Dr. Bulger will serve on the panel “The Rise of ‘Pay-viders’: What Works and What Doesn’t for Health System-Owned Health Plans” at Becker’s Payer Issues Roundtable. As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference on Nov. 7-8 in Chicago.
To learn more and register, click here.
Becker’s Healthcare aims to foster peer-to-peer conversation between healthcare’s brightest leaders and thinkers. In that vein, responses to our Speaker Series are published straight from interviewees. Here is what our speaker had to say.
Question: What is the smartest thing you’ve done in the last year to set your system up for success?
Dr. John Bulger: We’ve always prioritized investing in talented people and providing them with the tools they need to do their jobs. Most recently, we expanded our statewide Medicaid offering as of Sept. 1, which means we can make healthcare more accessible and affordable for those eligible for Medicaid coverage. Many services are covered at no cost, including doctor’s visits, preventive services, diabetes care, prescription drugs, and more. Coverage also includes valuable extras like health and wellness programs, as well as mental health and substance abuse resources.
Q: What are you most excited about right now and what makes you nervous?
JB: The ability to grow in the Pennsylvania Medicaid space is still a key focus for us. As one of the six managed care organizations working with HealthChoices, Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance program serving more than 179,000 Medicaid members in over 20 counties, Geisinger understands that many underserved communities experience financial struggles, which is why this helps address health issues among our at-risk community members before they become worse. Continuing to spread these types of benefits throughout the Commonwealth is energizing.
I’m a little nervous about the seemingly unending growth of players in the healthcare space who view this as an investment vehicle. It remains to be seen how this will impact the nation’s health, especially as retailers prioritize technological advancement and increasing care access points over improved quality of care. At Geisinger, we continue to focus on coordinating care across all specialties and Geisinger Health Plan to provide comprehensive care. This is how we provide the best care for our community members, and to shift focus away from that could be potentially harmful to their overall health. However, we’re excited for more opportunities to bring our Medicaid options to more patients and continue innovating our approaches to make better health easier for our communities.
Q: How are you thinking about growth and investments for the next year or two?
JB: When it comes to growth and overall investment, we look at this organically and inorganically. Internally, this looks like investing in people and giving them the tools to do their jobs effectively, as mentioned earlier. We’ve also made investments in infrastructure, like processes and technology, to improve our capabilities and support health plan growth. Our recent Medicaid expansion is an excellent example of this. We focused on building core capabilities in member and provider engagement, as well as adding capabilities to provide innovative programs, such as Geisinger at Home and Fresh Food Farmacy, which positioned us for this expansion.
Q: What will healthcare executives need to be effective leaders for the next five years?
JB: Leaders will need to be increasingly adaptable. We must reinvent the leadership playbook to create change that makes healthcare easier and more affordable for all. To be effective, healthcare organizations must educate on how we can prioritize the patient experience to ensure quality, accessibility, and affordability for all. To truly fix this system, we must redesign how healthcare is financed to allow health systems to take on more risk and consistently prioritize care for the most vulnerable. This means incentivizing outcomes versus patient volumes is a transformative change for health systems — but we know that it is in the best interest of all parties across the healthcare ecosystem. With this approach, we can address many of the challenges burdening our healthcare system today in Pennsylvania and across the US.
Q: How are you building resilient and diverse teams?
JB: Across the organization, we’ve shifted our communication methods to adapt to the new remote work environment reality that many of our teams have adopted. We’ve prioritized flexibility across our teams and invested in the digital platforms needed for staff to interact with our members and each other while working remotely. We do this by conducting regular all-team check-ins, holding daily huddles with smaller groups, and making information more readily available through email, web and webinars. These tools also enable staff to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently and to provide a better experience for members and our provider network.
