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together over 400 payer and health plan executives
and more than 100 speakers to Chicago April.
This year's event includes keynote conversations with the
industry's top leaders and former president George W.
Bush. For the full agenda and event details,
visit beckershospitalreview.com
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upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
here in Chicago.
Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
Becker's Payer Issues podcast. Thrilled today to be
joined by Nick Gates, who is the president
of Priority Health. Nick, thanks so much for
taking the time to be with me on
the podcast today. Well, first of all, thank
you for having me, Jacob, and thank you
for those who are listening today.
As you mentioned, I'm Nick Gates, president of
Priority Health. Just gonna be a a little
bit of a background on Priority Health. We
serve 1,400,000
members. We're across four states in the Midwest.
So that includes Michigan, Indiana,
Ohio, and Wisconsin.
We are the third largest provider sponsored health
plan in the nation and the integrated health
plan of Coral Health. And Coral Health happens
to be the largest Michigan based health system.
So just to give you a little bit
of background of my career, I started in
public accounting at Ernst and Young in Detroit.
And I really always look at this as
a great opportunity me for me personally to
learn about different businesses, industries,
and really gives me an opportunity to lead,
teams early in my career. So there's my
plug for public accounting for those, who are
interested in a in a great career to
start out with. But while it was a
great start, I really wanted to find something
that I was more connected
with, connected to a community. And there happened
to be an opportunity to join Priority Health,
which I was really excited about excited about
joining a healthcare organization, but I will admit
I knew very little about the industry
other than my experiences as a member and
a patient. So what I learned pretty quickly
is how complex this industry is.
And I say is because it still is,
it's not a past tense, it is still
very complex.
But I was very inspired with how passionate
our teams were about the members, about the
community.
There was a lot of conversation around affordability
experience,
doing what is right for the member. Really,
that was the culture and those values,
that I looked at and I I observed
they were established
and they were really lived by the leadership
team.
My experience as a priority health way, I
started through the finance side. I helped, guide
big moves, various acquisitions,
help to expand our footprint in Michigan and
throughout the Midwest.
I've also had a front row seat to
some of the major shifts in our industry,
going all the way back to the Medicare
modernization,
our launch of Medicare Advantage,
of course, the introduction
of the Affordable Care Act, and then more
recently, the COVID era,
with all the various regulations and,
even working through the wind down
of of, the Medicaid redetermination.
So a lot of challenges that we've been
through. And what I'd say is those experiences
have taught me how to balance discipline
with innovation,
really balancing the two of those. And today,
what I'm excited about is I get to
bring that perspective
to leading a plan that's focused on affordability,
quality,
and a better experience for our members.
Absolutely. Well, I appreciate you getting this started,
Nick, by talking a little bit about your
career before Priority Health and then how you've
evolved within the company over these last two
decades,
that you've been with Priority.
So you you had served as interim president
since May.
You were named permanent president,
late in 2025.
So
you mentioned you're the third largest provider sponsored
health plan in the country. It's a lot
of responsibility,
as you know. It's a very complicated business,
as you mentioned. So talk to us about
what ultimately inspired you both personally and and
professionally
to take on this this new position.
Yeah.
So and and I touched on a little
bit from a personal standpoint,
inspiration really that it it ties to our
mission,
improve health, instill humanity, and inspire hope.
That's been consistent in terms of our focus
on the member, our focus on the communities
since I've been here. So really, I've I've
embraced the organization is why I've been here
this long.
More than twenty years, as you mentioned. And
during that time, I've had a chance to
watch our teams show up for our members
with empathy,
rigor, and a relentless focus on affordability and
excellence.
And so really what inspired me to take
on this role was the opportunity to build
on this culture
and really make a meaningful impact and meaningful
difference during a time, what I would call
of significant transformation.
I've been part of this transformation, and so
I felt it was something that could really
provide stability
if I had the opportunity to step in
and continue to lead this team.
I look at Priority Health as some as
an organization's incredibly
strong. We're value driven.
Like many organizations too, we're going through that
very significant change,
new technology,
all the regulatory landscape that we're dealing with.
So again, I felt like I could step
in and provide that stability and clarity, and
really keep the momentum moving forward. Professionally,
I saw this as a chance to further
lean into shaping the strategic direction of our
organization. And so as I mentioned previously, I've
been part of several acquisitions,
but I've also been part of financial transformations.
I've been part of system system wide initiatives.
But in this role, I can help ensure
that our strategy, our culture,
ensure our execution stays aligned with what matters
the most and that's serving our members
and strengthening the communities that we live and
work in. I also see as an opportunity
to be an advocate. So being,
in the state of Michigan, we're now expanding
others. We wanna be
represented and heard at the state and federal
level.
We wanna have the industry partnerships.
