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This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Kevin McCatty,
president of Tampa Cardiac Specialists and C of Fast Pathways. Dr. McCady,
it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Thank.
You, Laura.
Now, I know we've have a lot to talk about.
There's so much happening in the field of cardiac care and heart surgery,
but before we dive into my questions,
can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and your background?
I'd be happy to. I'm a practicing cardiologist and,
and co-founder of the Health Tech startup company.
I'm also affiliated with daycare health systems here in Tampa, Florida,
as well as University of South Florida.
I've served a variety of different roles in, in healthcare,
ranging from acting as a board member for our first integrated physician
network that's about 10 years old now.
And I've also participated as the service line chief and more recently
faculty at an ambulatory surgical center association
discussing how facilities can leverage technology.
So I've had sort of experience as a practicing physician
and then some leadership roles within healthcare systems and more recently
in the outpatient sector, which I'm, I'm thrilled to talk to you more about as,
as we are starting to see more and more procedures move to the outpatient
market.
Absolutely. I think that's a great point.
There's so much that can be done less evasively and in the outpatient setting.
It's an exciting time really for that kind of, uh, innovation.
So I'd love to hear from your perspective Yeah. A little bit more about that,
you know, what you really see as, uh, moving outpatient, um,
and the technology behind it, and then, you know,
any other opportunities you're, you're seeing in the cardiology space.
Yeah, I, I think it, it is an interesting time. I,
I think that healthcare systems have been so focused on mastering the
inpatient market,
and there's two factors that are really driving procedures to outpatient
facilities. Number one is the healthcare consumer.
Our patients are becoming better advocates for their care,
and they're looking for a better experience.
So they want efficiency in the delivery of healthcare,
and that could be best accomplished in the ambulatory surgical center model
cause there's less bureaucracy and steps leading from
registration to actually getting care and then leaving the facility.
The second aspect that's driving care out of inpatient facilities is the
insurance carriers.
They identify that doing the same procedure can be done much more
cost effectively in ambulatory surgical centers.
And so that's also driving the market out of the inpatient space.
Got it. That makes sense. And that's fascinating to hear. I know, you know,
it's, uh,
been a long time in coming in terms of the payers really seeing the value of the
outpatient ambulatory surgery centers.
Have you been seeing that in cardiology in particular,
or is it kind of a slow start starting to make that migration and make that kind
of change in direction?
I think, Laura, that that growth has become exponential from what I see.
I think the outpatient market in cardiology
is, um, is something that really the,
the reflux of procedures really fell behind the creation of outpatient
C p T codes. Once the reimbursement was there,
I think it really spurred a lot of practices to create
their invest and create their own facilities to perform procedures in
their practice owned spaces.
And unfortunately for the healthcare systems, they saw a great loss of,
of those procedures being performed regularly in inpatient, um, uh,
facilities. So I, I think, and, and we'll talk about this as well,
I I think one of the strategies that I've seen with healthcare systems is,
is reclaiming some of that loss by either creating JVs
with, with, um,
private practices or creating outpatient spaces to kind of
reclaim the same pleasant atmosphere that that patients love
and, um, the, the reimbursement that's being lost to help recoup that.
Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, that's a fascinating point and,
and certainly how the hospitals are responding to that, um, definitely,
you know, will be something that we're watching closely as well. Uh,
from your perspective, are there any headwinds that you have your eye on?
What are potential roadblocks or things that you're thinking about, um,
as you're developing your strategy for the future?
Yeah, I, I think, um, well there's a,
there's a couple of dynamics that we're experiencing. I, I think the first is,
uh, of course the, the change in workforce dynamics.
So it's, as we perform more complex procedures,
we really rely on our, our experienced workforce.
And trying to maintain staff to be
constant in the facility right now is very challenging.
So I think we have to create a system to accommodate for that. And,
uh, i, I think we'll have to rely on technology to be able to bridge the gap.
Uh, one of the things that I can speak of, um,
that just happened this week is,
is just taking someone who's never been in our local market
and trying to maintain the culture that we have in our hospital
system of delivering excellent care and that patient experience,
there is some, uh,
lead in time with trying to take people outside of our system and,
and having them, um, perform in a,
in a way that is, um, consistent with, with how our staff,
um, treat patients and, and, um, maintain the quality of care.
I think we could really leverage technology to assist with providing that
consistency of, um,
of presentation to our patients. So I think the,
the dynamic, um, change in workforce is,
is one headwind that's been challenging. The second is,
as we, um, experience, uh,
more diversity in the insurance space, um,
with delivering the same level of care to,
to high volume populations,
we're seeing a need to address the value-based purchasing system
and competing, um, um,
competing in a, in a manner that reclaims a lot of potential loss revenue.
So a perfect example of this is the, um,
CMS structure that is in place that either rewards or
penalizes healthcare systems, their Medicare revenue every year,
and having to compete, um, in our value based purchasing programs.
Um, of course the value based based purchasing programs,
one of the domain scores that we look at intently is the patient and community
engagement score. That is a score that is, um,
gauged completely on subjective HCAP scores. So, um,
in order to compete in those programs and reclaim that
revenue that is at risk, um,
we're having to potentially use technologies to really reinforce
patient engagement.
Got it. That's really fascinating to hear and think about and,
and for sure when you look through, you know,
where value lies in healthcare and how you're measuring that,
having the technology to support on your side and really tell the story of,
you know, what's going well and, and not only the outcomes you're having,
but the experience patients are having is so key.
