

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focus

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their attention on

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is

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this time into understanding how AI will impact

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their organizations and how

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the right strategy they can gain a competitive

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advantage and avoid

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falling behind. I think

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this is

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moving pretty fast.

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I think

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there may be some folks out there that

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underestimate

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how this is going to impact things

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and may fall behind. And so I think

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health care leaders really need

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to get on board now,

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invest more time in research and looking at

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this and how it's going to impact their

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organization

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and again, how

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as an

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organization

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we can,

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really use this to

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gain a competitive edge.

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So I think that by far is

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the number one thing that is out there

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that we need to pay attention to.

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Yeah. Definitely. I definitely agree there, and thank

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you so much for those final thoughts. It's

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definitely been very informative. So, again, I wanna

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thank you so much for coming back on

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Becker's HealthCare.

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And I look forward to connecting with you

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again soon.

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Alright. Thank you. Thank you.