We wanna make sure that our decisions impact
affordability,
access, and equity.
And so it's something that I was really
passionate about and looking forward to leading.
What I'd say in terms of the common
thread between personal professional, it really is trust.
It's trust in our team. It's trust in
our mission and then the strategy we're executing
together. So I'm really excited to be able
to step in as the next leader of
the health plan.
Absolutely. And and, you know, Nick, I think
what's interesting,
even from my perspective, talking to leaders like
yourself all over the country,
at the helm of these insurance companies,
everyone comes from a lot of different backgrounds
often. And whether it's,
directly outside the insurance industry when they step
into the top role.
There's physicians leading insurance companies all over the
country. There's leaders like yourself that have been
been within and grown within the company for
a long time.
So I wonder,
given what we see across the industry,
what inspires your leadership style? What do your
employees,
what do they know to expect from you,
in their day to day?
And given all the change that you mentioned,
a a lot of change going on in
this industry right now,
what attributes do you think today's leaders need
to be successful in this industry? So two
pronged question there. What inspires your leadership style,
and and what do today's leaders need to
be successful
within this industry? Sure. It's a great question.
And I'll start with I think I think
good leaders remain authentic,
but continue to learn. We are all different,
but we can learn from our experiences.
And I I prefer and really appreciate learning
from great leaders over the years. We I've
observed some incredible attributes,
credible leaders over my my lifetime, and so
I think that's a a place where we
can learn. I'm not gonna bore you on
the accounting side. I'm not gonna bore you
on that background, but, I'm gonna give you
a little bit more of a story to
to to give you a little bit of
a flavor of of my my leadership style.
So for
me, my leadership style was shaped long before
I ever held a leadership role,
and that really gets into my inspiration. I'm
gonna touch on my grandfather.
My grandfather was a farmer. He was a
farmer in rural Mid Michigan. If you're familiar
with the area, it's primarily corn and soybeans.
And beyond his work on the farm, he
was deeply committed to his community.
He was the chair of the board of
the local bank. He was a big supporter
of a local senior center, and he spent
his time serving his church, and he could
keep an eye out for his neighbors as
well. And what I the story I like
to tell is a very difficult time, and
one of a family friend's,
life was he was laid off from a
local factory and really struggling to make ends
meet.
And and I watched my grandfather hire him.
He hired him to work alongside him on
the farm. And it was not because he
needed the extra labor, but he he he
was part of the community and this was
a member that needed his help.
So I gave this individual steady work until
he was able to get back on his
feet. And from my perspective, that had a
lasting impression on me.
For him leadership, it wasn't about position or
authority. It was really about lifting those other
others up. And he jumped in when somebody
needed help, and it really was an opportunity
to create a pathway,
for this individual. And
And so I always look at, he looked
out for people, he treated them fairly and
did what was best. And what that did
is it built a community of trust. And
I'll use that word trust,
throughout because I think it's really important to
have trust.
And as I mentioned, they had a lasting
impression on me. It really shaped how I
think about leadership today.
I think it's about supporting your team members
with a purpose
and this really, again, I'm gonna use the
word again, trust. It builds trust. And when
you have that trust, it opens a door
to collaboration,
accountability,
and speaking up in a fast paced environment.
That's my biggest concern that people are fearful.
Psychological safety, they're concerned to speak up. We
need to be able to speak up, listen,
learn,
say, yes. Let's move that way. No. Let's
not move that way, but we need to
be comfortable speaking up and talking. And that
goes from
right on the front line all the way
up to the to the CEO and president
of the company.
What it also does, it helps build, trusting
relationships with our customers. So you have the
trust in your team members
that will resonate and ultimately build trust in
our customers.
As far as your second part,
as for what leaders need today, I look
at building again, building a great culture,
really important,
and that gets to the trust factor that
I was discussing.
We also need to make sure we're adaptable,
have the ability to may remain grounded, and
a clear mission.
Health care and coverage, as many of you
in this who are listening know, moves very
fast. So if you can build trust, stay
flexible, keep people at the center, I think
as a leader, you'll find those decisions come
much more naturally.
Wow. Well, I really appreciate you sharing that
story with us, Nick, in terms of why,
the purpose of of community and trust is
so important to you going all the way
back to your grandfather and now trickling down
to the millions of members, that your company
serves. It's it's really impactful, so I I
appreciate that. And I wanna also hook on
to the to the second part of what
you were saying in terms of just the
the rapidly evolving nature of this industry right
now being adaptable,
as a as a company operating in this
space.
I wanted to switch gears and talk a
little bit about some of the things that
went on under your
leadership as you went from interim president to
to permanent
president.
You had advanced a company wide digital transformation
effort
last year, and then you also guided plans
to expand priorities regional footprint to four states
that came official this year, and you're now
operating in Wisconsin. So talk to us about
how these efforts align with overall goals for
the company moving forward.
