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Hey, it's Ed here.
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Thank you for joining us on Digital
Voices.
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We love to cover everything digital and
digital transformation, not just on the
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provider side, but also in life sciences,
and especially in this episode on the
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payer side.
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And we have no one better than the chief
health officer for Elevance Health,
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Shantanu Agrawal.
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So Dr.
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Agrawal, welcome to Digital Voices.
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Thanks Ed, it's really nice to be here.
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Thanks for the invitation.
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Yeah, it's gonna be really cool because I
love your background and what you
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represent and the different things that
you're doing.
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And I think we're going to dig into some
of that passion.
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So I'm ready to jump in.
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And so I normally talk about when we first
met and it really is now.
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So I know you from the online presence and
everything that you put out in terms of
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the great things that you're doing.
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And of course, from your history,
pre-Elevance health, it's just fantastic.
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So it was like, I want to meet this person
and learn more about them.
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So again, thank you.
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for being our guest.
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But the most important question of all the
questions we're gonna ask today is the
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very first one, and that is songs on your
playlist.
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It's a good way to get started.
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So I listen to a lot of Pandora and maybe
my favorite station is just the 90s
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station.
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I find that when I just listen to songs
that I literally grew up with in high
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school and all that, it just takes me
back.
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I love it.
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One of my favorite is a song from The
Cure, Friday I'm in Love.
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I really play that over and over,
especially for my kids.
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gotten them into it.
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I do try to keep up with my kids.
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I've got two teenage daughters.
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They have tastes that are probably a
little different from mine.
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Interestingly, not very much Taylor Swift,
but they do love more sort of rock stuff.
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So they listen to a lot of AJR, for
example.
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So I try to keep up with that.
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Just to just have something else to talk
to them about.
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Yeah, no, that's good.
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That's being a good dad right there.
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Yeah, the Friday I'm in Love is perfect
because we're actually recording on a
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Friday.
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And now, that song now playing in my head
for the rest of our time together.
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No, that's really cool.
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What about a life message or a mantra?
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Are there certain words that you live life
by?
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You know, I think really at the highest
level is just be kind to people, be nice
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to people, be easy to work with.
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I have had the good fortune of working in
a lot of great organizations with a lot of
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great people.
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I have been able to learn from so many of
them and just I've seen it so many times
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in my life and in others.
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Just be nice to the people you work with
because at the end of the day, healthcare
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is actually a very small industry as a
whole.
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You run into the same people over and over
again.
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You treat them with respect, you work
together well, and people come back and
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you'll work with them again, or they'll
introduce you to some opportunity.
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It doesn't matter if they're working for
you, you're working for them.
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It's a small community.
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Yeah.
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No, that those are excellent.
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In fact, we're building a list that we'll
publish soon of all of our guests and all
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of their words to live by.
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And certainly being, uh, should be at the
top of that list.
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Tell us a little bit about your story.
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You can go as deep as you want, personal,
professional.
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We already know that you have, uh, two
teenage daughters, but, but what else
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about your growing up that maybe informed
you all the way to present day?
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Yeah, so a lot of things.
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I mean, I was born in India.
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I grew up in Ohio in actually a pretty
small community.
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My father was an anesthesiologist in the
community hospital of that town for
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decades.
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You know, probably a lot of that is
informed the way I think about health and
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health care.
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I've definitely seen rural America.
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I tagged along with my dad a lot when he
went to the hospital.
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It was a great way to kind of hang out
with him and also see what he was doing.
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And, you know, there were lots of people,
his patients who couldn't afford care.
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And so they're sort of like this informal
bartering system that he got involved in
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where they give him something that they
grew and he'd be their endocesiologist.
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So that was, I think, really impactful for
me, certainly, as I think about my path in
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healthcare.
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I have become an emergency medicine.
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physician, you know, so much of what I
think about on a day-to-day basis has been
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affected by the clinical care that I was
able to offer and frankly the limitations
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of that care.
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I mean, you know, I chose the ER
specifically because it's really hands-on,
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but it's, I talk about it as being
literally and metaphorically on the ground
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floor of the hospital.
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And so everything comes in, right?
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Society comes in through the door, all of
our social ills come in.
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And it's hard to escape.
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what is happening in our societies when
you work in the ER, which means every
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single day, my limits, both as a human
being and as a doctor were kind of tested.
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And that has very much stuck with me as I
kind of go through my professional career.
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Aside from that, you know, I'm married to
a pediatric hospitalist.
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She reminds me every day what's truly
important and valuable.
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A focus on kids is just so critical, and
she does that in her own career.
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And then as I mentioned, we have two, they
still seem young to me, but they don't
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really seem young to themselves anymore,
teenage daughters, and they definitely
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keep me humble because there's not a whole
lot that I can do that impresses them.
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Ha ha ha.
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have a way of doing that.
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So what part of India were you born?
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Where, what city?
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I was born in a village in Rajasthan,
India.
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So the state is Rajasthan.
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The village was called Binma.
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It's really small.
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It's where my dad and my grandfather were
born.
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Actually literally in the same hospital.
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I'm sorry, literally in the same home.
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There was no hospital.
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So yeah, that's where I was born.
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And then we emigrated first to Detroit
when I was four years old.
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Yeah, no, that's very cool.
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My wife has a similar story, but she's
from Hamancho, Padesh, but not too far
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from Rajatown, right?
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It's north part of India.
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Yeah, so that's super cool.
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So tell us a little bit about Elevance
Health.
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So it was formerly Anthem, but for those
that don't know much about Elevance
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Health, tell us sort of the mission and
vision.
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Yeah, so Elevance Health has had a long
history as Anthem, as AmeriGroup, other
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organizations.
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We sort of undertook a major rebranding,
sort of creating this corporate structure
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around Elevance Health, but we still have
the Anthem names and brands attached to
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us.
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WellPoint and Carillon, as well as sort of
our new services organization.
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Overall, you know, we are a health
benefits and services company.
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So we directly ensure, let's call it at
this point, 45 plus million Americans
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across all lines of business.
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And then we have the health services
company called Carillon that offers
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services to millions upon millions more.
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So I think net-net, we serve over 100 plus
million Americans through our entire
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footprint.
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We're national in scale.
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And I think what's really important to me
and important to my role is that we
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really...
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work to take care of members in all walks
of life.
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So that means Medicare, Medicaid,
commercial, the individual marketplace.
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It very much ties into our goal of being a
trusted partner in health for a lifetime.
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And so that's really important.
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When you think about our footprint, I
think it makes a lot of business sense,
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but frankly, it's key to our mission.
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Yeah, I like that.
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I know I want to dig into that a little
bit when we talk specifically about your
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role before we get there, you know, cause
obviously I'm super into digital
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transformation.
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We're called digital voices.
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Curious one or two ways that Elevance
Health leverages tech to improve
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experience.
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You know, being a digital first company is
actually really important to us.
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Again, when you think about that
geographic and that membership footprint,
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we need digital in order to scale so that
members are still getting what we aim for
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to be a very personal experience with us,
but again, at a scale that we can achieve
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so that it's efficient and effective for
the member.
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So that shows up in a wide variety of
ways.
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So one example that's sort of close to the
work that I do that's important to me is
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we think it's really critical.
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When you think about addressing whole
health and being a lifetime trusted health
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partner, we want to assess our members'
social needs and work to address them.
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Well, again, I can try to get on the phone
with a member.
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One of our associates can try to get on
the phone with a member.
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But we also know that some members like to
be able to do this on their own.
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This is a really sensitive topic, right?
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Talking with another human being, one who
you don't know, may be really challenging
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for them.
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And so what we did is we also created a
self-screening tool in our app.
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It's called Sydney that allows a member to
screen for their own social needs and then
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can get pointed in the right directions to
get those needs assessed and addressed.
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Again, my goal is there should be no wrong
door for engaging with our company when it
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comes to an area that's so critical like
social.
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And so I would love to engage, you know,
on the phone.
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I'd love to engage in person.
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We do that as well.
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but where the member might want a more
digital avenue, that needs to be available
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to them to meet our scale purposes, but
also hopefully to meet members wherever
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they are.
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So that sort of digital capability was
really important to me.
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Of course, we are working on digital
solutions across our entire business.
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We're working on really building on the
new kind of generative AI solutions.
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We'll always be digital first, but I think
that example is so...
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so relevant to me because it's so personal
in some sense.
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Yeah, no, I love that.
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And just for the record, you brought up
Gen.AI before I did, so I didn't say it.
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No, that's awesome, for sure.
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You need to lever all the available
technologies.
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And it's great to hear that you're digital
first as an organization.
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So let's jump into your role a little bit.
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So that's another thing that sort of
attracted me to you and talking to you is
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the role of Chief Health Officer.
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Can you name one or two of your favorite
aspects of that role?
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I have to tell you, I've been here now
three years.
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I did not contemplate coming to a company
like this until this role kind of found
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me.
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And I credit our CEO, Gail Boudreau, a
lot.
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She really innovated the concept of this
role.
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And the idea was to really have a chief
clinician that moved beyond the
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traditional chief medical officer role and
was really focused on.
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whole health outcomes.
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It ties in directly to our whole health
strategy, which really starts with and
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puts health equity at the center.
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We can certainly talk more about that.
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But I think what she was looking for is a
clinician leader that would help to create
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and drive that whole health strategy that
would keep it front and center and would
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not have some of the more traditional CMO
roles that I think are extremely
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important, but would hopefully this role
would kind of augment that.
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So that's really the vision that
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with my attention three years ago.
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It's certainly the thing that I care about
most as I've had the opportunity to be in
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the role.
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And I do think, and I say this because I
didn't create it, but I do think this is
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gonna become an industry standard.
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In fact, we've seen a couple of other of
our peers create and recruit their own
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chief health officers.
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I do think it's an important role because
it gives an opportunity for a
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mission-driven clinician to be at the
table, sitting with the entire senior
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leadership team.
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focused first on health outcomes above all
else.
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And when you think about the power of
that, the importance of that, I can
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completely see this becoming a normalized
role in the industry.
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Yeah, I would agree with you.
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And I think it's brilliant and super
innovative because like you were alluding
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to not that there's anything wrong with
the traditional CMO role, but oftentimes
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they became so burdened by administrative
things and they didn't have the time to
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focus sort of this whole health concept.
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So, so kudos to you all for.
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for sort of trailblazing that.