And I wanted to go along those lines too and think further through
how you are looking at growth and adding value overall to, uh,
tamper cardiac specialists as well as BayCare and the other organizations that
you work with.
Yeah, I, I think there was a time where, um,
there's a lot of adversity between private practices and, and hospital systems,
and I think we are now seeing that, um, we've gotta collaborate,
especially as insurance carriers are looking for, um,
reimbursing as a package, as a, as a service package.
And so we have to sort of lock arms with the hospital
systems in providing high quality care in a
cost effective manner. So I,
I think the way that we can assist in the,
um,
overall delivery of care in helping making it cost effective is by
looking at exactly how much, um,
a typical service line costs to deliver care and,
and try to cut down costs and work collaboratively in, in that respect.
Um, so I, I think that's one area that I can speak of personally,
where we're actually looking at the bottom line as a service line of delivering
an aspect of,
of cardiac care and focusing on our
consumables and how can we reduce that without compromising the level of care
that we provide? How can we look at hospital length of stay?
So one of the, the huge advancements have been, um, in the coast,
uh,
the post covid era is how do we get patients home sooner?
So how, how do we look at that era,
a component of not having to keep patients overnight
and potentially expose them to more complications?
How do we get them out of the facility sooner without,
of course compromising the level and quality of care that we deliver?
And then that, um,
cost savings can then be demonstrated to the carriers to show that we are
an efficient system in providing high quality care at
a, at a, a decent, um, cost back to the,
the insurance company.
Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. You know,
and it is really helpful to think about and think through and certainly where
the health system is headed. Um, and along those lines, you know,
when you're looking at the value-based care, when you're looking at, you know,
trying to solve a lot of the big challenges that are out there in healthcare,
what is one investment or risk that's really important for organizations to make
this year?
Yeah, I, I think so to,
to piggyback on those prior points, I,
I think that inpatient facilities will need to look at the ambulatory
surgical center market in either creating their own brick and mortar,
um, facilities or potentially going in as joint ventures with
existing facilities, again, to,
to recoup the loss of revenue as the reflux of procedures move
out of the inpatient space.
The second area that might potentially be a,
a good investment strategies is looking at technologies that provide,
um, efficiency that allow that our staff to practice that top of license.
I know in the, uh, to make a perfect example, in the perioperative space,
a lot of nursing staff are needing to do administrative work,
taking phone calls that are unnecessary.
These are tasks that can be replaced with technology.
So making that upfront investment in technology,
predictive AI that allows our staff to practice top of license
without producing a lot of inefficiencies in how they, they deliver care,
uh, I think those are two areas that will be sound investments for
healthcare systems in the future.
I love it. I think that makes a lot of sense. You know,
indefinitely having that outpatient trend,
as we were talking about at the beginning, you know,
getting ahead of it as much as you can within your market or wherever, um,
your hospital or health system is, it seems to be the, you know,
very forward looking and thinking, uh, strategy for organizations.
Now, before we wrap up here,
I wanted to get a sense from you about how you're thinking about growth and
development in the future, both for yourself as well as the teams you work with.
Yeah, I, I think, um, for me, it, it's going to be,
um, looking at what I can perform as, as far as,
um, uh, procedures and, um,
chronic disease management,
how I can manage populations more cost effectively,
and how I can use technology. I, I think what I've seen in,
in my space, um, interestingly,
is advancements in AI to help identify
patient populations that might be at risk for, um,
readmissions, for instance, you know, how can we identify these, um,
high risk patient populations and maybe preferentially provide,
um, more closer care to prevent them from having to be rehospitalized.
Um, I think that is going to be, um,
uh, more prevalent in, in my own practice.
I think identifying technology that helps me work less
and more efficiently and helps my staff deliver care more efficiently,
I think that is, um,
gonna be more prevalent in the future in my practice and, and in my system.
Um, paying more attention to patient engagement.
I think this is something that has been greatly overlooked in the past.
I think we were, uh, we, uh,
we're assuming that our patients would present for care and not have the
expectation of, of the experience of care.
I think this is gonna change in the future.
I think as high deductible plans become more
prevalent and there's more financial stake that, that go in the,
in the patient's pie of care, I think they're gonna be chewier consumers.
And with that, I think they're gonna have expectations of the,
the type of environment in of healthcare that they wanna participate in.
And that makes, that makes facilities and, and providers,
uh,
that creates more responsibility of maintaining
an excellent healthcare experience.
So I think that's where we can really leverage technology.
I think we'll have to be, um,
spending more time assessing the patient experience.
And some of this is built into the OAS caps and HCAP scores, but, um,
it's, it's fairly rudimentary in, in their, um, in their metrics.
So I think needing to create our own customized surveys to really
tap into whether we're delivering an excellent healthcare experience,
I think is gonna be something that I feel I'm gonna be participating in more as
well.
Fantastic. I, I think that makes a lot of sense. You know,
it is just really helpful to hear you talk through all those different trends
and especially wrapping up with the patient experience element, um,
that really makes a big difference. And as you mentioned, being able to,
you know, be on the forefront of that,
especially as people have the higher deductibles and, um,
have more choice and are, are looking for selecting, uh,
providers that they can really count on and depend on for outcomes as well as
the experience. You know, definitely wanna have that set up, uh,
when that world arrives. So, Dr. McKay Kadi,
thank you so much for joining us today.
I think this has been a really fun and interesting discussion,
and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
Thanks so much.
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