The Health Leader Forge: health insurance

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Betsey Rhynhart, Executive Director, New Hampshire Accountable Care Partners

Today’s guest is Betsey Rhynhart, the Executive Director of New Hampshire Accountable Care Partners, an Accountable Care Organization or ACO headquartered at Concord Hospital in Concord New Hampshire. New Hampshire Accountable Care Partners was formed as a partnership between four community health systems in Southern New Hampshire: Concord Hospital, The Elliot Health System, Southern New Hampshire Health System, and Wentworth-Douglas Health System. In this podcast Betsey talks about her career, and how her education in public health and her background in insurance and strategy merge in her current role leading the ACO’s efforts. She talks about how the ACO is a learning organization that is helping the participating partners move toward a strategy of providing value-based care, a recurring theme we have been hearing from a number of leaders in recent interviews. Betsey provides an inside view of how the ACO was formed, how it operates, what the organization’s goals and objectives are, and what the participating organizations hope to gain from their collaboration. Betsey’s career and current role are great examples of how public health and direct care are beginning to merge as direct care delivery systems become more involved in population health models.

Links to the Podcast:

Soundcloud

Unabridged: https://soundcloud.com/healthleaderforge/betsey-rhynhart-executive-director-new-hampshire-accountable-care-partners

Abrdiged: https://soundcloud.com/healthleaderforge/abridged-betsey-rhynhart-executive-director-new-hampshire-accountable-care-partners

Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-health-leader-forge

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/healthleaderforge/id981989377

Podcast Outline

Time		Topic
0:02:00		Education and early career
0:17:50		Concord Hospital
0:21:02		Executive Director of Accountable Care
0:24:28		About the ACA, the Triple Aim, and the Triple Problem
0:37:04		New Hampshire Accountable Care Partners
0:41:15		Establishing the ACO
0:45:25		The broad strategy of moving to value
0:53:07		Medicare and CHIP Reauthorization (MACRA) Act of 2015
0:57:16		How are beneficiaries assigned to an ACO?
1:01:31		Primary Care in an ACO Medical Home
1:04:15		Generating shared savings
1:14:05		Listening to the data - the importance of analytics
1:22:17		Shared learning, sharing best practices
1:25:24		Sharing the shared savings, evolving to achieve success
1:30:44		Leadership, mentorship, and advice to early careerists

Links to Topics Discussed:

Concord Hospital

New Hampshire Accountable Care Partners

CMS on Accountable Care Organizations

Medicare and CHIP Re-authorization Act (MACRA)

County Health Rankings and Roadmaps

Boston University's Masters of Public Health

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

American's Association of Health Plans (AHIP)

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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Greg Townsend, Vice President of Business Intelligence and Analytics, Commonwealth Care Alliance

Today’s guest is Greg Townsend, the Vice President of Business Intelligence and Analytics at Commonwealth Care Alliance in Boston. Greg’s path to leadership in health analytics traces the coming of age of analytics in health care. Greg’s educational background began in public health working with disease management and health promotion, which led him to roles in risk management and quality improvement, two fields that rely heavily on data. These early roles helped him develop the skill set that he uses today to support the Commonwealth Care Alliance’s mission of providing health care to some of Massachusetts’ most needy citizens. The podcast concludes with Greg’s thoughts on leadership and his advice to people who are interested in entering the field of health analytics. An abridged version of the interview that focuses only on Greg’s work at Commonwealth Care Alliance is also available.

Links to the Podcast:

Anchor:

Unabridged: https://anchor.fm/healthleaderforge/episodes/Greg-Townsend--VP-of-Business-Intelligence-and-Analytics--Commonwealth-Care-Alliance-egra63

Abridged: https://anchor.fm/healthleaderforge/episodes/abridged-Greg-Townsend--VP-of-Business-Intelligence-and-Analytics--Commonwealth-Care-Alliance-egra8e

Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-health-leader-forge

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/greg-townsend-vp-of-business-intelligence-and/id981989377?i=1000354725112

Podcast Outline:

Time	Topic
0:01:31	Educational background, college internships
0:03:11	Moving to North Carolina after college, initial jobs
0:05:12	Preventive health work at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina
0:07:00	Defining “disease management” and its history
0:08:28	Lessons learned from first jobs
0:10:22	Quality Improvement work at Harvard Pilgrim
0:13:37	Performance Improvement work at Elliot Health System
0:15:20	The role of the Joint Commission in accreditation
0:17:25	Other responsibilities at Elliot Health System
0:20:26	Leadership lessons learned at Elliot
0:24:52	Performance Improvement/Evaluation work at Tufts New England Medical Center
0:29:49	The importance and process of prioritizing
0:31:19	Quality Management work at Health Dialogue Analytics Solutions
0:34:30	“Unwarranted variation” in health care
0:36:07	Work in health analytics prior to HDAS
0:37:55	Tools used in health analytics
0:38:56	How prior work experiences contributed to knowledge in health analytics
0:39:52	Clinical partnerships work at Accretive Health and work on reimbursable codes with providers and CMS
0:45:04	Business Intelligence work at Commonwealth Care Alliance
0:47:28	Working with dually eligible patients (Medicare & Medicaid) and the importance of primary care
0:50:48	Assembling a primary care team through CCA
0:52:08	Work with capitated payments in healthcare
0:54:15	Lack of access to care for Medicare and Medicaid patients, the importance of home health care
0:56:06	Integration of specialty and inpatient care into capitated payments
0:56:41	Teamwork in healthcare and home health evaluations
0:59:17	Greg’s role, responsibilities at CCA
1:00:43	Problems solved using health analytics
1:02:28	Products created using health analytics
1:04:40	Difference between and use of “predictive” and “prescriptive” analytics
1:06:52	Evolution of analytics and its integration into health decision making
1:08:15	Challenges faced in the implementation of health analytics
1:10:11	The future of health analytics and its integration into health care
1:11:40	Personal leadership philosophy
1:13:28	Personal mentors in leadership
1:15:21	What to look for when hiring leaders
1:16:36	The role of a good mentor
1:18:17	Who looks to you as a mentor?
1:19:36	Advice for those interested in health analytics