233
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Tell us maybe one or two things that you
all have done to improve outcomes,
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addressing disparities and social equity,
because again, that's why, you're very
235
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passionate about this focus area in
particular.
236
00:12:50,750 --> 00:12:54,593
So I'd love to hear maybe one example on
something that you've all done.
237
00:12:54,795 --> 00:12:55,537
Yeah, I'd love to.
238
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I think there's a multitude of things.
239
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So look, I talked about our whole health.
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focus.
241
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And what that means for us is really
pulling together physical, behavioral, and
242
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social health in the sort of understanding
the whole health of a member or of a
243
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population.
244
00:13:10,451 --> 00:13:13,773
I think the concept is really important
because as you know too often in
245
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healthcare we actually tend to fragment
health.
246
00:13:15,734 --> 00:13:21,899
We think about a person's health in terms
of conditions or diseases or organs, but
247
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there's so little that actually pushes us
as an ecosystem to put that entire picture
248
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of health together.
249
00:13:26,903 --> 00:13:29,184
We are working to do exactly that, right?
250
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Whole health is our answer to healthcare
value and affordability.
251
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We believe that if we address whole
health, we will intervene on issues
252
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earlier, and that will stem both poor
health outcomes for a member down the
253
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line, but also unnecessary wasteful, low
value healthcare utilization that everyone
254
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also cares about.
255
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So that's the sort of the North Star for
us.
256
00:13:51,703 --> 00:13:53,784
And then of course, health equity is at
the center of it.
257
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We've adopted the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation definition of health equity,
258
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meaning that everyone has a fair and just
opportunity to optimize their health.
259
00:14:02,750 --> 00:14:06,873
And I think that's an incredibly important
motivator for whole health itself.
260
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So there's a couple of things immediately
when you think about where we are as a
261
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healthcare ecosystem that this whole
health approach demanded.
262
00:14:13,278 --> 00:14:16,220
I think a great example is maternal
health.
263
00:14:16,220 --> 00:14:20,055
We all know maternal health outcomes are
highly disparate.
264
00:14:20,055 --> 00:14:25,439
African American women have much higher
rates of morbidity and mortality than
265
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their white counterparts in maternal
outcomes.
266
00:14:28,081 --> 00:14:32,145
And so this became an area of focus for us
literally for the last few years.
267
00:14:32,505 --> 00:14:39,391
Such an area of focus that we actually
have created a maternal disparity measure.
268
00:14:39,391 --> 00:14:43,995
We track a nationally known measure,
severe maternal morbidity and mortality,
269
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and it is on our enterprise dashboard that
gets reported to the board.
270
00:14:48,375 --> 00:14:54,579
And so we have a very specific goal around
reducing disparities in maternal outcomes
271
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as an equity and as a whole health issue.
272
00:14:57,622 --> 00:15:01,746
And so that is an example of something
that we focus on literally every day.
273
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It's cross enterprise, and we try to bring
multiple solutions to bear, including new
274
00:15:06,229 --> 00:15:12,234
case management programs, new digital
interventions, as well as even implicit
275
00:15:12,234 --> 00:15:16,557
bias training for our network OBGYN
physicians.
276
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So...
277
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That's such a critical thing.
278
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And then I will say, structurally, what we
have really worked to do is embed health
279
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equity in everything.
280
00:15:24,227 --> 00:15:27,088
We call the program Health Equity by
Design.
281
00:15:27,128 --> 00:15:31,731
One of the things that we try to do is
actually work in all of our Medicaid plans
282
00:15:31,731 --> 00:15:38,075
because just the incredible relevance of
equity to that population, we set out to
283
00:15:38,075 --> 00:15:41,657
achieve health equity accreditation for
our Medicaid plans.
284
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So we have 21 Medicaid plans.
285
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We worked with NCQA.
286
00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:48,903
NCQA actually has two levels, two
different levels of health equity
287
00:15:48,903 --> 00:15:49,984
accreditation.
288
00:15:49,984 --> 00:15:55,428
And over two years, we got all of our
plans to the highest level of health
289
00:15:55,428 --> 00:15:56,650
equity accreditation.
290
00:15:56,650 --> 00:16:00,313
Now, there's no magic there to that,
except that it necessitated a few things.
291
00:16:00,313 --> 00:16:04,236
First, that we would have an
infrastructure supporting health equity
292
00:16:04,236 --> 00:16:06,438
built into those plans.
293
00:16:06,918 --> 00:16:10,802
That we would collect more information and
data, some directly from our members, to
294
00:16:10,802 --> 00:16:12,122
better understand.
295
00:16:12,175 --> 00:16:15,856
disparities today and health inequities
today in our network.
296
00:16:15,856 --> 00:16:19,758
Third, that we would really think about
and create best practices that we would
297
00:16:19,758 --> 00:16:22,559
then universalize across our system.
298
00:16:22,559 --> 00:16:24,320
So I'm really proud of that work.
299
00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:28,802
It has put us on a pathway to sort of ever
improving inequity.
300
00:16:28,802 --> 00:16:33,424
I'm proud that 90 plus percent of our
Medicaid members today are in a plan that
301
00:16:33,424 --> 00:16:36,545
has the highest level of health equity
accreditation.
302
00:16:36,545 --> 00:16:40,146
And we are working very purposefully this
year to get that to be 100%.
303
00:16:40,674 --> 00:16:41,011
Nice.
304
00:16:41,011 --> 00:16:43,613
want to bring that thinking to the other
lines of business, right?
305
00:16:43,613 --> 00:16:48,318
I mean, bring it to Medicare, bring it to
commercial, have the same infrastructure
306
00:16:48,318 --> 00:16:50,059
and thinking around health equity.
307
00:16:50,460 --> 00:16:52,422
It engages my team every single day.
308
00:16:52,422 --> 00:16:57,166
And it definitely, when I wake up in the
morning, feels like the work worth doing.
309
00:16:57,494 --> 00:17:00,515
Yeah, no, that's an awesome, awesome
example.
310
00:17:00,515 --> 00:17:05,176
And I certainly understand a little bit
about it based on where I previously
311
00:17:05,176 --> 00:17:07,477
served in the C-suite at a healthcare
organization.
312
00:17:07,477 --> 00:17:13,079
So tell me, I'm gonna raise it up a little
bit, not specific to your position, but as
313
00:17:13,079 --> 00:17:17,540
a executive, how do you balance the needs
of providers and members?
314
00:17:17,540 --> 00:17:19,381
Cause that was always a challenge for me
as well.
315
00:17:19,381 --> 00:17:21,061
It's like, you wanna...
316
00:17:21,374 --> 00:17:25,017
always have this perfect balance of, you
know, all the providers that serve the
317
00:17:25,017 --> 00:17:26,719
patients and the patients.
318
00:17:26,719 --> 00:17:31,943
And sometimes the third, the third sort of
leg in that stool was internally, right?
319
00:17:31,943 --> 00:17:33,845
Uh, your internal stakeholders.
320
00:17:33,845 --> 00:17:35,626
It's hard to balance all that.
321
00:17:35,707 --> 00:17:38,989
What are some ways that, that you try to
do that?
322
00:17:40,003 --> 00:17:42,344
Yeah, so it's a great question.
323
00:17:42,344 --> 00:17:49,188
And you obviously were a leader in a
delivery system, a big important one, and
324
00:17:49,188 --> 00:17:51,809
then I've been a practicing physician.
325
00:17:51,890 --> 00:17:57,573
I do think in my heart that if we sort of
collectively, physician, provider, and
326
00:17:57,573 --> 00:18:00,614
plan, kind of focus on the member.
327
00:18:00,875 --> 00:18:03,276
a lot of our interests instantly get
aligned.
328
00:18:03,276 --> 00:18:07,177
I mean, where we often get unaligned is
where sort of the member gets lost, right?
329
00:18:07,177 --> 00:18:11,379
If they're not at the center, then it's
very easy to kind of go our separate ways.
330
00:18:11,379 --> 00:18:13,740
If we think about, okay, what does it
take?
331
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,922
I think the sort of concept of whole
health immediately resonates for
332
00:18:17,922 --> 00:18:18,442
physicians.
333
00:18:18,442 --> 00:18:21,804
I think many physicians, especially
primary care practitioners don't have
334
00:18:21,804 --> 00:18:25,965
enough resources to focus on the whole
health of their patient.
335
00:18:25,965 --> 00:18:28,946
They have very brief appointment windows.
336
00:18:29,191 --> 00:18:33,495
They can get at a couple of topics they're
not able, maybe even not well equipped to
337
00:18:33,495 --> 00:18:36,078
get at behavioral health or social issues.
338
00:18:36,078 --> 00:18:40,142
You know, as I've talked to physicians in
this role, quite a number of them, and I
339
00:18:40,142 --> 00:18:43,825
understand this, almost feel sort of like
an ethical quandary around asking about
340
00:18:43,825 --> 00:18:44,806
social needs.
341
00:18:44,806 --> 00:18:45,807
We're not trained to do that.
342
00:18:45,807 --> 00:18:47,929
That wasn't part of my med school
training.
343
00:18:48,350 --> 00:18:52,734
It isn't still today, unfortunately, the
part of many medical school training
344
00:18:52,734 --> 00:18:53,603
programs.
345
00:18:53,603 --> 00:18:56,645
And so they don't feel well equipped to do
it, but then if they find out that someone
346
00:18:56,645 --> 00:18:59,688
is food insecure, what are they going to
do with them, right?
347
00:18:59,688 --> 00:19:03,111
So you have to, I think, in order to stay
aligned around the patient, we've got to
348
00:19:03,111 --> 00:19:05,653
solve for these kinds of quandary.
349
00:19:05,653 --> 00:19:07,194
So a few things to help, I think.
350
00:19:07,194 --> 00:19:09,556
First, value-based contracts.
351
00:19:09,936 --> 00:19:11,938
Put in the contracts what matters to us
most.
352
00:19:11,938 --> 00:19:13,299
Let's agree to it.
353
00:19:13,299 --> 00:19:17,583
Of course, that's quality outcomes, it's
equity outcomes, it's addressing social
354
00:19:17,583 --> 00:19:18,203
needs.
355
00:19:18,203 --> 00:19:22,367
Let's just agree to what those factors
are, and that way we'll be aligned around.
356
00:19:22,583 --> 00:19:24,223
the patient slash member.
