This is Laura Diet with the Becker Health care podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by a doctor Tim Ama, Chief Medical Officer at Uc care. Doctor Ama, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Thank you for having me. Now I'm really looking forward to our discussion and knowing, you know, what, your experience in the medical field as well is now being
with you care. Some of the biggest things that you're looking at, how you're thinking about growth and development in the health care space and then, you know, what's the store for the future. So it'll be great to get your perspective on those things. But before we dive in, can q tossing a little bit more about yourself and your background or Yes. Absolutely. I am an executive Vice President and she's Medical Officer at Uc care, located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
I lead the areas that include medical director or office, clinical services, mental health, substance use disorder services, pharmacy population health, quality management, health equity and our long term services and support areas. I am a practicing physician, a critical care neurologist by training, and I have been at You care for almost sears now.
Of fascinating. You know, all of those areas are so important, especially right now is a healthcare care system is really transforming me into a space where, we're able to recognize mental health and and behavioral health care and and bring that into the whole person care, and then to bridging the gaps in terms of disparities in health care in ideally achieving more health equity. So I'm excited to hear
your perspective. What are some of the big trends that you're watching right now as well as the headwind top of mind for you? Yes, we are following a few trends and headwind that will potentially have significant impacts on how we take care of our members. To start off, we're looking at the increased medical utilization, particularly in the Medicare Advantage population. It is really not clear if it's pent up demand, you know, from the pandemic area versus a new trend or a new normal.
As you know, the population is aging and growth in the Medicare eligible people could certainly be a factor certain medical diagnoses and subsequent complications become more common as new age. And then there is a need for specialized services, that becomes greater as we age. In addition to that, emerging concerns, including social isolation and its impact on mental health particularly in the post pandemic area, is significant for seniors.
So increasing medical costs in this population would likely need to lead to higher premiums and potentially reduced benefit so that's really important to us, and we are watching that trend and headwind. Another 1 is advancement in therapeutics and pharmaceuticals are changing the lives of many, and it is really a wonderful trend to witness. It's not just Gl ones. There are a number of life altering medications such as biologic
and anti inflammatory drug. And gene therapies that are more expensive than we've ever seen in the past. And we may have to find a different way of paying for them. So we're again following that trend. Another 1 is there is an ever increasing need for mental health services that is really unmatched by the current capacity. There's also a significant disparity in mental health services we have to take an all hands on deck approach.
And Uc care, for example, the Uk foundation granted, more than 500000 dollars to 11 mental halt and substance use disorder initiatives that address a crisis in act us an equity for underserved population. And you know, even though we are all doing everything we can, this particular trend is a significant headwind in the way that we take care of our members. And along that same line, we are following closely the land gate to
access to help services in general. For example, access to some services in your rural areas is challenging with the closure of Vape critical assets hospitals and other health centers at alarming rate.
We're paying attention to the recent announcements of Dbs walgreens Walmart rite aid, exiting primary care models sits Really not certain yet, whether that will improve The fragmentation of healthcare delivery, particularly with primary care that is not integrated into the larger ecosystem that's a big health plan for a big health system. And another trend is increased competition and consolidation between the health systems and between health plans. So there's
consolidation in both areas. And so that trend is interesting to watch and monitor. And and finally, because I am a practicing physician, this 1 is particularly important to me. Shortage of physicians and other healthcare professionals, particularly in rural Areas is a definite headwind. Demand and supply are simply mismatched, healthcare care is a tough and know, challenging industry to have a career in,
especially right now. And there continues to be a high rate of, burnout and particularly in the direct patient facing professions within healthcare, recruitment burnout and more importantly, retention have proven difficult for some health systems. And so those are those are the things that we are watching and and monitoring very closely. That makes a lot of sense. You know, and I I know all of these issues are...
Across the board, something that executives are thinking about, both on the health plan as well as a health system side as you said. And, you know, from your perspective, when you look out of the landscape and see some of those critical access hospital closures and or, you know, other areas where access is disappearing in spaces and then 2 looking at consolidation in in costing cr for a hospitals and health systems.
How does that inform the conversations that you're having on the health plan level, to really make sure that, you know, you're you're able to provide access to care work with patients think, you know, innovative, I guess it in terms of how you can, really, you know, fill some of those gaps and then, work with the hospitals and health systems to to to make sure that you're able to to provide care, I guess, in the communities were as possible. Yeah. We we have...
Multiple avenues that we approach that particular issue, But the more important 1 that I'd like to mention is, our approach to partnership with our provider systems. We we approach it from a perspective of partnering with our provider systems in the way that is reached will beneficial. And more importantly put the members that we care about at the center.
I think the future would probably bring some innovative approaches such as how could we put our resources together so that we can eliminate services, for example, care management is a program that is often duplicated on both the payer side and the health system side services or some clinical programs such as read admission prevention measures that are implemented on both the payer side and the
health system inside. So what does it take for us to come together and partner in a way that is mutually beneficial putting the member in the patients? At the center so that we eliminate services and gain some savings that way, but also at partners strongly. Absolutely. You know, I I think that's so helpful to know and understand and think about those types of partnerships and, innovative. Approaches to addressing the care and access to care issues.
Now from your perspective, in looking ahead, how are you thinking about growth for the future? Yeah. You care we are growth oriented organization and I am thrilled about that. We want to expand geographically to be able to do what we want to do for our members at a scale. Scalability and being able to spread our administrative costs, so we can deliver valuable product to our members is critical at this time. But we also think of growth as much
more than just geographic expansion. Like I said, finding innovative ways of partnering with our provider systems is a way of growth. We want to grow out approach, and sophistication to value based agreements is another 1. We also want to grow in our ability to get the moat out of what everyone is talking about nowadays emerging technologies, such as Ai. But we want to do it in a
way that is responsible and equitable. We want to, you know, grow our capabilities in Ai robotic process automation and machine