Health Equity Now with John Gorman

John first met Chris Palmieri while he was coming up through Visiting Nurse Service of New York, making waves through the launch of VNSNY Choice Health Plans. When Chris took over CCA as CEO in 2015, no one imagined just how quickly he would propel CCA to new heights of growth in specialty care for the chronically ill and vulnerable elders, nor massively expand their impact in Massachusetts. Last year alone, CCA grew its footprint to three new states and is on track to do $2.5B in revenue. Friends for over 17 years, John knows Chris is just getting started. Enjoy!

In the second part of our conversation with the incredible Dr. Lisa, John and Lisa discuss vaccine hesitancy within the Black community, Lisa's lived experience as a Black patient and Doc in health care, and the important role POC have to play as founders and innovators pushing our health care system forward. Enjoy!

Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick is a CDC-trained medical epidemiologist and board-certified infectious diseases physician. Dr. Lisa, as she is affectionately known by her patients, is the former medical director for Washington DC's Medicaid program and the founder and CEO of Grapevine Health. Grapevine is a data-driven health media company that delivers trusted health information to people where they are. Dr. Lisa is a fixture of the DC metropolitan health care ecosystem and a nationally recognized advocate for underserved patients. In Part 1 of this two part interview, John and Dr. Lisa discuss the roll of empathy in health care, the expanding responsibility and importance of CHWs, and the founding of Grapevine Health. Learn more at https://grapevinehealth.com/

Sachin Jain, MD, MBA is President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan, where he is charged with leading the organization's growth, diversification, and emerging efforts to reduce healthcare disparities. SCAN's revenues top $3.4B and the organization serves 220,000 patients. Under Dr. Jain's leadership SCAN has maintained its 4.5 STAR rating for the 5th year in a row; offered new products (ISNP) and expanded operations into Arizona and Nevada; launched new subsidiaries focused on home-based primary care, homeless healthcare, and PACE. John and Sachin sit down to discuss SCAN's future, principled leadership in healthcare, and health equity.

The host John Gorman and producer Gabe Hitchcock created this show to draw attention to the people in healthcare that are leading by their example in enacting real change within the healthcare industry. Leaders that are striving to improve the lives of as many patients as possible, and who have successfully built a business case around that ethos. In John's mind, you need look no farther than Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of ChenMed. At 30-40% annual growth, ChenMed is one of the fastest growing patient-centered care companies in the US.

In the world of managed care few have their finger on the pulse quite like Anthem's Chief Health Officer, Dr. Shantanu Agrawal. With over 40 million members and 80,000 employees, Anthem is one of the largest healthcare insurance providers in the world. Fortunately for all of us, Dr. Agrawal has a bold vision for advancing health equity for their members, employees, and communities. John sits down with Dr. Agrawal to discuss his SDOH strategy, thoughts on COVID-19 vaccine policy, and much much more. Enjoy! Recorded Sept. 1, 2021

Throughout his career John has often been asked something along the lines of “if you had $10M to invest for our Plan what would you do.” His answer: “give me $10M worth of community health workers and I'll change the world.” Among the many benefits a health plan can offer, none yield more consistently positive results than a well-managed community health worker program. The reason for this is simple: there are few people that know patients better or care more deeply about their health than a community health worker. But CHW programs are human driven and human provided - and therefore fraught with challenges and easy pitfalls. Dr. Shreya Kangovi sought to set the record straight on the value of a well executed program through a robust academic trial that accounted for each and every piece of a CHW program. And the results were staggering. Her program, IMPaCT, is now the nationally recognized gold standard for CHWs. Here to discuss the keys to administering a successful CHW program and the day-in day-out passion and determination it takes to support a vulnerable patient are Dr. Shreya Kangovi and celebrated CHW Cherlynne Graham-Seay. Enjoy!

For many of us within the healthcare industry, the greatest crisis looming before us is not the risk of infectious disease, but a rapidly aging and frail population. Over the next 40 years, the number of Americans 65 and older will double to 80 million. Over the same period, adults aged 85 and older, who are often in the most need of basic personal and clinical care, will nearly quadruple. As congregative retirement communities are hit hard by COVID-19, and the evidence builds for a whole-person care approach to medicine, the argument for Programs for All Inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE) has never been stronger. John sits down with the founder and CEO of one of the fastest growing PACE companies in the US, Edenbridge Health, to discuss the program's many virtues and Edenbridge's unique PACE and PACE-Lite business models.

