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This is Laura Duda with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Bob Sarkar,
president and c e o of Arkansas Health Network. Bob,
it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
Thank you, Laura. Same here. It is a pleasure is all mine.
And thank you so much for hosting me and, and for this podcast.
Look for looking forward to it. Laura.
I'm excited to speak with you today because I know Arkansas Health Network
recently received its URAC accreditation, which is a huge accomplishment.
Congratulations,
and I'd love to know more about what the accreditation entailed and how you are
celebrating with your team. But before we dive into the discussion,
can you tell me a little bit more about yourself and your background?
We'll be happy to. Laura. Um, Bob Sarkar. I am the president,
c e o of Arkansas Health Network, um,
which is a clinically integrated network based in Arkansas.
And I have been in the industry for over 30 years now.
Had the pleasure and been blessed to have worked with several high
performing organizations, um, like Kaiser Permanente,
advocate Health, um,
Provina Premier or Premier Health Presence Health Aetna,
and to name a few. And I've been in this role for the last eight,
around eight years or so. So enjoying every moment,
every minute of it. We have a great team here.
Bob,
I know that you're such an amazing leader and I really appreciate all the work
you're doing.
Can you share with us the process for achieving the Iraq accreditation?
What was that like and how did you prepare?
I'd be happy to. And before I get into Iraq,
I just wanted to share a little bit more about Arkansas Health Network.
Arkansas Health Network is, as I mentioned, uh,
is a clinically integrated network. Um,
it is the largest clinically integrated network or c i n we call them, um,
in, in the state of Arkansas.
It is also one of the national best practices in value-based care, or value hub,
as we call it in our commoner health lingo.
It is fully owned subsidiary of C HS and Vincent slash Commoner Health,
which as you may know, is the largest non-profit health system in the country,
parochial health system in the country. And so it, uh,
Arkansas Health Network happens to be a national best practice in,
in value-based care, value hub, and, um,
and also from a clinical and financial standpoint happens to be, uh,
one of the most successful ones in the industry as well as in Arkansas.
And so I have been in my role now, as I said, um,
just around 80 or so. So our,
our major goal, our, our mission, if I may call it of Arkansas Health Network,
is to drive meaningful,
measurable improvement in quality health and financial sustainability for
our patients in Arkansas and provider community in Arkansas through
excellence in value-based care. So what we have started doing is,
since Arkansas Health Network was formed about, around 10 years ago,
um, and have we have been taking risk, financial and clinical risk,
um, we have been taking upside downside risk now, um, and,
and with appropriate, uh, guardrails with appropriate clients and partners,
we are positioning ourselves to take, uh, even capitated risk and beyond.
And so with that in mind, with the work that we have been doing,
consistently seeing successes year over year, both in quality processes,
um, technology as well as in financials, we basically,
basically thought the best approach at this point for us is to
ensure that we work with a,
a third party like URAC or N C Q A, um,
who would assess us to independently, um,
to see how we are doing and how our standards are of d different processes that
we follow.
So we worked with URAC for the last year and a half plus,
um, and, um,
and went through the entire traditional process.
And U rac, as you may or may not know, um, we,
we know about URAC because they work quite a bit with payers,
but they're also getting, uh,
expanding their portfolio to work with provider and provider organizations like
the CIS and providers practices and health systems.
And IFAC was founded in 1990,
an independent non-profit accrediting agency, um,
or entity.
And it uses evidence-based measures actually for quality improvement in
healthcare. And, um,
so UAC symbol of accreditation is a,
is a symbol of excellence for organizations to showcase their
validated commitment, quality, and accountability.
So we went, um, and partnered with urac, as I said, about a year and a half ago,
um, plus ago. And then we went for two types of accreditation.
One is clinical integration, 1.0, which is basically population health,
uh, which is our core competency of Arkansas Health Network.
And that comprises of 35 broad standards and several
granular standards underneath it and underneath them.