357
00:19:24,303 --> 00:19:29,126
I think second, giving providers more
tools, right?
358
00:19:29,126 --> 00:19:33,468
So we are really taking a care enablement
approach with our providers.
359
00:19:33,468 --> 00:19:34,728
Let's get them more data.
360
00:19:34,728 --> 00:19:37,269
Let's get them access to more resources
and infrastructure.
361
00:19:37,269 --> 00:19:43,012
If I want a physician to ask about food
insecurity, then I really want to give
362
00:19:43,012 --> 00:19:47,394
them a program to address those needs so
that it's not sort of this ethical black
363
00:19:47,394 --> 00:19:48,394
hole for them.
364
00:19:48,759 --> 00:19:53,142
So let's enable them to do better to
succeed in these value-based contracts
365
00:19:53,142 --> 00:19:57,104
that will keep us aligned and third I
think there are more things that we as a
366
00:19:57,104 --> 00:20:00,707
plan I mean one of the things that really
attracts me to this space is that
367
00:20:00,707 --> 00:20:02,808
ultimately we are accountable, right?
368
00:20:02,808 --> 00:20:07,047
I mean a You know the total cost of care
369
00:20:07,047 --> 00:20:07,967
comes down to us.
370
00:20:07,967 --> 00:20:11,511
We are held accountable by regulators,
both at the state and federal level, for
371
00:20:11,511 --> 00:20:13,493
our quality and other outcomes.
372
00:20:13,493 --> 00:20:17,136
We are accountable, and that means also
doing more directly with our members.
373
00:20:17,136 --> 00:20:20,359
So I push that vision a lot internally.
374
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:23,162
Let's have more engagement with our
members.
375
00:20:23,162 --> 00:20:27,586
The physician is clearly critical, but
there's no reason why we only have to go
376
00:20:27,586 --> 00:20:28,787
through the physician, right?
377
00:20:28,787 --> 00:20:31,329
We can engage the member.
378
00:20:31,329 --> 00:20:32,290
We can...
379
00:20:32,631 --> 00:20:36,074
really figure out what their needs are and
then make sure that we are leveraging all
380
00:20:36,074 --> 00:20:40,418
of the available resources, including our
physician network, to get those needs met.
381
00:20:41,790 --> 00:20:42,950
Yeah.
382
00:20:42,950 --> 00:20:48,192
I love how you centered it all on really
the member and the patient.
383
00:20:48,192 --> 00:20:49,253
And I think, I think you're right.
384
00:20:49,253 --> 00:20:54,475
If we can get everyone to always focus on
that, I think the other things become more
385
00:20:54,475 --> 00:20:59,117
manageable that we, that we work through
and find that right equilibrium or equal
386
00:20:59,117 --> 00:21:00,958
balance, you're a great leader as well.
387
00:21:00,958 --> 00:21:05,540
So I want to jump into some questions
around leadership because a lot of our
388
00:21:05,540 --> 00:21:09,521
listeners are leaders themselves or
aspiring leaders, and it's always great to
389
00:21:09,521 --> 00:21:10,201
hear.
390
00:21:10,378 --> 00:21:13,964
other people, you know, and what their
experience has been so we can learn from
391
00:21:13,964 --> 00:21:14,205
them.
392
00:21:14,205 --> 00:21:16,449
So how do you continue to evolve as a
leader?
393
00:21:16,449 --> 00:21:20,175
So you're already a senior leader, but I
bet there's some things that you still do
394
00:21:20,175 --> 00:21:23,921
to continue to evolve in your, in your
capabilities.
395
00:21:24,055 --> 00:21:29,598
Oh yeah, I mean, one thing I've really
valued is just being in a community of
396
00:21:29,598 --> 00:21:29,999
peers.
397
00:21:29,999 --> 00:21:35,622
So I always look for in every job, like
what are, who are the peers that I can
398
00:21:36,003 --> 00:21:37,484
learn from and work with.
399
00:21:37,484 --> 00:21:42,928
So there's a similar kind of a community
of chief medical, chief health officers in
400
00:21:42,928 --> 00:21:43,688
our industry.
401
00:21:43,688 --> 00:21:47,190
I take a lot of time to sort of engage.
402
00:21:47,559 --> 00:21:53,587
my peers in permissible ways and just
learn from them.
403
00:21:53,587 --> 00:21:55,989
Hey, bounce ideas off of each other.
404
00:21:56,943 --> 00:22:02,046
and share stories and best practices and
especially mistakes and flaws that we sort
405
00:22:02,046 --> 00:22:02,846
of can learn from.
406
00:22:02,846 --> 00:22:05,308
So that peer group is really important to
me.
407
00:22:05,308 --> 00:22:08,870
I do frankly learn a lot from my
colleagues here.
408
00:22:08,870 --> 00:22:12,852
I mean, again, we have, one of the great
things of working in an organization like
409
00:22:12,852 --> 00:22:16,394
this is there are a ton of experts and
there are people that have been in this
410
00:22:16,394 --> 00:22:21,157
industry for a lot longer than I have been
who are really moving the ball forward on
411
00:22:21,157 --> 00:22:22,038
a day-to-day basis.
412
00:22:22,038 --> 00:22:23,458
I feel that way about...
413
00:22:23,735 --> 00:22:27,558
I felt that way at CMS, at NQF, like
literally everywhere that I've been.
414
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:30,962
And so there's a lot of opportunity to
learn from peers.
415
00:22:30,962 --> 00:22:32,564
And again, how should I do this?
416
00:22:32,564 --> 00:22:34,666
You know, get counseling advice.
417
00:22:35,027 --> 00:22:37,208
What roadblocks am I going to run into?
418
00:22:37,329 --> 00:22:42,634
And sort of take away the best that I can
from those discussions.
419
00:22:42,871 --> 00:22:45,771
You know, one thing I'll say very
specifically is in my last role at the
420
00:22:45,771 --> 00:22:49,913
National Quality Forum, I had the
opportunity to be in the top job, right?
421
00:22:49,913 --> 00:22:52,494
I was the CEO of that organization.
422
00:22:53,054 --> 00:22:57,375
And man, like everybody says it, but until
you're there, you don't really experience
423
00:22:57,375 --> 00:22:57,455
it.
424
00:22:57,455 --> 00:22:59,136
That's a very lonely job.
425
00:22:59,136 --> 00:23:02,077
There's less opportunity to learn from
others, right?
426
00:23:02,077 --> 00:23:06,538
Because you don't have the same set of
peers that you do, you know, even a very
427
00:23:06,538 --> 00:23:09,719
senior executive role, at least you still
have peers in those roles.
428
00:23:09,719 --> 00:23:12,801
And so, you know, that's a lot more.
429
00:23:12,801 --> 00:23:18,523
learning experientially and frankly making
mistakes in public and learning from those
430
00:23:18,523 --> 00:23:19,523
mistakes.
431
00:23:20,244 --> 00:23:24,846
When I was thinking about this job versus
staying, and I was really happy in that
432
00:23:24,846 --> 00:23:29,547
last role, it was great, I loved the
organization, I loved the whole quality
433
00:23:29,848 --> 00:23:33,069
enterprise, so it was a tough decision to
move.
434
00:23:33,069 --> 00:23:36,830
But frankly, one of the things that I
thought about was, now that I'm...
435
00:23:37,183 --> 00:23:42,030
sort of attuned to the challenges of a
CEO, now that I kind of better understand
436
00:23:42,030 --> 00:23:46,537
them on a much more personal level, it's
not theoretical for me anymore, I would
437
00:23:46,537 --> 00:23:51,002
love to just watch another great CEO do
their thing.
438
00:23:51,259 --> 00:23:55,060
And it felt like the right sort of next
step in my career was to obviously in a
439
00:23:55,060 --> 00:23:59,321
much, much larger organization and Gail is
a fantastic CEO.
440
00:23:59,321 --> 00:24:01,281
She leads a massive enterprise.
441
00:24:01,281 --> 00:24:05,562
But there are things like I am very
attuned to now watching as she sort of
442
00:24:05,562 --> 00:24:09,083
operates and makes decisions that has
definitely informed me.
443
00:24:09,243 --> 00:24:14,245
I'm probably, you know, not, certainly not
immediately, but like ready to kind of
444
00:24:14,245 --> 00:24:16,865
re-approach the CEO job sometime in the
future.
445
00:24:16,865 --> 00:24:20,306
And I know everything that I've kind of
experienced now is going to play into
446
00:24:20,306 --> 00:24:20,995
that.
447
00:24:20,995 --> 00:24:24,176
A lot of it is, you know, is experiential.
448
00:24:24,176 --> 00:24:27,939
It's learning by doing and learning by
watching others, but it's almost knowing
449
00:24:27,939 --> 00:24:32,381
the right questions to ask once you've had
the chance to be in that uncomfortable
450
00:24:32,381 --> 00:24:33,750
personal experience.
451
00:24:33,750 --> 00:24:34,490
Yeah.
452
00:24:34,490 --> 00:24:35,850
Yeah, that's good stuff.
453
00:24:36,011 --> 00:24:40,353
And I always just want everyone to just
hear, you know, how other leaders like
454
00:24:40,353 --> 00:24:44,595
yourself are still growing and aspiring to
learn and different ways that you do that.
455
00:24:44,595 --> 00:24:45,795
So thanks for sharing.
456
00:24:45,835 --> 00:24:50,498
Now you, you may on the top, you know,
your dad being a physician and you were
457
00:24:50,498 --> 00:24:52,859
able to follow him around.
458
00:24:52,859 --> 00:24:54,139
Where else do you draw?
459
00:24:54,139 --> 00:24:55,820
And I'm sure it was very inspirational.
460
00:24:55,820 --> 00:24:58,341
Where else do you draw inspiration from?
461
00:25:00,491 --> 00:25:06,112
I mean, like I sort of said earlier, I am
reminded all the time of patients that I
462
00:25:06,112 --> 00:25:07,853
had the chance to take care of.
463
00:25:08,213 --> 00:25:14,175
I'm like both specific patients, literally
I can picture them, both the things I was
464
00:25:14,175 --> 00:25:20,296
able to do for them as well as frankly the
mistakes that I made and sort of groups of
465
00:25:20,296 --> 00:25:21,497
patients, right?
466
00:25:23,297 --> 00:25:28,198
I can't describe you if I just close my
eyes and try to recollect.
