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forward slash beckerspodcast.
Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast
recorded live at the Becker's twenty second annual
Spine Orthopedic and Pain Management Driven ASC and
Future of Spine Conference.
I'm joined today by doctor Omar Kokar, managing
partner at Illinois Gastro Health. Omar, thank you
for joining us today. Can you start a
bit by telling us a little bit about
yourself and your role with your organization?
Thanks for having me. I'm the managing partner
for Illinois Gastro Health. We are a three
member GI organization. We are affiliated with OSF
HealthCare in Bloomington, Illinois, and we serve the
digestive needs of McLean County.
So what trends or shifts are you seeing
right now in the industry that you think
are most important for industry leaders to pay
attention to? I think the biggest crunch that
we're facing in GI is the confluence of
increased demand, and that's a toxic sort of
storm that's come together with
people living longer, requiring more surveillance exams,
and earlier screening age 45 as opposed to
50.
So the demand has increased
for endoscopic procedures.
But what's happening is that because of early
retirements,
primarily affected by COVID and otherwise,
along with the difficulty in recruiting and replacing
that workforce, especially outside of urban areas Mhmm.
Has created a very
disproportionate,
supply demand ratio Mhmm. In GI, leading to
prolonged wait times,
which coupled with declining reimbursement
Mhmm. Has made this specialty very challenging.
So as you mentioned, staffing and workforce challenges,
continue to be a concern across health care.
How is your organization navigating these pressures and,
what strategies have you seen work?
I think we have to be flexible. Mhmm.
I think we have to
meet
people where they are. Mhmm.
The days of someone
adapting to our needs Mhmm. 100%
of the time are not here anymore. Mhmm.
I think everyone, whether it's a clinician,
work staff,
anybody from top across the spectrum,
they're looking for work life balance, and they're
looking for flexibility. Mhmm. Mhmm.
So as many organizations are exploring new technologies,
partnerships, or care models to improve efficiency and
outcomes,
are there any innovations or initiatives that you
found particularly promising?
Well, what we've used over the last year
is artificial intelligence during colonoscopy.
And so that's improved the efficiency of our
colonoscopy and our ability to detect precancerous polyps.
I think the next step for us is
how do we use artificial intelligence to preemptively
scour our referral database
so that they can put so that it
can potentially identify
those patients who are at higher risk for
developing colon cancer and make sure they get
to the top of our list so they're
not waiting six months for their colonoscopy.
Mhmm.
And, you know, financial transparency
is something that is being talked about more
and more in the health care space.
In your view, how does strengthening financial communication,
help foster long term trust and loyalty between
patients and providers?
Well, I think take colonoscopy,
for example. I mean, the the payments
or the amount due to a patient could
be zero Mhmm. Or it could be $8,000.
Right. The procedure itself is the same. Mhmm.
There might be some regional differences. You know?
You expect maybe a 10 or 20%
adjustment depending where you are.
But
in a perfect world, there should be
every every place should have a cash pay
option. Mhmm. Mhmm. And let the consumer decide
Right. Whether they wanna go through their insurance
or not, and let them do the research
and enable them to make that decision. But
in order for us
in order for them to do that, we
have to give them that missing piece of
information Mhmm. Mhmm. Which often is very gray
and vague. Sometimes by design, sometimes just because
we're not used to doing it. Right. Right.
And do you think a lot of patients
just don't know that that cash pay is
even an option in a lot of cases?
Or Very much so. Mhmm. Mhmm. Well, Omar,
I wanna thank you again for joining us
today on the show. But before I let
you go, do you have any final thoughts
or anything you'd like to leave with the
audience today?
I think what I come back to all
the time is
because the reality of the situation is that
payers
are the ones who are paying and reimbursing
us.
We need to meet with them to demonstrate
the value of what we do. Mhmm. Mhmm.
And if we can do that in a
collegial manner,
looking at their bottom line, our bottom line,
the patient's bottom line,
ideally, we would like to Venn diagram that
to a place that works for everybody Mhmm.
Where
clinicians aren't
strapped resource wise, patients are getting large bills,
and the payers are generating record profits. Mhmm.
There's something skewed about that picture.
Mhmm. And so I think realigning that
to me is what the need of the
hour is. Right. Right. Right. I really like
that. Well, Omar, thank you again for joining
us, and you have a lovely rest of
your day. Thank you. Thanks for having me.