And then we also went for another accreditation,
accreditation on employer based population health, um,
and which is 1.0 and has 20 standards,
several granular level standards underneath them. And, um,
employer based population health is one of the LA latest, um,
accreditation that URAC came up with. And Arkansas Health Network Network,
we became the first c i n in the industry to be dually accredit
with both integration 1.0 and employer based population health 1.0.
So this is almost like a trailblazing effort that we made and a unique,
um,
effort that we made in the industry as a provider organization to be dually
accredit with those two accreditations, which generally are, um,
associated with payers. So this, this is, we are proud of,
this is a lot of work with everybody's hands on deck from the provider
perspective, from our management team perspective,
our team's perspective and, and resources from our common spirit,
health divisional national, as well as the market perspective. Um,
a lot of efforts as you, as I may or may not have already shared with you,
um, Arkansas Health Network is the largest net c I n.
It now comprises of 3,600 plus providers and
around 20 hospitals, inpatient facilities,
and about 25 skilled nursing facilities in our network. At this point.
We are managing around 140, uh,
thousand lives, uh, in,
at this point in value-based care lives in Arkansas at this point.
That's really impressive and huge amount of responsibility you have for your
patients and community members.
Thank you for talking us through that process and giving us a step-by-step view
of the accreditation and potential outcomes. From your perspective,
why is it so meaningful for you to undergo the Iraq accreditation?
How are you able to rally your team and achieve great results?
You know, as I said, Arkansas Health Network is a statewide network. Now,
we started from Central Arkansas focused, but now we are statewide network.
We have strategic partnership with Arkansas Children's Care Network,
which already had a URAC accreditation. It's a,
it's a pediatric c i n state only pediatric c i n that had a
URAC accreditation in clinical integration.
And we also have strategic partnership with, with, um, N Health, uh,
c I N in northwest Arkansas.
So we have several strategic partnership apart from a large portfolio of
presence across the state. Um,
the reason why we wanted to ensure that we go through this rigorous,
if I may call that way,
but methodical journey with urac were three.
One is clinical, uh,
which basically the reason why we wanted to go through this is to,
because it helps validate our excellence in utilization of
evidence-based solutions. Basically, URAC validates our excellent,
our, our, our excellence in utilization of,
of those resources and solutions that we have in our portfolio.
The second one is, uh, is quality demonstrates a commitment,
uh, our commitment to continuously improve quality and process.
And so it has a, a quality improvement perspective as well. Um,
and then the third one is very much, was very much strategic.
It, uh, generally, as I shared with you, this is, uh,
tradition that are generally done by, by payers, uh, by doing,
uh, taking up, uh, this acquisition by being accredited. Uh,
we think that it provides a competitive edge to us from the payers perspective.
We now, uh, speak the language. We know, I,
we understand the language that the payers set up to do,
and the board of directors of UAC are generally, um,
the blue crosses of the world, anthems of the world,
the u the United of the world, and the signal of the world.
They have created those, those standards and now those languages rather,
if I may call them that way. And now we have learned the language.
Hopefully this brings much more alignment,
alignment between which is much needed in the healthcare delivery system.
And the, and payment model system of the,
of the country of our healthcare landscape brings much more closer alignment
between,
between payers and providers because what we are generally doing is in our value
based care, which is the, the equation of value is quality of work cost.
We have high quality and low cost. Hopefully that res resonates into,
translates also into high experience patient experience,
high provider experience, which is our quadruple aim, improving quality,
bringing cost down, improving experience for providers as well as patients.
And so it it aligned with our strategic initiative of
improved clinical outcomes,
improved quality and meaningful relevant strategic initiative.
Certainly in particular today's healthcare landscape,
as more and more organizations are trying to figure out value-based care and the
alignment and partnership strategies they need with insurers as well as other
organizations is so meaningful to see how you've been able to move the needle.
Now, how will your team continue to build on this success in the future?
Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so as you may know,
this was a journey and we executed our urac, um, accreditation jour,
uh, agreement in, uh, if I recall the exact date. It was, um,
30th, June, 2021. And then we also involved, uh,
a consultant called Integral Health Solutions to help us learn the ropes, um,
you know, the tricks of the trades, so to speak, in this, in this journey.
