After announcing a new partnership with AdventHealth in Florida, Wellvana CEO Kyle Wailes was featured on the Race to Value podcast.

Below are a few highlights from the interview.

On renewed interest from health systems to revisit value-based care amid the lingering financial challenges related to COVID-19. (time code 10:00)

“There’s much more interest in how do we transition to value, overall. We saw that with AdventHealth and we’re seeing it with many others around the country right now. What’s ultimately behind that is the opportunity to take a loss leader in primary care and shift that, overall, to a profit center…The pandemic has really transitioned systems into thinking about this in a much more constructive way than historically.”

On Wellvana’s tailored approach for both health systems and independent physicians. (time code 6:00) 

“Every single physician practice is going to be different. Every hospital is going to be different. I think what it highlights overall is the flexibility of our model…as we go to market and think about building clinically integrated primary care networks across the country, we take a very flexible approach to how we do that and really try to meet the health system where they are.”

On remaining even keeled. (time code 14:00)

“Every single day, we’re either winning or we’re learning…Whether it’s been through growing up in sports or professional sports over time, or college athletics, and certainly on the professional side of my career as well, there have been so many highs and so many lows. And I think at least for me, what I’ve learned over time as part of that is, in isolation, if we’re reacting to any of those too positively or too negatively, the ups and downs is certainly too much. And as a leader, it’s certainly too much for your team.

On being grounded in the story of the Chinese farmer. (time code 15:00)

“At Wellvana, we can have incredible growth, but if we don’t operationalize that and provide great results for our physician partners, for our hospital systems and for their patients, then in many ways we’re better off not having that growth at all. So we certainly try and celebrate the wins and learn from the losses, but on a personal level and also professional level try to stay even-keeled in our demeanor day to day.” 

On Wellvana’s high-touch approach to being a value-based care partner. (time code 18:30)

“Healthcare has proven for a long time that technology-only models are not working that well today. And that may change over time, but at least in our view, you have to wrap services around that to drive behavior change for patients and also for providers. So based on that, we take a very high-touch model…We embed someone within the practice and show providers how they’re performing on a day-in, day out basis. We’re engaging with high-risk patients and creating care plans for them and ensuring progression against that care plan and compliance within that care plan. And underlining all of that, it’s about driving scale. Primary care providers — whether hospital or an independent PCP — the ability to transition into fully-capitated risk…it’s almost impossible for a doc to do that on their own. And that’s where we come in.”

On the importance of behavior change — both for physicians and patients (time code 32:00)

“We spend a lot of time with our patient experience team trying to educate patients on what our high-touch care management program is. The first call we have with most patients, most patients believe nurse program we enrolled them is going to cost something. They’re very skeptical at the start with who is on the phone, why we’re calling them, how we got their number, and what the program means and most importantly what the cost of that program is going to be…To win long term in this industry you’re going to actually have to save money. You’re going to have to actually manage medical spend better than others…To us that comes down to patient engagement, driving behavior change and driving compliance with care plans we’re helping create. And all of that is about educating the patient to help them take the next best step in the program.”

On the powerful pairing of value-based care and lifestyle medicine. (time code 34:45)

“We don’t have a care problem. We can get the best care, in my belief, anywhere in the world. The problem that we have across the entire system is a health problem. It’s the rates of chronic disease that we have and the prevalence of those. And so lifestyle medicine ties back into really the health side of that equation. How are we making patients healthier on the front end rather than driving interventions on the back end when they need care or medication to take care of the ailment. So that starts with a focus on not only diet but the mental health side as well. It takes holistic view around the health of the patient, which we think has proven to drive incredible outcomes.”

On the healthcare industry in Nashville, Wellvana’s hometown. (time code 40:00)

“I think the one thing that makes Nashville especially unique is the willingness of everyone to help each other. I think it’s incredibly rare when you find competitors that exist within the same city that will go out of their way to help each other out. And we see that, day in and day out.”