This is Alan Condon with the Becker's Podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by doctor
Pedro Martinez Clark,
medical director at AmoVida
Heart and Vascular Health.
Doctor Martinez Clark, a pleasure to have you
on the podcast with us today.
Before we dive into some questions and get
the ball rolling here, I'd love to turn
the floor over to you just to help
to fill us in a little bit more
about your role and your practice.
Yes. It's a pleasure for me to be
here. Thank you so much for the invitation.
And, again, my name is doctor Pedro Martinez
Clark, and I'm an interventional cardiologist
here in Miami.
In,
a few years ago,
we started what is called,
Amavita Heart and Vascular Health, which has become
a very busy cardiovascular practice in Miami
Dade County
with several office locations,
and one OBL
and 2 outpatient surgical centers that are quite,
quite new and, are kind of the center
of our
strategy,
moving forward.
Gotcha. So we focus on our interventional cardi
interventional cardiology, excuse me, with 2 ASCs in
the Miami Dade area.
I imagine a very, very busy practice, and
they're excited to kinda pick your brains and
learn a little bit more in their conversation
today. So
I guess before we do, doctor Martinez Clark,
can you give me, are there 2 or
3 trends
that you're paying close attention to
in health care or in the a s
ASC space today?
What might they be?
Yes. That's an excellent question. In, obviously, there
are national trends, but they're also very local
trends. Right? So,
a couple trends that are intrinsic to Florida
and to more specifically to Miami Dade County.
Miami Dade County has a very high Medicare
Advantage population,
rate
in penetration.
Therefore,
the outcomes
first of all, one of the most important
trend was, that we were following was the
outcome of the election.
In, that that being said,
obviously, that may or may not have some
implications
into what we might see in the future
of Medicare Advantage Plans, which is very important
in Miami Dade County because of the high
Medicare population and the high penetration
of Medicare Advantage Plans. So that's
one very important trend that we're following.
Number 2,
why are those procedures,
that are,
allowed to be performed in the outpatient setting
in ambulatory surgical centers from the cardiovascular
perspective.
So that was the second that's the second,
very important,
point that we follow very closely.
And and 3,
is, obviously, the economics of,
running surgical centers
in, health care in general,
contracting,
purchasing,
efficiencies
in in in how to maximize
productivity in the in the surgical centers.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I think,
really interesting to kinda open up our discussion
there. And like you said, particularly as it
relates to Medicare Advantage,
you know, a national trend, but no. They're
very local trend as well in Florida like
you've mentioned.
I guess when it comes to Medicare Advantage,
in an ideal world, what changes or updates
would you like to see in the program,
especially when we think about
there's, I believe, half the nation's seniors are
enrolled in the Medicare Advantage Program.
And no doubt when we think about Florida
as a high high, population of seniors,
no doubt that has a big impact on
your practice as well.
Absolutely. And one of the biggest one of
the biggest areas of interest to me is
how do how are we going to transition
to a
value based model?
And and now that our practice has a
significant,
footprint in in Miami Dade and that we
have offices located throughout the the county,
which is very densely populated, obviously.
But we have access
or or pretty much every patient has,
easy access to one of our offices,
and we have surgical centers that are strategically
located, 1 in the north and one in
the south.
We would love to figure out models that
we can,
pilot with different,
Medicare Advantage Plans where we can experiment
a little bit more on on on transitioning
to value based medicine because, obviously,
that is a
a strong and significant trend,
that is going to,
decrease the number
of people service,
patients that we're going to see. So I
think as as, physicians, we have to recognize
that. We have to adapt. We have to
figure out how we become comfortable in that
environment, and we have to and from a
procedural perspective, we have to figure out how
we're going to transition
and change our mindset,
our mindset
from,
being compensated for events and just procedures that
we do rather to rather more holistic or
more comprehensive for more focal, care,
with,
a risk sharing.
Mhmm.
Yeah. It's certainly interesting, especially like you said,
with the the results of the election, how
how how potential changes we could see in
the Medicare Advantage Plan or CMS more broadly
over the next 4 years or so, but
certainly an interesting trend like you've like you've
said to keep an eye on both at
the national and the local level.
Doctor Martinez Clark, can you no doubt there's
some challenges there, but potentially some opportunities as
well.
When you think about the future of health
care, whether it relates to interventional cardiology or
health care more broadly, what are you what
are you most excited about?
Well, I'm I'm a big technology person, so
I think enabling or integrating technologies to into
our practice that allow us to manage,
chronic conditions
in a in a in a way that
is more effective and efficient and less episodic,
definitely, it's gonna help us transition to that
model of care that I was discussing before.
So in integrating
those sample technologies, remote monitoring, etcetera,
into our our practice is going to help
us tremendously in making that transition.
I'm also very interested in implementing all the
technologies and platforms that allow us to
provide a more seamless,
experience that the patient may have during the
with the interaction with health care system.
You know, I I I think the opportunity
is to make this,
experience a little more pleasant,
and and and I think there are,
technologies and and operational efficiencies
that could be explored to make this this
sort of interaction
with the health care system, offices, practices, etcetera,
a lot more pleasant for the patient or
for the consumer.
And the other thing that I'm most most
very excited about is is how
we, increase the number or or how we
do more procedures in the outpatient setting. And
and the complexity of our procedures
is is how we understand the complexity of
the procedures that we perform and what procedures
need to be done in the hospital,
and which procedures we can do in a
in a safe,
manner in the outpatient setting. I think,
if you look at most of the cardiovascular
procedures that we
do in interventional cardiology, either vascular procedures or
or cardiac per se,
our procedures are because a lot safer
and a lot faster to perform because our
ability
to do these procedures and our understanding has
increased,
and also the technology has improved
dramatically. So I think we're gonna see an
expansion of the number of in the number
of procedures,
that we can do in the,
ambulatory surgical center.
Yeah. To to your point, really exciting time.
No doubt for our physicians in your specialty
and other high acuity specialties when we think
about orthopedics,
cardiology.
We're starting to see more and more of
these complex, high acuity procedures moved ASCs to
the outpatient setting. Like you said, to the
onset of some of these, minimally invasive technologies
and whatnot. I know you said at the
top of the conversation, you have 2 ASCs,
I believe, if I'm not mistaken.
I'd love to get some insight into how
are you thinking about,
the growth of your practice over the next
12 to 24 months or so.
Yeah. I mean, we have a multi multichannel,
approach. We do a significant amount of, marketing.
We do a lot of community outreach.
We,
we meet with payers,
with big advocates in in in showing our
outcomes.
And, and we do,
obviously,
we're very close to our reporting decisions,
and also we do, direct to consumers. So
I think I think, we have
a a a multi sort of, channel approach,
and, and this has helped
us sustain a,
continuous growth over the last few years. And
and
with the growth in the population,
that required for your vascular services, especially in
an area like Miami Dade County,
where it's a significant number of,
older,
individuals,
the the demand for cardiovascular service is going
to is going to continue to increase.
Absolutely.
Doctor Martinez Clark, it's been a real pleasure,
having you on the podcast for the first
time. It's been great to get to know
you a little bit better and also learn
a little bit more about Amavita Heart and
Vascular Health.
Thank you so much for joining the Becker's
podcast, and we look forward to connecting with
you again down the line. Perfect. Thank you
so much.