467
00:25:28,687 --> 00:25:34,731
the feeling of powerlessness that an ER
doc can have when someone is uninsured or
468
00:25:34,731 --> 00:25:39,273
can't get in to see a primary care
physician or can't buy their medications.
469
00:25:40,374 --> 00:25:43,617
And those are things that are very, very
hard to, you know, address for an
470
00:25:43,617 --> 00:25:45,057
individual clinician.
471
00:25:45,458 --> 00:25:50,601
When I think about the, again, the very
fortunate kind of career path I've been on
472
00:25:50,601 --> 00:25:54,804
and the roles that I've had, a lot of them
have been predicated on this idea of
473
00:25:54,804 --> 00:25:58,346
addressing those patients and...
474
00:25:58,411 --> 00:25:59,871
and those issues.
475
00:26:00,391 --> 00:26:04,993
And so that is 100% everyday inspirational
for me.
476
00:26:04,993 --> 00:26:09,415
I want to rectify some of the challenges
so that the ER docs behind me don't
477
00:26:09,415 --> 00:26:12,096
ideally experience what we all experience.
478
00:26:12,096 --> 00:26:14,037
I mean, this is not one place.
479
00:26:14,037 --> 00:26:14,918
It's not one practice.
480
00:26:14,918 --> 00:26:16,298
It's not anything.
481
00:26:16,298 --> 00:26:19,359
It's just these are the problems endemic
to American health care.
482
00:26:19,700 --> 00:26:24,962
And I think if I say this when everyone's
going to have a chance to teach a class to
483
00:26:24,962 --> 00:26:26,627
medical students or residents.
484
00:26:26,627 --> 00:26:31,389
And I tell them, you know, it is so
enormously powerful to think about your
485
00:26:31,389 --> 00:26:36,611
clinical life and then extrapolate from it
and externalize it and think about the
486
00:26:36,611 --> 00:26:39,332
bigger challenges that you're facing that
you could help to address.
487
00:26:39,332 --> 00:26:44,634
I mean, that is what gives truly, I think,
a physician insight into their patients'
488
00:26:44,634 --> 00:26:47,435
lives, but also the influence to make
change.
489
00:26:48,336 --> 00:26:51,818
And so that is, you know, frankly,
constantly inspirational for me.
490
00:26:51,818 --> 00:26:54,398
I will share very briefly just this one
story.
491
00:26:55,215 --> 00:27:00,498
When I was in the pediatric ICU in
residency, I took care of this just
492
00:27:00,498 --> 00:27:10,165
incredible little girl who had a genetic
disease that caused spinal muscular
493
00:27:10,165 --> 00:27:10,585
atrophy.
494
00:27:10,585 --> 00:27:12,426
That's what the disease is called.
495
00:27:12,687 --> 00:27:15,889
And she was in and out of the hospital all
the time and I was admitting her to the
496
00:27:15,889 --> 00:27:20,252
PICU and she was teaching me about her
disease because it's uncommon.
497
00:27:20,292 --> 00:27:23,935
She was so well knowledgeable about it.
498
00:27:23,935 --> 00:27:26,856
old enough to communicate all of that
information to me.
499
00:27:26,856 --> 00:27:32,020
Her mom was incredible and it was like
they were doing the admission for me, but
500
00:27:32,020 --> 00:27:34,381
I was gonna take care of her.
501
00:27:34,381 --> 00:27:39,624
And she ended up celebrating in that
admission her birthday and her family was
502
00:27:39,624 --> 00:27:42,286
there and it was just this incredible
loving family.
503
00:27:42,907 --> 00:27:47,269
And she had pneumonia and she was gonna
get better and she was gonna go home, but
504
00:27:47,269 --> 00:27:49,510
ultimately she still had this genetic.
505
00:27:49,827 --> 00:27:51,627
disorder and she was going to die from it.
506
00:27:51,627 --> 00:27:55,009
And they all knew that and then it was
gonna be, you know, an early death.
507
00:27:55,749 --> 00:27:59,391
And I saw, it was just, I will never
forget that family, I'll never forget that
508
00:27:59,391 --> 00:28:05,073
patient and how personally impactful it
was to see just such a closely knit family
509
00:28:05,073 --> 00:28:07,214
dealing with this incredible disease.
510
00:28:07,695 --> 00:28:14,658
Earlier, like last year, the first gene
therapy came out for exactly that disease.
511
00:28:14,918 --> 00:28:16,398
And my team...
512
00:28:16,431 --> 00:28:20,254
writes the medical policies for the things
that we're gonna cover, like new gene
513
00:28:20,254 --> 00:28:21,274
therapies.
514
00:28:21,415 --> 00:28:26,819
And so we were discussing it, the medical
policy came across my desk, and of course
515
00:28:26,819 --> 00:28:29,061
instantly I could see the face of this
patient.
516
00:28:29,141 --> 00:28:35,646
And I thought, my God, like this is a
chance to help the next one like her.
517
00:28:36,267 --> 00:28:40,370
And so yeah, patients, patients are
constantly the inspiration.
518
00:28:40,470 --> 00:28:42,951
Yeah, no, that's a great story.
519
00:28:42,951 --> 00:28:45,733
And clearly, I think all our listeners
picked up on it.
520
00:28:45,733 --> 00:28:46,394
I knew it already.
521
00:28:46,394 --> 00:28:50,797
You're a great person, a great leader,
working for a great organization, doing
522
00:28:50,797 --> 00:28:56,521
good things for what was it, 100 million
Americans, I think was the total one word
523
00:28:56,521 --> 00:28:57,261
together.
524
00:28:57,342 --> 00:29:00,624
And look, we covered a lot of areas,
everything from the cure, Friday I'm in
525
00:29:00,624 --> 00:29:03,826
love, so definitely playing that as soon
as we're done here.
526
00:29:03,987 --> 00:29:08,109
And talked a lot about Elevance Health and
what...
527
00:29:08,586 --> 00:29:13,511
what you do as an organization, but more
specifically, your role as a chief health
528
00:29:13,511 --> 00:29:14,211
officer.
529
00:29:14,211 --> 00:29:15,973
And you gave us some great examples.
530
00:29:15,973 --> 00:29:17,935
I especially love the one on maternal
health.
531
00:29:17,935 --> 00:29:21,159
And then we talked about leadership and
how you recognize that you need to
532
00:29:21,159 --> 00:29:24,842
continue to grow and evolve and, and just
sort of where your inspiration is from.
533
00:29:24,842 --> 00:29:27,926
So we covered a lot of stuff, but did we
miss anything?
534
00:29:27,926 --> 00:29:30,568
Or is there a point that you want to
double down on?
535
00:29:30,648 --> 00:29:32,169
I give you the last word.
536
00:29:33,539 --> 00:29:36,640
Now, Ed, I appreciate the opportunity to
be on.
537
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:37,261
It's fun.
538
00:29:37,261 --> 00:29:42,243
I got to, these are questions I don't
often ask myself or really get to answer
539
00:29:42,243 --> 00:29:42,604
like this.
540
00:29:42,604 --> 00:29:44,285
So it was great.
541
00:29:44,285 --> 00:29:46,265
I appreciate the introspection.
542
00:29:46,806 --> 00:29:48,627
I do think we covered a lot of ground.
543
00:29:49,848 --> 00:29:54,070
I don't have a lot more, except I'll just
return to the beginning, which is.
544
00:29:55,147 --> 00:29:59,410
Stay focused on people, stay focused on
patients, and just be nice to each other,
545
00:29:59,410 --> 00:30:01,191
even in disagreements.
546
00:30:01,191 --> 00:30:04,594
Just be nice to each other, because at the
end of the day, you will run into the same
547
00:30:04,594 --> 00:30:06,154
people over and over.
548
00:30:06,998 --> 00:30:07,641
Yeah, for sure.
549
00:30:07,641 --> 00:30:11,357
That's a great way to wrap up this episode
of Digital Voices.
550
00:30:11,357 --> 00:30:12,781
Thank you for listening.
551
00:30:14,498 --> 00:30:15,903
All right, very good.
552
00:30:15,903 --> 00:30:16,423
I...
00:00:01,274 --> 00:00:02,394
Hey, it's Ed here.
2
00:00:02,394 --> 00:00:05,454
Thank you for joining us on Digital
Voices.
3
00:00:05,454 --> 00:00:09,416
We love to cover everything digital and
digital transformation, not just on the
4
00:00:09,416 --> 00:00:14,210
provider side, but also in life sciences,
and especially in this episode on the
5
00:00:14,210 --> 00:00:15,034
payer side.
6
00:00:15,034 --> 00:00:21,058
And we have no one better than the chief
health officer for Elevance Health,
7
00:00:21,058 --> 00:00:22,674
Shantanu Agrawal.
8
00:00:22,674 --> 00:00:23,390
So Dr.
9
00:00:23,390 --> 00:00:25,680
Agrawal, welcome to Digital Voices.
10
00:00:25,861 --> 00:00:27,242
Thanks Ed, it's really nice to be here.
11
00:00:27,242 --> 00:00:28,602
Thanks for the invitation.
12
00:00:28,758 --> 00:00:33,199
Yeah, it's gonna be really cool because I
love your background and what you
13
00:00:33,199 --> 00:00:35,320
represent and the different things that
you're doing.
14
00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,822
And I think we're going to dig into some
of that passion.
15
00:00:38,822 --> 00:00:40,202
So I'm ready to jump in.
16
00:00:40,202 --> 00:00:43,424
And so I normally talk about when we first
met and it really is now.
17
00:00:43,424 --> 00:00:47,605
So I know you from the online presence and
everything that you put out in terms of
18
00:00:47,605 --> 00:00:48,746
the great things that you're doing.
19
00:00:48,746 --> 00:00:54,008
And of course, from your history,
pre-Elevance health, it's just fantastic.
20
00:00:54,008 --> 00:00:56,729
So it was like, I want to meet this person
and learn more about them.
21
00:00:56,729 --> 00:00:58,286
So again, thank you.
22
00:00:58,286 --> 00:00:59,548
for being our guest.
23
00:00:59,548 --> 00:01:03,736
But the most important question of all the
questions we're gonna ask today is the
24
00:01:03,736 --> 00:01:07,001
very first one, and that is songs on your
playlist.
25
00:01:07,335 --> 00:01:10,375
It's a good way to get started.