Thanks, Jacob. And I'll I'll clarify and just
emphasize that these initiatives, they didn't just start
with me. Our leadership team has been working
on these for a year. It really, really
is part of our long term vision at
Priority Health.
And I'll I'll look at the digital transformation
and regional expansion efforts.
They really are a result of years of
planning and collaboration. These these efforts,
what we they really will help move us
forward. They take a lot of planning and
collaboration. So for me as the interim and
now, stepping into the president, it's really to
keep this momentum going.
I wanna make sure we're preparing our teams
for change and we really have to stay
aligned with those strategic priorities.
So when I think about both of the
efforts, they do, they aligns very well with
our overall goals and it really comes back
to something very basic.
And it's making priority health a simpler,
more unified organization that can move quickly. I
talked about that agility,
allows us to make smart decisions,
address affordability, which is something we've been talking
about since they had started here and years
before that, and and we'll continue on in
the coming years. And then we need to
make sure we're staying centered on the people
we serve, really the the mission of why
we're here. And that's the kind of foundation
I wanna keep building on. When I think
about the digital side, our move to Epic.
So we're moving to Epic and it focuses
on simplifying how we work.
We're creating a better experience for both our
team members and our customers.
We've been updating our systems, modernizing workflows
because we need an operating model that helps
us move faster, again, back to the agility,
and allows us to continue to simplify the
member experience
and to better connect our members with their
provider, and that's something that we're really focused
on. And then we need to make sure
that at the end, we're improving outcomes
and we're able to stay competitive because this
this industry is rapidly changing.
And then I look at the the, the
expansion, and you touched on that as well.
So, yeah, it is true. We're expanding our
footprint. We're very excited to be part of,
of four states, and we're integrating plans. We're
gonna integrate plans like a group health cooperative
of of Eau Claire
and physician health plan of Northern Indiana. And
what this does, it allows us to bring
access to our high quality coverage
to more people.
It also positions us to serve more people
while leveraging shared systems. So when you think
about
scaling this, we're gonna take multiple systems and
put them onto one platform. So we have
a really that unified experience.
We're also gonna be able to tap talent
throughout, various states, and then we're gonna have,
what it's saying, being able to have unified
capabilities across states.
And those capabilities,
I take the technology
expansion that's gonna help us improve experience, and
then at the end of the day, affordability
for our members.
When I think about moving forward, we will
continue to build on this foundation,
look to leverage technology,
make care more personalized,
and really look to expand,
our reach so that more people can benefit
from what we offer.
We think we offer a really compelling product,
and really excited to touch, you know, 1,400,000,
looking to continue to expand that to to,
more and more individuals and members,
throughout now those four states that you referenced.
And I say none of this happens in
isolation. It is a collective effort. We have
a really strong team here.
We have wonderful people that we that I've
been really blessed to work with.
And I look at we have strong partnerships
inside and outside the organization. This isn't just
us. We we have some really strong partners
as well.
So really excited about, about the foundation we
build and excited about the future for Priority
Health.
Well, clearly, a lot of growth happening and
and on the horizon, Nick, for Priority Health.
So before we go, what else are we
missing? Any other final thoughts, final bits of
advice you wanna share with all the other
health plan leaders listening in?
Yeah. I guess my final thought and kinda
tie it all together,
but, again, in a fast pacing pace, fast
changing,
difficult industry that we we are in, I
just
the advice I give is stay grounded.
Wanna stay grounded in our mission and continue
to trust our people. And if we can,
you know, I think it's it it takes
a leap sometimes, but really building that,
that trust with our people will pay off
over time.
In terms of other health plan leaders, my
advice is simple and it gets into embracing
change without losing sight of we'll use the
term fundamentals.
Be data driven.
Kind of going back to the finance background,
I love data. So be data driven. Let's
be transparent with each other, be transparent with
our communities,
and then making sure we are investing in
our teams. And so I have to go
back to our technology.
That's a big part of that. We're investing
in our teams. The expansion we're investing in
our teams. And then I look at never
understate the power of aligning around our clear
strategy. So whether again, that's modernizing our technology,
expanding it into new markets,
or tightening our focus on outcomes and affordability,
those are the things that help us stay
steady in a shifting landscape.
So to kind of wrap it up at
the end of the day, we're all here
for the same reason.
Our goal is to make healthcare better for
the people and communities we serve. And if
we keep that front and center, you'll create
real impact. And I said real impact during
very challenging times.
So thank you for the opportunity, Jacob. I
really appreciate
it. Absolutely. Thank you, Nick, for taking the
time to chat with us and for sharing
your insights with our listeners. We really appreciate
it. And to our listeners, if you'd like
to listen to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare,
you can visit beckershospitalreview.com.