When John Gorman launched Nightingale Partners the idea of a fund solely dedicated to SODH initiatives was brand new. Only a handful of industry leaders had begun to move in this direction. Among them: Pittsburg's own UPMC. The UPMC Center for Social Impact is a beacon for the industry in how strategic capital can jumpstart non-medical programs that result in happier, healthier patients. Ray Prushnok is the chief architect of the Center and has already deployed over $20M in the community since founding in December 2019. Ray sat with us to walk through how UPMC sees the world of SDOH investing, what unique challenges being on the cutting edge brings, and the undeniably positive impact their strategy has produced.

Within the realm of Social Determinants of Health, loneliness and isolation has been shown to have a profound impact on health outcomes for people of all ages. But this is especially true for older Americans, where disconnection from the workforce, community groups, and friends and family are made worse by barriers in mobility and digital literacy. Andrew Parker, founder and CEO of Papa, is on a mission to solve loneliness through companionship. Andrew has built a vast network of Papa Pals across the USA, providing emotional and social support to millions of vulnerable Americans. Health Plans are becoming increasingly aware of this problem, and investors have noticed. Papa closed their Series C round for $60M in April 2021, brining their total funding to $91M. John and the Parker Family go way back and this pod is as much a conversation between old friends as it is a lens into one of the fastest growing SDOH companies in the world. Enjoy!

Broadband connectivity and access has gained recent public attention due to the $65B carve out in Biden's $2Tr infrastructure plan. But for many Americans, it has been a persistent problem that has prevented them from elevating their work, education, and more recently health status. Broadband, as John likes to say, is a "Super Determinant of Health", impacting all aspects of a patient's relationship with our healthcare system. On this episode, John speaks with public health guru and broadband expert Pierre Vigilance, MD, MPH. Dr. Vigilance is a health care executive with 20 years of experience in the private, public, and academic arenas. Starting as an ER doc, Dr. Vigilance turned to public life to become the health commissioner of Baltimore and DC, before launching a career in academia and the burgeoning world of health tech start-ups. Enjoy!

Prescription drug abuse surged during the stay-at-home order; with many communities experiencing double digit increases in overdoses from opiates in a matter of months. And it is by no means restricted to rural, White America. On this episode of Health Equity Now, John is joined by Eleanor Health Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Nzinga Harrison. Hot off their $20M Series B, Dr. Harrison and her team at Eleanor are reshaping the behavioral health and addiction treatment market through a hyper-focus on wholistic, value-based care. John and Dr. Harrison discuss the state of addiction treatment in America, strategies for managing risk in value-based contracting, Eleanor's compelling story to investors and clients, and much more. Enjoy! For more information on Eleanor and addiction management resources check out www.eleanorhealth.com.

More than half a million Americans are living on the streets. Due to the economic fallout from the pandemic, more Americans than ever are teetering on the edge between housed and homeless. As a country, our approach to addressing homelessness has been straightforward: build more affordable housing. But for many people housing alone is not the issue. Jonathan Kumar, CEO of Samaritan, is solving the homelessness crisis by building a social home platform to provide members with the peer and financial support they need to transition into permanent housing. John and Jonathan dive into the heart of problem and the role managed care has to play in supporting their homeless members.

On this episode of Health Equity Now, John is joined by DC policy wars veteran and fellow CMS alumnus Mark Newsom. John and Mark delve into SSBCI, the risk of Medicare Trust Fund solvency, and the political challenges facing the Biden/Harris administration's healthcare agenda. Prior to founding Health Evaluations, LLC, Mark led public policy development and regulatory advocacy at Humana and previously held senior policy and compliance roles at CVS Health and Coventry. On the government side, Mark occupied policy directorship and key operational roles at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and served as a senior policy advisor at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) during the development of the Affordable Care Act. (Note: interview recorded 3/1/21)

In the realm of Food as Medicine, no name stands out more than Meals on Wheels CEO Ellie Hollander. With operations in virtually every community in the US and a network of over 5,000 affiliates, Meals on Wheels is the largest distributor of healthy meals to the medically underserved and vulnerable. Ellie and John have been friends for more than a decade, having worked on numerous care and SDOH initiatives over the years and with John drawing much of his inspiration for Censeo Health (the world's largest mobile physician network) from Ellie's inspirational leadership and dedication to providing companionship as well as food. Enjoy!

How does the growing availability of supplemental benefits impact the bidding cycle? For the inaugural episode, long-time friend and colleague Tim Murray chats with John on the outlook for SSBCI, the growing body of evidence supporting ROI for SDOH interventions, and the latest trends in benefit design for the managed care industry. Tim Murray, FSA, MAAA, is Wakely Consulting Group's Director and Senior Consulting Actuary leading their New York office.

On the Health Equity Now podcast John Gorman sits down with friends, colleagues, partners and innovators that are pursuing innovations both old and new to address Social Determinants of Health. Throughout the show John and guests will discuss what we as health care leaders must do to build greater health equity for all Americans.