26
00:01:10,375 --> 00:01:18,569
So I listen to a lot of Pandora and maybe
my favorite station is just the 90s
27
00:01:18,569 --> 00:01:19,055
station.
28
00:01:19,055 --> 00:01:23,339
I find that when I just listen to songs
that I literally grew up with in high
29
00:01:23,339 --> 00:01:25,415
school and all that, it just takes me
back.
30
00:01:25,415 --> 00:01:26,575
I love it.
31
00:01:26,575 --> 00:01:31,535
One of my favorite is a song from The
Cure, Friday I'm in Love.
32
00:01:31,535 --> 00:01:34,675
I really play that over and over,
especially for my kids.
33
00:01:34,695 --> 00:01:35,855
gotten them into it.
34
00:01:35,855 --> 00:01:38,465
I do try to keep up with my kids.
35
00:01:38,465 --> 00:01:39,915
I've got two teenage daughters.
36
00:01:39,915 --> 00:01:43,865
They have tastes that are probably a
little different from mine.
37
00:01:43,865 --> 00:01:48,995
Interestingly, not very much Taylor Swift,
but they do love more sort of rock stuff.
38
00:01:48,995 --> 00:01:52,250
So they listen to a lot of AJR, for
example.
39
00:01:52,250 --> 00:01:54,450
So I try to keep up with that.
40
00:01:54,450 --> 00:01:58,215
Just to just have something else to talk
to them about.
41
00:01:58,262 --> 00:01:59,863
Yeah, no, that's good.
42
00:01:59,863 --> 00:02:01,705
That's being a good dad right there.
43
00:02:01,766 --> 00:02:05,730
Yeah, the Friday I'm in Love is perfect
because we're actually recording on a
44
00:02:05,730 --> 00:02:06,511
Friday.
45
00:02:06,511 --> 00:02:12,317
And now, that song now playing in my head
for the rest of our time together.
46
00:02:12,317 --> 00:02:14,099
No, that's really cool.
47
00:02:14,099 --> 00:02:16,302
What about a life message or a mantra?
48
00:02:16,302 --> 00:02:19,825
Are there certain words that you live life
by?
49
00:02:21,815 --> 00:02:25,838
You know, I think really at the highest
level is just be kind to people, be nice
50
00:02:25,838 --> 00:02:28,559
to people, be easy to work with.
51
00:02:28,860 --> 00:02:33,063
I have had the good fortune of working in
a lot of great organizations with a lot of
52
00:02:33,063 --> 00:02:34,124
great people.
53
00:02:35,725 --> 00:02:40,349
I have been able to learn from so many of
them and just I've seen it so many times
54
00:02:40,349 --> 00:02:42,370
in my life and in others.
55
00:02:42,755 --> 00:02:47,378
Just be nice to the people you work with
because at the end of the day, healthcare
56
00:02:47,378 --> 00:02:49,379
is actually a very small industry as a
whole.
57
00:02:49,379 --> 00:02:51,760
You run into the same people over and over
again.
58
00:02:52,361 --> 00:02:57,144
You treat them with respect, you work
together well, and people come back and
59
00:02:57,745 --> 00:03:01,007
you'll work with them again, or they'll
introduce you to some opportunity.
60
00:03:01,007 --> 00:03:04,670
It doesn't matter if they're working for
you, you're working for them.
61
00:03:04,670 --> 00:03:05,990
It's a small community.
62
00:03:06,218 --> 00:03:06,738
Yeah.
63
00:03:06,738 --> 00:03:08,458
No, that those are excellent.
64
00:03:08,458 --> 00:03:13,280
In fact, we're building a list that we'll
publish soon of all of our guests and all
65
00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:14,320
of their words to live by.
66
00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:18,922
And certainly being, uh, should be at the
top of that list.
67
00:03:18,922 --> 00:03:20,882
Tell us a little bit about your story.
68
00:03:20,882 --> 00:03:23,363
You can go as deep as you want, personal,
professional.
69
00:03:23,363 --> 00:03:27,084
We already know that you have, uh, two
teenage daughters, but, but what else
70
00:03:27,084 --> 00:03:30,565
about your growing up that maybe informed
you all the way to present day?
71
00:03:31,927 --> 00:03:33,447
Yeah, so a lot of things.
72
00:03:33,447 --> 00:03:36,388
I mean, I was born in India.
73
00:03:36,388 --> 00:03:39,669
I grew up in Ohio in actually a pretty
small community.
74
00:03:39,789 --> 00:03:45,830
My father was an anesthesiologist in the
community hospital of that town for
75
00:03:45,830 --> 00:03:46,911
decades.
76
00:03:47,491 --> 00:03:51,432
You know, probably a lot of that is
informed the way I think about health and
77
00:03:51,432 --> 00:03:52,512
health care.
78
00:03:52,792 --> 00:03:55,913
I've definitely seen rural America.
79
00:03:56,053 --> 00:04:00,103
I tagged along with my dad a lot when he
went to the hospital.
80
00:04:00,103 --> 00:04:03,164
It was a great way to kind of hang out
with him and also see what he was doing.
81
00:04:03,164 --> 00:04:07,826
And, you know, there were lots of people,
his patients who couldn't afford care.
82
00:04:07,826 --> 00:04:12,968
And so they're sort of like this informal
bartering system that he got involved in
83
00:04:12,968 --> 00:04:18,550
where they give him something that they
grew and he'd be their endocesiologist.
84
00:04:18,590 --> 00:04:24,853
So that was, I think, really impactful for
me, certainly, as I think about my path in
85
00:04:24,853 --> 00:04:25,813
healthcare.
86
00:04:26,634 --> 00:04:28,855
I have become an emergency medicine.
87
00:04:28,855 --> 00:04:34,778
physician, you know, so much of what I
think about on a day-to-day basis has been
88
00:04:34,818 --> 00:04:39,660
affected by the clinical care that I was
able to offer and frankly the limitations
89
00:04:39,660 --> 00:04:40,281
of that care.
90
00:04:40,281 --> 00:04:45,083
I mean, you know, I chose the ER
specifically because it's really hands-on,
91
00:04:45,083 --> 00:04:48,885
but it's, I talk about it as being
literally and metaphorically on the ground
92
00:04:48,885 --> 00:04:50,266
floor of the hospital.
93
00:04:50,366 --> 00:04:52,127
And so everything comes in, right?
94
00:04:52,127 --> 00:04:56,069
Society comes in through the door, all of
our social ills come in.
95
00:04:56,710 --> 00:04:58,211
And it's hard to escape.
96
00:04:58,211 --> 00:05:02,533
what is happening in our societies when
you work in the ER, which means every
97
00:05:02,533 --> 00:05:07,216
single day, my limits, both as a human
being and as a doctor were kind of tested.
98
00:05:07,216 --> 00:05:12,318
And that has very much stuck with me as I
kind of go through my professional career.
99
00:05:13,159 --> 00:05:16,721
Aside from that, you know, I'm married to
a pediatric hospitalist.
100
00:05:16,721 --> 00:05:20,663
She reminds me every day what's truly
important and valuable.
101
00:05:21,524 --> 00:05:26,666
A focus on kids is just so critical, and
she does that in her own career.
102
00:05:27,007 --> 00:05:32,072
And then as I mentioned, we have two, they
still seem young to me, but they don't
103
00:05:32,072 --> 00:05:37,157
really seem young to themselves anymore,
teenage daughters, and they definitely
104
00:05:37,157 --> 00:05:41,080
keep me humble because there's not a whole
lot that I can do that impresses them.
105
00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:43,599
Ha ha ha.
106
00:05:43,599 --> 00:05:44,981
have a way of doing that.
107
00:05:45,042 --> 00:05:47,228
So what part of India were you born?
108
00:05:47,228 --> 00:05:48,389
Where, what city?
109
00:05:48,919 --> 00:05:51,660
I was born in a village in Rajasthan,
India.
110
00:05:51,660 --> 00:05:53,020
So the state is Rajasthan.
111
00:05:53,020 --> 00:05:54,961
The village was called Binma.
112
00:05:54,961 --> 00:05:55,961
It's really small.
113
00:05:55,961 --> 00:05:58,822
It's where my dad and my grandfather were
born.
114
00:05:58,822 --> 00:06:00,723
Actually literally in the same hospital.
115
00:06:00,723 --> 00:06:02,963
I'm sorry, literally in the same home.
116
00:06:03,244 --> 00:06:04,544
There was no hospital.
117
00:06:05,284 --> 00:06:07,245
So yeah, that's where I was born.
118
00:06:07,245 --> 00:06:11,246
And then we emigrated first to Detroit
when I was four years old.
119
00:06:11,446 --> 00:06:13,086
Yeah, no, that's very cool.
120
00:06:13,246 --> 00:06:19,428
My wife has a similar story, but she's
from Hamancho, Padesh, but not too far
121
00:06:19,428 --> 00:06:20,329
from Rajatown, right?
122
00:06:20,329 --> 00:06:21,729
It's north part of India.
123
00:06:21,729 --> 00:06:24,470
Yeah, so that's super cool.
124
00:06:24,470 --> 00:06:26,371
So tell us a little bit about Elevance
Health.
125
00:06:26,371 --> 00:06:31,373
So it was formerly Anthem, but for those
that don't know much about Elevance
126
00:06:31,373 --> 00:06:33,553
Health, tell us sort of the mission and
vision.
127
00:06:34,627 --> 00:06:42,749
Yeah, so Elevance Health has had a long
history as Anthem, as AmeriGroup, other
128
00:06:42,749 --> 00:06:43,469
organizations.
129
00:06:43,469 --> 00:06:49,491
We sort of undertook a major rebranding,
sort of creating this corporate structure
130
00:06:49,491 --> 00:06:53,732
around Elevance Health, but we still have
the Anthem names and brands attached to
131
00:06:53,732 --> 00:06:54,372
us.
132
00:06:54,672 --> 00:06:59,374
WellPoint and Carillon, as well as sort of
our new services organization.
133
00:06:59,574 --> 00:07:02,371
Overall, you know, we are a health
benefits and services company.
134
00:07:02,371 --> 00:07:08,394
So we directly ensure, let's call it at
this point, 45 plus million Americans
135
00:07:08,455 --> 00:07:10,316
across all lines of business.
136
00:07:10,696 --> 00:07:14,779
And then we have the health services
company called Carillon that offers
137
00:07:14,779 --> 00:07:17,401
services to millions upon millions more.
