View From the Summit: Non-Traditional Partnerships Key to Accelerating Change

Thursday’s Executive Sessions allowed attendees to break out and dig deep into the consumer imperative. Topics ranged from breakthroughs that have disrupted the healthcare model to issues that are hindering further change: 

Stretching Benjamin: Making Healthcare Affordable

Jeff Wu of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Chris Lloyd of the Memorial Hermann Physician Network, Peter Marino of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island and Brigitte Nettesheim of Aetna discussed what role providers and payers must play separately and in concert to keep costs down. Key take-aways include:

• We need to challenge the culture of how medicine is delivered, and we need to instill creativity and an orientation toward finding a better way
• We need to redesign the delivery care model
• Have to change the cost structure and fundamentally do things differently
• Need to change the mindset in how we articulate the products and services to individuals
• Aligning payment models is a foundational step but insufficient in and of itself

Out-of-Industry Perspectives: Applying the Best-of to Healthcare

Chris Kay of Humana and Chris Waugh of Oliver Wyman discussed the importance of integrating best practices from outside sectors to deliver optimal healthcare. The focus should be on the all-encompassing journey of the patient and not just the health outcome. Key take-aways include:

• Innovation and non-traditional partnerships are key to accelerating change because patients are ready for it
• One of the greatest ways to create a positive customer experience is through radical simplification

Matchmaking: Incumbents and Innovators Partnering to Accelerate Change

During the morning session, Sean Duffy of Omada Health, Keegan Fisher of Providence Health & Services, Todd Johnson of HealthLoop, and Debra O’Connor, MD, of Advocate Health Care shed light on the positive impact of creative business partnerships that help elevate change for healthcare consumers.

Doing Well by Doing Good: Serving the Socially Vulnerable Population

Darin Gordon formerly of TennCare, Peter Marino of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, Jacob Reider, MD, of the Alliance for Better Health Care, and Brenda Wolf of La Rabida Children’s Hospital covered the obstacles these consumers face in accessing care (basic life needs like heat, transportation and food); as well as the challenges health organizations face in trying to engage these consumers. Key take-aways include:

• Being present and actively involved in the communities you serve is essential—you can’t do it from “an ivory tower”
• Partners are essential, but critical is teaming with partners that are committed to serving socially vulnerable populations

Creating Change: Harnessing the Power of Human Behavior

Chris Lloyd of Memorial Herman Physician Network and Marty Makary, MD, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine agreed that monitoring and aggregating individualized performance data motivates behavior modification. For example, many health and hospital systems gather data from an organizational viewpoint, not from individual provider performance. With this type of transparent data that instills accountability, we may be able to significantly change the way healthcare is delivered. Additional key take-aways include:

• Self-reflection is a first step in navigating change
• Ask for weigh-in, not buy-in when formulating a change plan
• Transparency is a must; part of the challenge is identifying the right metrics

The Future Is Here: Leveraging Precision Medicine Today

Jonathan Hirsch of Syapse, Damon Hostin of Catholic Health Initiatives, Jim Hudson and Liz Worthey of HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and Envision Genomics, Jason Langheier, MD, MPH, of Zipongo, and Scott Matthews of 23andMe shared their opinions on why precision medicine is a driving force for the future of healthcare, specifically touching on the effects of genome sequencing in the cancer treatment model. Key take-aways include:

• Genome sequencing can help overcome the problem of people trying a diet, failing and then getting disheartened
• The United States currently spends $125B on cancer drugs, much of it driven by ineffective use by people who don't know they are non-responsive to the drug being given to them
• This can help put some power into the consumer's hands, as it gives them greater insight into what might work for them and what won't

The Happiness Halo: Redefining Consumer Experience

Randall Stone of Lippincott and Helen Leis of Oliver Wyman discussed the importance of the patient/provider emotional connection – the key to creating a meaningful and pleasant experience. Key take-aways included:

• Emotional connection to a brand is critical: anticipation for the experience is critical, but in healthcare very challenging; afterglow is equally critical (if not more for anticipation), but we often fall down here
• It is critical to think about ensuring ALL patients have a good experience, unlike many of the examples where the focus is on the top tier
• There is a lot of talk about the clinical episode as experience, but the end is generally interaction with payer (EOB) or the bill - is this the place to start?

Holding Up a Mirror on Mission: The Necessity and Value of Building Healthy Communities Today

Julie Morita, MD, of Chicago Department of Health, Barb Petee of ProMedica and Donato Tramuto of Healthways and ShareCare provided examples of non-traditional approaches to providing population health and building healthy communities. Key take-aways include:

• Population health is such a difficult and broad goal, it may be easier to create an effective product by focusing on a specific population
• Funding is a major challenge and hinders the implementation of community initiatives
• While building healthy communities should be seen as a social responsibility, it should also be a high business priority, because of its ability to impact costs

The New Front Door: How to Get Folks Knocking

Pat Carroll, MD, of Walgreens, Deanna Larson of Avera eCARE, Mary Modahl of American Well, Lee Sacks, MD, of Advocate Health Care, and Matt Stanton of Cleveland Clinic shared insights on how their organizations have modified the traditional healthcare model to get consumers “knocking” on the front. Key take-aways include:

• Partnership is key, and needed to develop the right IT platform and credibility
• Accessing the front door remains too complicated, as when do enter and where to enter are questions without clear answers to most consumers
• Experimentation is key, as what works is often not obvious For example, pictures were better than video in improving adoption, and most consumers want to see the impact on lifestyle, not available features