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Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless

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innovation to create world class pharmacy, care, and

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benefit solutions.

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Barriers to care can lead to gaps in

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care, which can drive up the total cost

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of care. Our capabilities work seamlessly together to

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create innovative pharmacy care and benefit solutions for

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today and tomorrow.

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Our connected health services make the treatment, prediction,

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and prevention of health care's most complex conditions

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easier and more accessible as we drive organizations

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and people forward.

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This is Haley Recker with the Becker's Payer

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Podcast, and we are recording live at the

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Becker's third annual spring payer issues roundtable.

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I am thrilled today to be joined by

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Chris Wassel, president of strategic partnerships at Vantage

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Healthcare. Chris, thank you so much for being

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with me today. Thanks for having me today.

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Can I have you go ahead and introduce

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yourself? Tell us a little bit more about

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your background and your organization? Yeah. Yeah. So,

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again, my name is Chris Wassill. I'm the

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head of strategy

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and development for Vantage Healthcare.

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I have, over twenty years experience

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in

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health care operations,

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strategy,

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and value based payment.

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With Vantage Healthcare, we're the largest

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provider group of its type in New England.

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We operate in all six states

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to around 220

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locations.

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We're a mobile,

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physician practice, so have about a 110 providers,

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and we go on-site to skilled nursing facilities

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and assisted living communities. And we participate in,

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value based payment programs like ACOs, and we're

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looking at I SNPs and other pro such

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programs.

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Well, that's amazing. And I today, I'd like

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to focus our conversation on quality of care.

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Mhmm. There's an imperative to reduce costs while

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also improving quality and advancing health equity. So

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how would you approach aligning these priorities in

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your organization's strategic vision?

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I think the last couple of years,

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there's been more opportunity

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for,

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practices like ours

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and operators such as skilled nursing facilities

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to participate in value based payment

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programs, and it hasn't been the case in

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the past.

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And with that, particularly in the skilled nursing

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facilities,

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most of the patients we serve there are

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dual eligible.

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And,

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with that

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and with the value based payment program participation,

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particularly with our,

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ACO participation,

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it provides us with more tools and,

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the means to better

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treat those dual eligible patients in place, reduce

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hospitalizations,

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and, also, it gives the opportunity

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for

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the operators to to participate

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and do a better job managing care and

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managing patients in place.

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Absolutely.

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Now I really wanna hone in on that

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member satisfaction

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here. Member satisfaction is essential to thrive in

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today's competitive health care market. What experience or

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engagement strategies have proven effective for your organization,

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and how are you measuring success?

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Yeah. So we

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we launched a new service line.

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It was about four years ago. So we

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started out providing services in skilled nursing facilities,

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and we identified a need also,

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in assisted living communities.

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So,

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there was low satisfaction

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in some cases with,

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patients and their family members

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with the health care component of assisted living

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communities, which are

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typically geared more towards a social model.

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So,

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you know, with that, we were able to,

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create,

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a part of our physician practice that delivered

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on-site care. A lot of the

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dissatisfaction was around having to transfer

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patients off-site for their medical appointments and a

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lot of other appointments,

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and we were able to really eliminate that

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by bringing that care on on-site. So it

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really increased

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satisfaction.

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However,

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you know, over over time as we've grown

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that part of our practice very quickly,

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and with that, it's created, you know, other

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challenges.

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Like, you know, we have heavy family involvement,

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so it creates a lot of inquiries

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to our nurse care coordinator teams and support

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staff. And with all the call volume coming

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in, it really

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provides an opportunity for us to look at

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other ways to manage all that volume and

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do a better job to be able to

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really meet members' needs as far as follow-up

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on those inquiries.

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Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining

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me today.

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Again, this is Haley Rucker with the Becker's

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Payer Podcast recorded live at the Becker's third

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annual spring payer issues roundtable. Chris, thank you

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so much. Thank you. Have a good day.