138
00:07:17,401 --> 00:07:23,385
So I think net-net, we serve over 100 plus
million Americans through our entire
139
00:07:23,385 --> 00:07:24,365
footprint.
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We're national in scale.
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And I think what's really important to me
and important to my role is that we
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really...
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work to take care of members in all walks
of life.
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So that means Medicare, Medicaid,
commercial, the individual marketplace.
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It very much ties into our goal of being a
trusted partner in health for a lifetime.
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And so that's really important.
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When you think about our footprint, I
think it makes a lot of business sense,
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but frankly, it's key to our mission.
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Yeah, I like that.
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I know I want to dig into that a little
bit when we talk specifically about your
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role before we get there, you know, cause
obviously I'm super into digital
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transformation.
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We're called digital voices.
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Curious one or two ways that Elevance
Health leverages tech to improve
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experience.
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You know, being a digital first company is
actually really important to us.
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Again, when you think about that
geographic and that membership footprint,
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we need digital in order to scale so that
members are still getting what we aim for
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to be a very personal experience with us,
but again, at a scale that we can achieve
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so that it's efficient and effective for
the member.
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So that shows up in a wide variety of
ways.
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So one example that's sort of close to the
work that I do that's important to me is
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we think it's really critical.
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When you think about addressing whole
health and being a lifetime trusted health
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partner, we want to assess our members'
social needs and work to address them.
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Well, again, I can try to get on the phone
with a member.
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One of our associates can try to get on
the phone with a member.
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But we also know that some members like to
be able to do this on their own.
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This is a really sensitive topic, right?
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Talking with another human being, one who
you don't know, may be really challenging
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for them.
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And so what we did is we also created a
self-screening tool in our app.
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It's called Sydney that allows a member to
screen for their own social needs and then
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can get pointed in the right directions to
get those needs assessed and addressed.
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Again, my goal is there should be no wrong
door for engaging with our company when it
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comes to an area that's so critical like
social.
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And so I would love to engage, you know,
on the phone.
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I'd love to engage in person.
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We do that as well.
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but where the member might want a more
digital avenue, that needs to be available
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to them to meet our scale purposes, but
also hopefully to meet members wherever
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they are.
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So that sort of digital capability was
really important to me.
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Of course, we are working on digital
solutions across our entire business.
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We're working on really building on the
new kind of generative AI solutions.
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We'll always be digital first, but I think
that example is so...
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so relevant to me because it's so personal
in some sense.
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Yeah, no, I love that.
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And just for the record, you brought up
Gen.AI before I did, so I didn't say it.
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No, that's awesome, for sure.
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You need to lever all the available
technologies.
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And it's great to hear that you're digital
first as an organization.
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So let's jump into your role a little bit.
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So that's another thing that sort of
attracted me to you and talking to you is
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the role of Chief Health Officer.
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Can you name one or two of your favorite
aspects of that role?
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I have to tell you, I've been here now
three years.
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I did not contemplate coming to a company
like this until this role kind of found
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me.
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And I credit our CEO, Gail Boudreau, a
lot.
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She really innovated the concept of this
role.
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And the idea was to really have a chief
clinician that moved beyond the
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traditional chief medical officer role and
was really focused on.
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whole health outcomes.
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It ties in directly to our whole health
strategy, which really starts with and
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puts health equity at the center.
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We can certainly talk more about that.
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But I think what she was looking for is a
clinician leader that would help to create
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and drive that whole health strategy that
would keep it front and center and would
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not have some of the more traditional CMO
roles that I think are extremely
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important, but would hopefully this role
would kind of augment that.
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So that's really the vision that
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with my attention three years ago.
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It's certainly the thing that I care about
most as I've had the opportunity to be in
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the role.
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And I do think, and I say this because I
didn't create it, but I do think this is
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gonna become an industry standard.
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In fact, we've seen a couple of other of
our peers create and recruit their own
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chief health officers.
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I do think it's an important role because
it gives an opportunity for a
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mission-driven clinician to be at the
table, sitting with the entire senior
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leadership team.
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focused first on health outcomes above all
else.
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And when you think about the power of
that, the importance of that, I can
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completely see this becoming a normalized
role in the industry.
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Yeah, I would agree with you.
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And I think it's brilliant and super
innovative because like you were alluding
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to not that there's anything wrong with
the traditional CMO role, but oftentimes
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they became so burdened by administrative
things and they didn't have the time to
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focus sort of this whole health concept.
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So, so kudos to you all for.
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for sort of trailblazing that.
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Tell us maybe one or two things that you
all have done to improve outcomes,
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addressing disparities and social equity,
because again, that's why, you're very
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passionate about this focus area in
particular.
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00:12:50,750 --> 00:12:54,593
So I'd love to hear maybe one example on
something that you've all done.
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00:12:54,795 --> 00:12:55,537
Yeah, I'd love to.
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I think there's a multitude of things.
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So look, I talked about our whole health.
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focus.
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And what that means for us is really
pulling together physical, behavioral, and
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social health in the sort of understanding
the whole health of a member or of a
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population.
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I think the concept is really important
because as you know too often in
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healthcare we actually tend to fragment
health.
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00:13:15,734 --> 00:13:21,899
We think about a person's health in terms
of conditions or diseases or organs, but
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there's so little that actually pushes us
as an ecosystem to put that entire picture
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of health together.
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We are working to do exactly that, right?
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Whole health is our answer to healthcare
value and affordability.
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00:13:32,165 --> 00:13:36,087
We believe that if we address whole
health, we will intervene on issues
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earlier, and that will stem both poor
health outcomes for a member down the
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line, but also unnecessary wasteful, low
value healthcare utilization that everyone
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also cares about.
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So that's the sort of the North Star for
us.
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And then of course, health equity is at
the center of it.
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We've adopted the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation definition of health equity,
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meaning that everyone has a fair and just
opportunity to optimize their health.
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And I think that's an incredibly important
motivator for whole health itself.
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So there's a couple of things immediately
when you think about where we are as a
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healthcare ecosystem that this whole
health approach demanded.
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I think a great example is maternal
health.
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00:14:16,220 --> 00:14:20,055
We all know maternal health outcomes are
highly disparate.
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African American women have much higher
rates of morbidity and mortality than
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their white counterparts in maternal
outcomes.
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And so this became an area of focus for us
literally for the last few years.
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Such an area of focus that we actually
have created a maternal disparity measure.
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We track a nationally known measure,
severe maternal morbidity and mortality,
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and it is on our enterprise dashboard that
gets reported to the board.
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00:14:48,375 --> 00:14:54,579
And so we have a very specific goal around
reducing disparities in maternal outcomes
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as an equity and as a whole health issue.
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00:14:57,622 --> 00:15:01,746
And so that is an example of something
that we focus on literally every day.
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It's cross enterprise, and we try to bring
multiple solutions to bear, including new
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case management programs, new digital
interventions, as well as even implicit
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bias training for our network OBGYN
physicians.
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00:15:16,558 --> 00:15:17,218
So...
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That's such a critical thing.
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And then I will say, structurally, what we
have really worked to do is embed health
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equity in everything.
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We call the program Health Equity by
Design.
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00:15:27,128 --> 00:15:31,731
One of the things that we try to do is
actually work in all of our Medicaid plans
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because just the incredible relevance of
equity to that population, we set out to
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achieve health equity accreditation for
our Medicaid plans.
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So we have 21 Medicaid plans.
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We worked with NCQA.
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NCQA actually has two levels, two
different levels of health equity
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accreditation.
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And over two years, we got all of our
plans to the highest level of health
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equity accreditation.
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00:15:56,650 --> 00:16:00,313
Now, there's no magic there to that,
except that it necessitated a few things.
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First, that we would have an
infrastructure supporting health equity
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00:16:04,236 --> 00:16:06,438
built into those plans.
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That we would collect more information and
data, some directly from our members, to
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better understand.
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00:16:12,175 --> 00:16:15,856
disparities today and health inequities
today in our network.
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00:16:15,856 --> 00:16:19,758
Third, that we would really think about
and create best practices that we would
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then universalize across our system.
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So I'm really proud of that work.
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It has put us on a pathway to sort of ever
improving inequity.
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I'm proud that 90 plus percent of our
Medicaid members today are in a plan that
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has the highest level of health equity
accreditation.
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00:16:36,545 --> 00:16:40,146
And we are working very purposefully this
year to get that to be 100%.
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Nice.
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00:16:41,011 --> 00:16:43,613
want to bring that thinking to the other
lines of business, right?
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00:16:43,613 --> 00:16:48,318
I mean, bring it to Medicare, bring it to
commercial, have the same infrastructure
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and thinking around health equity.
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It engages my team every single day.
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And it definitely, when I wake up in the
morning, feels like the work worth doing.
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Yeah, no, that's an awesome, awesome
example.
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00:17:00,515 --> 00:17:05,176
And I certainly understand a little bit
about it based on where I previously
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served in the C-suite at a healthcare
organization.
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00:17:07,477 --> 00:17:13,079
So tell me, I'm gonna raise it up a little
bit, not specific to your position, but as
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a executive, how do you balance the needs
of providers and members?
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Cause that was always a challenge for me
as well.
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00:17:19,381 --> 00:17:21,061
It's like, you wanna...
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00:17:21,374 --> 00:17:25,017
always have this perfect balance of, you
know, all the providers that serve the
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00:17:25,017 --> 00:17:26,719
patients and the patients.
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00:17:26,719 --> 00:17:31,943
And sometimes the third, the third sort of
leg in that stool was internally, right?
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00:17:31,943 --> 00:17:33,845
Uh, your internal stakeholders.
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00:17:33,845 --> 00:17:35,626
It's hard to balance all that.
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00:17:35,707 --> 00:17:38,989
What are some ways that, that you try to
do that?
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00:17:40,003 --> 00:17:42,344
Yeah, so it's a great question.
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00:17:42,344 --> 00:17:49,188
And you obviously were a leader in a
delivery system, a big important one, and
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then I've been a practicing physician.
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00:17:51,890 --> 00:17:57,573
I do think in my heart that if we sort of
collectively, physician, provider, and
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00:17:57,573 --> 00:18:00,614
plan, kind of focus on the member.
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00:18:00,875 --> 00:18:03,276
a lot of our interests instantly get
aligned.
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00:18:03,276 --> 00:18:07,177
I mean, where we often get unaligned is
where sort of the member gets lost, right?