And then we hired a desktop review by URAC on, on,
let's say, recall the exact date. It was, um, August, um,
30th of 2022. And then we had an onsite, uh, review by urac,
by URAC Surveyors who came on site on,
on January 31st of this year.
And in both this desktop as well as onsite review,
we got a hundred percent of, of this possible scores.
And then what we have in this journey that we have learned, uh,
are several standards, as I said, about 55 standards in total. Um,
and that we are, are we doing well or not? Now that we are, uh,
we know where we stand, uh,
from a third party who has given almost like a gold seat of approval, uh,
on our, through our accreditation.
What we plan to do is we know since proactive care management is our core
competencies backed up by next generational, uh,
pop health management platforms, IT and information system platform and other,
uh, and other areas of care delivery, um,
we know that there are areas of opportunities not just uh,
in our immediate, uh, vicinity, but throughout Arkansas.
And there are opportunities as it relates to behavioral health,
uh, areas especially after pandemic. Um,
so we will be focusing using those methodologies with those modalities that we
have learned and standards that we have and discipline that we have learned from
URAC journey. We will be focusing on behavioral health, patient care,
patient proactively as much as we can and possible. And then we are,
we be going to be focusing on social determinants of health and which is a major
area of our going to be our focus, especially post pandemic.
And then we are also going to be ensuring that, um,
as next steps that we are not just keeping the,
these competencies or capabilities that we have, uh,
shortened and within our own team, we are going to be sharing this, uh,
through a ready to use playbook within our,
our own family of Kim Commons Health. Uh,
so we are creating a this point, um,
a turnkey playbook for our own common health, um, uh,
family across, we are across 21 states as you may know.
And then we are also going to be creating some resources for the entire in
healthcare industry, um, through webinars possible, uh, learning tools.
Um, so, so that everybody in the industry,
in the country learns from what we have learned while we continue to ourself
learn and make the base best use of, uh, of,
of these resources and competencies.
That makes a lot of sense.
It really sounds like a great plan to make sure that you're able to serve
patients in a meaningful way. Before we wrap up our conversation,
I wanted to ask,
where are you seeing some of the best opportunities to provide better patient
care in the next two to three years? What does that look like for you?
You've got such a unique vantage point with your,
the patients you serve in Arkansas as well as being the head of an A C o,
which is very progressive in its own right.
Yes. Yeah. Thank you for your kind words.
So one area that we are noticing that we need to ensure that we speak with one
voice are the disconnects with certain states, especially on Arkansas here,
our reimbursement rates, uh, are quite, quite low. And I, it,
I won't be surprised if I say this way,
and you won't be surprised if I say Arkansas has probably the lowest, um,
all in has the lowest reimbursement rate.
So we are ensuring that we are aligning with the,
with the payer community aligning, um, to show that we have,
that we continuously bring value, uh, to the payers as well as to their,
to our common combined patients across the state.
So the, the goals in the next generation,
next few years and beyond are going to be ensuring that there is
appropriate level of reimbursement, uh, for the care, uh,
whether through direct fee for service and or through fee for value.
And because, um, as we know, um, uh,
unless there is alignment between payers and and providers, um,
there won't be any synergy coming down to the patients as well as to the
providers. And, um, while we are moving towards that,
we are also ensuring that these best practices, if I may call them,
and the, and the competencies that we have gained, uh,
will also address some of the areas of, of excellence, um,
in our care delivery and reimbursement.
While there continues to be shortage of, of clinical staff across the state,
um, this will create these competencies.
We will create the place to be, to work, uh,
as we continues to shine ourselves and hopefully with our partners
across the state and in the region, um,
that it is a place to get best care,
best place to practice medicine and best place to work.
So there are multiple multifaceted approaches,
multifaceted areas that we are focusing on with,
with our journey and competencies and accreditations.
Thank you so much Bob and I look forward to interacting with you at the November
c e o plus c f o Roundtable in Chicago. I'm really looking forward to that.
It's always great to see you and I hope you have a, a great rest of your day.
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