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00:18:07,177 --> 00:18:11,379
If they're not at the center, then it's
very easy to kind of go our separate ways.
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If we think about, okay, what does it
take?
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00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,922
I think the sort of concept of whole
health immediately resonates for
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00:18:17,922 --> 00:18:18,442
physicians.
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00:18:18,442 --> 00:18:21,804
I think many physicians, especially
primary care practitioners don't have
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enough resources to focus on the whole
health of their patient.
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00:18:25,965 --> 00:18:28,946
They have very brief appointment windows.
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00:18:29,191 --> 00:18:33,495
They can get at a couple of topics they're
not able, maybe even not well equipped to
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00:18:33,495 --> 00:18:36,078
get at behavioral health or social issues.
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00:18:36,078 --> 00:18:40,142
You know, as I've talked to physicians in
this role, quite a number of them, and I
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00:18:40,142 --> 00:18:43,825
understand this, almost feel sort of like
an ethical quandary around asking about
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social needs.
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00:18:44,806 --> 00:18:45,807
We're not trained to do that.
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00:18:45,807 --> 00:18:47,929
That wasn't part of my med school
training.
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00:18:48,350 --> 00:18:52,734
It isn't still today, unfortunately, the
part of many medical school training
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00:18:52,734 --> 00:18:53,603
programs.
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00:18:53,603 --> 00:18:56,645
And so they don't feel well equipped to do
it, but then if they find out that someone
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00:18:56,645 --> 00:18:59,688
is food insecure, what are they going to
do with them, right?
347
00:18:59,688 --> 00:19:03,111
So you have to, I think, in order to stay
aligned around the patient, we've got to
348
00:19:03,111 --> 00:19:05,653
solve for these kinds of quandary.
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00:19:05,653 --> 00:19:07,194
So a few things to help, I think.
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First, value-based contracts.
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00:19:09,936 --> 00:19:11,938
Put in the contracts what matters to us
most.
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00:19:11,938 --> 00:19:13,299
Let's agree to it.
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00:19:13,299 --> 00:19:17,583
Of course, that's quality outcomes, it's
equity outcomes, it's addressing social
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00:19:17,583 --> 00:19:18,203
needs.
355
00:19:18,203 --> 00:19:22,367
Let's just agree to what those factors
are, and that way we'll be aligned around.
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00:19:22,583 --> 00:19:24,223
the patient slash member.
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00:19:24,303 --> 00:19:29,126
I think second, giving providers more
tools, right?
358
00:19:29,126 --> 00:19:33,468
So we are really taking a care enablement
approach with our providers.
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00:19:33,468 --> 00:19:34,728
Let's get them more data.
360
00:19:34,728 --> 00:19:37,269
Let's get them access to more resources
and infrastructure.
361
00:19:37,269 --> 00:19:43,012
If I want a physician to ask about food
insecurity, then I really want to give
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00:19:43,012 --> 00:19:47,394
them a program to address those needs so
that it's not sort of this ethical black
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00:19:47,394 --> 00:19:48,394
hole for them.
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00:19:48,759 --> 00:19:53,142
So let's enable them to do better to
succeed in these value-based contracts
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00:19:53,142 --> 00:19:57,104
that will keep us aligned and third I
think there are more things that we as a
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00:19:57,104 --> 00:20:00,707
plan I mean one of the things that really
attracts me to this space is that
367
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ultimately we are accountable, right?
368
00:20:02,808 --> 00:20:07,047
I mean a You know the total cost of care
369
00:20:07,047 --> 00:20:07,967
comes down to us.
370
00:20:07,967 --> 00:20:11,511
We are held accountable by regulators,
both at the state and federal level, for
371
00:20:11,511 --> 00:20:13,493
our quality and other outcomes.
372
00:20:13,493 --> 00:20:17,136
We are accountable, and that means also
doing more directly with our members.
373
00:20:17,136 --> 00:20:20,359
So I push that vision a lot internally.
374
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:23,162
Let's have more engagement with our
members.
375
00:20:23,162 --> 00:20:27,586
The physician is clearly critical, but
there's no reason why we only have to go
376
00:20:27,586 --> 00:20:28,787
through the physician, right?
377
00:20:28,787 --> 00:20:31,329
We can engage the member.
378
00:20:31,329 --> 00:20:32,290
We can...
379
00:20:32,631 --> 00:20:36,074
really figure out what their needs are and
then make sure that we are leveraging all
380
00:20:36,074 --> 00:20:40,418
of the available resources, including our
physician network, to get those needs met.
381
00:20:41,790 --> 00:20:42,950
Yeah.
382
00:20:42,950 --> 00:20:48,192
I love how you centered it all on really
the member and the patient.
383
00:20:48,192 --> 00:20:49,253
And I think, I think you're right.
384
00:20:49,253 --> 00:20:54,475
If we can get everyone to always focus on
that, I think the other things become more
385
00:20:54,475 --> 00:20:59,117
manageable that we, that we work through
and find that right equilibrium or equal
386
00:20:59,117 --> 00:21:00,958
balance, you're a great leader as well.
387
00:21:00,958 --> 00:21:05,540
So I want to jump into some questions
around leadership because a lot of our
388
00:21:05,540 --> 00:21:09,521
listeners are leaders themselves or
aspiring leaders, and it's always great to
389
00:21:09,521 --> 00:21:10,201
hear.
390
00:21:10,378 --> 00:21:13,964
other people, you know, and what their
experience has been so we can learn from
391
00:21:13,964 --> 00:21:14,205
them.
392
00:21:14,205 --> 00:21:16,449
So how do you continue to evolve as a
leader?
393
00:21:16,449 --> 00:21:20,175
So you're already a senior leader, but I
bet there's some things that you still do
394
00:21:20,175 --> 00:21:23,921
to continue to evolve in your, in your
capabilities.
395
00:21:24,055 --> 00:21:29,598
Oh yeah, I mean, one thing I've really
valued is just being in a community of
396
00:21:29,598 --> 00:21:29,999
peers.
397
00:21:29,999 --> 00:21:35,622
So I always look for in every job, like
what are, who are the peers that I can
398
00:21:36,003 --> 00:21:37,484
learn from and work with.
399
00:21:37,484 --> 00:21:42,928
So there's a similar kind of a community
of chief medical, chief health officers in
400
00:21:42,928 --> 00:21:43,688
our industry.
401
00:21:43,688 --> 00:21:47,190
I take a lot of time to sort of engage.
402
00:21:47,559 --> 00:21:53,587
my peers in permissible ways and just
learn from them.
403
00:21:53,587 --> 00:21:55,989
Hey, bounce ideas off of each other.
404
00:21:56,943 --> 00:22:02,046
and share stories and best practices and
especially mistakes and flaws that we sort
405
00:22:02,046 --> 00:22:02,846
of can learn from.
406
00:22:02,846 --> 00:22:05,308
So that peer group is really important to
me.
407
00:22:05,308 --> 00:22:08,870
I do frankly learn a lot from my
colleagues here.
408
00:22:08,870 --> 00:22:12,852
I mean, again, we have, one of the great
things of working in an organization like
409
00:22:12,852 --> 00:22:16,394
this is there are a ton of experts and
there are people that have been in this
410
00:22:16,394 --> 00:22:21,157
industry for a lot longer than I have been
who are really moving the ball forward on
411
00:22:21,157 --> 00:22:22,038
a day-to-day basis.
412
00:22:22,038 --> 00:22:23,458
I feel that way about...
413
00:22:23,735 --> 00:22:27,558
I felt that way at CMS, at NQF, like
literally everywhere that I've been.
414
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:30,962
And so there's a lot of opportunity to
learn from peers.
415
00:22:30,962 --> 00:22:32,564
And again, how should I do this?
416
00:22:32,564 --> 00:22:34,666
You know, get counseling advice.
417
00:22:35,027 --> 00:22:37,208
What roadblocks am I going to run into?
418
00:22:37,329 --> 00:22:42,634
And sort of take away the best that I can
from those discussions.
419
00:22:42,871 --> 00:22:45,771
You know, one thing I'll say very
specifically is in my last role at the
420
00:22:45,771 --> 00:22:49,913
National Quality Forum, I had the
opportunity to be in the top job, right?
421
00:22:49,913 --> 00:22:52,494
I was the CEO of that organization.
422
00:22:53,054 --> 00:22:57,375
And man, like everybody says it, but until
you're there, you don't really experience
423
00:22:57,375 --> 00:22:57,455
it.
424
00:22:57,455 --> 00:22:59,136
That's a very lonely job.
425
00:22:59,136 --> 00:23:02,077
There's less opportunity to learn from
others, right?
426
00:23:02,077 --> 00:23:06,538
Because you don't have the same set of
peers that you do, you know, even a very
427
00:23:06,538 --> 00:23:09,719
senior executive role, at least you still
have peers in those roles.
428
00:23:09,719 --> 00:23:12,801
And so, you know, that's a lot more.
429
00:23:12,801 --> 00:23:18,523
learning experientially and frankly making
mistakes in public and learning from those
430
00:23:18,523 --> 00:23:19,523
mistakes.
431
00:23:20,244 --> 00:23:24,846
When I was thinking about this job versus
staying, and I was really happy in that
432
00:23:24,846 --> 00:23:29,547
last role, it was great, I loved the
organization, I loved the whole quality
433
00:23:29,848 --> 00:23:33,069
enterprise, so it was a tough decision to
move.
434
00:23:33,069 --> 00:23:36,830
But frankly, one of the things that I
thought about was, now that I'm...
435
00:23:37,183 --> 00:23:42,030
sort of attuned to the challenges of a
CEO, now that I kind of better understand
436
00:23:42,030 --> 00:23:46,537
them on a much more personal level, it's
not theoretical for me anymore, I would
437
00:23:46,537 --> 00:23:51,002
love to just watch another great CEO do
their thing.
438
00:23:51,259 --> 00:23:55,060
And it felt like the right sort of next
step in my career was to obviously in a
439
00:23:55,060 --> 00:23:59,321
much, much larger organization and Gail is
a fantastic CEO.
440
00:23:59,321 --> 00:24:01,281
She leads a massive enterprise.
441
00:24:01,281 --> 00:24:05,562
But there are things like I am very
attuned to now watching as she sort of
442
00:24:05,562 --> 00:24:09,083
operates and makes decisions that has
definitely informed me.
443
00:24:09,243 --> 00:24:14,245
I'm probably, you know, not, certainly not
immediately, but like ready to kind of
444
00:24:14,245 --> 00:24:16,865
re-approach the CEO job sometime in the
future.
445
00:24:16,865 --> 00:24:20,306
And I know everything that I've kind of
experienced now is going to play into
446
00:24:20,306 --> 00:24:20,995
that.
447
00:24:20,995 --> 00:24:24,176
A lot of it is, you know, is experiential.
448
00:24:24,176 --> 00:24:27,939
It's learning by doing and learning by
watching others, but it's almost knowing
449
00:24:27,939 --> 00:24:32,381
the right questions to ask once you've had
the chance to be in that uncomfortable
450
00:24:32,381 --> 00:24:33,750
personal experience.
451
00:24:33,750 --> 00:24:34,490
Yeah.
452
00:24:34,490 --> 00:24:35,850
Yeah, that's good stuff.
453
00:24:36,011 --> 00:24:40,353
And I always just want everyone to just
hear, you know, how other leaders like
454
00:24:40,353 --> 00:24:44,595
yourself are still growing and aspiring to
learn and different ways that you do that.
455
00:24:44,595 --> 00:24:45,795
So thanks for sharing.
456
00:24:45,835 --> 00:24:50,498
Now you, you may on the top, you know,
your dad being a physician and you were
457
00:24:50,498 --> 00:24:52,859
able to follow him around.
458
00:24:52,859 --> 00:24:54,139
Where else do you draw?
459
00:24:54,139 --> 00:24:55,820
And I'm sure it was very inspirational.
460
00:24:55,820 --> 00:24:58,341
Where else do you draw inspiration from?
461
00:25:00,491 --> 00:25:06,112
I mean, like I sort of said earlier, I am
reminded all the time of patients that I
462
00:25:06,112 --> 00:25:07,853
had the chance to take care of.
463
00:25:08,213 --> 00:25:14,175
I'm like both specific patients, literally
I can picture them, both the things I was
464
00:25:14,175 --> 00:25:20,296
able to do for them as well as frankly the
mistakes that I made and sort of groups of
465
00:25:20,296 --> 00:25:21,497
patients, right?
466
00:25:23,297 --> 00:25:28,198
I can't describe you if I just close my
eyes and try to recollect.
467
00:25:28,687 --> 00:25:34,731
the feeling of powerlessness that an ER
doc can have when someone is uninsured or
468
00:25:34,731 --> 00:25:39,273
can't get in to see a primary care
physician or can't buy their medications.
469
00:25:40,374 --> 00:25:43,617
And those are things that are very, very
hard to, you know, address for an
470
00:25:43,617 --> 00:25:45,057
individual clinician.
471
00:25:45,458 --> 00:25:50,601
When I think about the, again, the very
fortunate kind of career path I've been on
472
00:25:50,601 --> 00:25:54,804
and the roles that I've had, a lot of them
have been predicated on this idea of
473
00:25:54,804 --> 00:25:58,346
addressing those patients and...
474
00:25:58,411 --> 00:25:59,871
and those issues.
475
00:26:00,391 --> 00:26:04,993
And so that is 100% everyday inspirational
for me.
476
00:26:04,993 --> 00:26:09,415
I want to rectify some of the challenges
so that the ER docs behind me don't
477
00:26:09,415 --> 00:26:12,096
ideally experience what we all experience.
478
00:26:12,096 --> 00:26:14,037
I mean, this is not one place.
479
00:26:14,037 --> 00:26:14,918
It's not one practice.
480
00:26:14,918 --> 00:26:16,298
It's not anything.
481
00:26:16,298 --> 00:26:19,359
It's just these are the problems endemic
to American health care.
482
00:26:19,700 --> 00:26:24,962
And I think if I say this when everyone's
going to have a chance to teach a class to
483
00:26:24,962 --> 00:26:26,627
medical students or residents.
484
00:26:26,627 --> 00:26:31,389
And I tell them, you know, it is so
enormously powerful to think about your
485
00:26:31,389 --> 00:26:36,611
clinical life and then extrapolate from it
and externalize it and think about the
486
00:26:36,611 --> 00:26:39,332
bigger challenges that you're facing that
you could help to address.
487
00:26:39,332 --> 00:26:44,634
I mean, that is what gives truly, I think,
a physician insight into their patients'
488
00:26:44,634 --> 00:26:47,435
lives, but also the influence to make
change.
489
00:26:48,336 --> 00:26:51,818
And so that is, you know, frankly,
constantly inspirational for me.
490
00:26:51,818 --> 00:26:54,398
I will share very briefly just this one
story.
491
00:26:55,215 --> 00:27:00,498
When I was in the pediatric ICU in
residency, I took care of this just
492
00:27:00,498 --> 00:27:10,165
incredible little girl who had a genetic
disease that caused spinal muscular
493
00:27:10,165 --> 00:27:10,585
atrophy.
494
00:27:10,585 --> 00:27:12,426
That's what the disease is called.
495
00:27:12,687 --> 00:27:15,889
And she was in and out of the hospital all
the time and I was admitting her to the
496
00:27:15,889 --> 00:27:20,252
PICU and she was teaching me about her
disease because it's uncommon.
497
00:27:20,292 --> 00:27:23,935
She was so well knowledgeable about it.
498
00:27:23,935 --> 00:27:26,856
old enough to communicate all of that
information to me.
499
00:27:26,856 --> 00:27:32,020
Her mom was incredible and it was like
they were doing the admission for me, but
500
00:27:32,020 --> 00:27:34,381
I was gonna take care of her.
501
00:27:34,381 --> 00:27:39,624
And she ended up celebrating in that
admission her birthday and her family was
502
00:27:39,624 --> 00:27:42,286
there and it was just this incredible
loving family.
503
00:27:42,907 --> 00:27:47,269
And she had pneumonia and she was gonna
get better and she was gonna go home, but
504
00:27:47,269 --> 00:27:49,510
ultimately she still had this genetic.
505
00:27:49,827 --> 00:27:51,627
disorder and she was going to die from it.
506
00:27:51,627 --> 00:27:55,009
And they all knew that and then it was
gonna be, you know, an early death.
507
00:27:55,749 --> 00:27:59,391
And I saw, it was just, I will never
forget that family, I'll never forget that
508
00:27:59,391 --> 00:28:05,073
patient and how personally impactful it
was to see just such a closely knit family
509
00:28:05,073 --> 00:28:07,214
dealing with this incredible disease.
510
00:28:07,695 --> 00:28:14,658
Earlier, like last year, the first gene
therapy came out for exactly that disease.
511
00:28:14,918 --> 00:28:16,398
And my team...
512
00:28:16,431 --> 00:28:20,254
writes the medical policies for the things
that we're gonna cover, like new gene
513
00:28:20,254 --> 00:28:21,274
therapies.
514
00:28:21,415 --> 00:28:26,819
And so we were discussing it, the medical
policy came across my desk, and of course
515
00:28:26,819 --> 00:28:29,061
instantly I could see the face of this
patient.
516
00:28:29,141 --> 00:28:35,646
And I thought, my God, like this is a
chance to help the next one like her.
517
00:28:36,267 --> 00:28:40,370
And so yeah, patients, patients are
constantly the inspiration.
518
00:28:40,470 --> 00:28:42,951
Yeah, no, that's a great story.
519
00:28:42,951 --> 00:28:45,733
And clearly, I think all our listeners
picked up on it.
520
00:28:45,733 --> 00:28:46,394
I knew it already.
521
00:28:46,394 --> 00:28:50,797
You're a great person, a great leader,
working for a great organization, doing
522
00:28:50,797 --> 00:28:56,521
good things for what was it, 100 million
Americans, I think was the total one word
523
00:28:56,521 --> 00:28:57,261
together.
524
00:28:57,342 --> 00:29:00,624
And look, we covered a lot of areas,
everything from the cure, Friday I'm in
525
00:29:00,624 --> 00:29:03,826
love, so definitely playing that as soon
as we're done here.
526
00:29:03,987 --> 00:29:08,109
And talked a lot about Elevance Health and
what...
527
00:29:08,586 --> 00:29:13,511
what you do as an organization, but more
specifically, your role as a chief health
528
00:29:13,511 --> 00:29:14,211
officer.
529
00:29:14,211 --> 00:29:15,973
And you gave us some great examples.
530
00:29:15,973 --> 00:29:17,935
I especially love the one on maternal
health.
531
00:29:17,935 --> 00:29:21,159
And then we talked about leadership and
how you recognize that you need to
532
00:29:21,159 --> 00:29:24,842
continue to grow and evolve and, and just
sort of where your inspiration is from.
533
00:29:24,842 --> 00:29:27,926
So we covered a lot of stuff, but did we
miss anything?
534
00:29:27,926 --> 00:29:30,568
Or is there a point that you want to
double down on?
535
00:29:30,648 --> 00:29:32,169
I give you the last word.
536
00:29:33,539 --> 00:29:36,640
Now, Ed, I appreciate the opportunity to
be on.
537
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:37,261
It's fun.
538
00:29:37,261 --> 00:29:42,243
I got to, these are questions I don't
often ask myself or really get to answer
539
00:29:42,243 --> 00:29:42,604
like this.
540
00:29:42,604 --> 00:29:44,285
So it was great.
541
00:29:44,285 --> 00:29:46,265
I appreciate the introspection.
542
00:29:46,806 --> 00:29:48,627
I do think we covered a lot of ground.
543
00:29:49,848 --> 00:29:54,070
I don't have a lot more, except I'll just
return to the beginning, which is.
544
00:29:55,147 --> 00:29:59,410
Stay focused on people, stay focused on
patients, and just be nice to each other,
545
00:29:59,410 --> 00:30:01,191
even in disagreements.
546
00:30:01,191 --> 00:30:04,594
Just be nice to each other, because at the
end of the day, you will run into the same
547
00:30:04,594 --> 00:30:06,154
people over and over.
548
00:30:06,998 --> 00:30:07,641
Yeah, for sure.
549
00:30:07,641 --> 00:30:11,357
That's a great way to wrap up this episode
of Digital Voices.
550
00:30:11,357 --> 00:30:12,781
Thank you for listening.
551
00:30:14,498 --> 00:30:15,903
All right, very good.
552
00:30:15,903 --> 00:30:16,423
I...
