Frank Jaskulke  01:23

Good morning, good evening, and good afternoon to everyone out there in Medical Alley. This is Frank Jaskulke, your host of the Medical Alley Podcast. And I'm so excited for today, where we're going to have a conversation about a really innovative healthcare, health technology company in the community with a person who has been involved in health innovation for a number of years. I'm so pleased to be joined by Steve Pontius, the CEO of HealtheMed. Steve, thanks for being on the podcast today. 

Steve Pontius  01:51

Thanks, Frank. Great to be here.

Frank Jaskulke  01:53

Yeah, right on. Maybe the place to start, you were involved in the founding of MinuteClinic, which in many ways is where some of what we think about of retail health and some of the new care delivery methods started. Could you talk just a little bit about the impact you think MinuteClinic has had over the years in the evolution of healthcare delivery today?

Steve Pontius  02:16

Great question. And what I would say to you is I don't think when we started MinuteClinic, we were trying to change the world. It's not what we were trying to do. I think the truth of the matter is, we were trying to get amoxicillin for ear infections. And that's what we were trying to do. What's happened, which I think is really interesting, the bigger ah-has from Minute Clinic are one, the patient wants help when they want help. If you go back to that time in the 90s, you couldn't get an appointment. Like if you called your doctor and said I need to come in, they'd say, Well, we have an opening next week. And your other options were urgent care or ER. So what we proved then, and what you see all over the country today is you can walk into just about any care source and get it. You can walk into an ER, you can walk into any primary care facility. There's a whole bunch of those, because what happened is people figured out that when you're sick, you want help, and you want to help now. And that is the biggest change that MinuteClinic brought to the country at back then. Not our intent. But that's what happened.

Frank Jaskulke  03:35

Yeah. Well, then fast forward today. Now, HealtheMed, maybe introduce the audience, give the quick background, what is HealtheMed? And what is this this clinic at home idea and who does it serve? Tell us a bit of the story.

Steve Pontius  03:49

Oh, wow. And you guys have been doing this for a bit. What's the results been so far? Is it working? So HealtheMed is a medical technology company that has focused our energy around helping Medicaid wavered populations. So the underserved, sick of the sick, poor of the poor, in most cases are our clients. The state calls them clients, you can interchange patients if you'd like, but that's what this population is. And the idea is how do we work upstream with this population to keep them out of EDs, because if you look at our population today, 85% of them don't have a primary care doctor. So where they're going for care is the ED. That's where they go. And so what our idea was, was to bring a technology stack to them where they are, government housing, and all of those low income areas where people live and allow them to care for themselves. I think it's critical that one of the things healthcare has done has had a challenge with, let's say it that way, is that they have a tough time with this population. So what you find is that they do a nice job of politely going the other way. And so what we decided to do was we're going to head on. And so what we do is we meet our clients through case managers throughout the state. So county case managers sign up their clients, patients, for our services, we install a 50 inch TV in the home, and then RPM devices based on acuity level. And then we follow that up with three things. We have outreach weekly by what we call our client engagement specialists. So they're part of that team for that client. We have nursing that shows up in the patient's home a minimum of four times a year, depending on acuity level and what needs to happen. And then our platform provides telehealth visits, opportunities for either you can be your provider, we can provide a provider for you, however you'd like to do that. And our goal is to get patients, clients back on the spectrum of taking care of their own health so they don't end up in the ED.  I would say to you that what we really like about what we do is it works, we get reimbursed, and we're collecting a whole bunch of data on a population that the state has no data on. So yes, to all of that. We've been around for three years, little over three years, we have over 300 people on our platform today, we're in 27 counties throughout the state. So we're going to where the clients are, whether that be rural, or in the seven county metro areas.

Frank Jaskulke  06:52

Interesting. And I imagine that that premises said before of keep them out of the ED, that's good for the patient, the client, of course, that sounds like that's probably also good for the broader health care system. When I think of the stresses that emergency departments are facing, that the the larger health systems in our community are facing is moving this population from the ED to care at home. Does that have broader system implications for health care? 

Steve Pontius  07:24

I think it has a — yes. And I think it has more implications than that as well. Yeah. So for health care, they don't know what to do with this population, right? Because this population comes in for primary care visits in the ED, which is not where they're supposed to be, period. And not to say that this population doesn't have occasion where they need to go to the ED, right? So if we can just, it's so interesting, because the parallels to Minute Clinic, are this. One of the things we talked about with Minute Clinic is, well, if Urgent Care takes three hours, what if we remove the stuff that we could get a quick yes or no answer? What would happen? What would happen to the doctor's office? What would happen to urgent care? What would happen to ERs? Fast forward to that to where we are today, what would happen to EDs? I don't know the last time you were in an ER. You have you have patients in the hallway, you have — and part of that is just because people are using that as primary care. So if you can work upstream, it's a it's a really nice piece. Right? The other thing to remember is that this population is paid for by the state. So if we can keep them out of the ED, everybody wins. The client/patient wins, healthcare wins, the taxpayers win. And the state wins. It's really an interesting dynamic around how a little bit of change can make a really big change. And I think that's how it works. You and I can't sit here today and say, Let's go fix healthcare. Too complicated. But we can take little pieces out and do that.  

Frank Jaskulke  09:06

It's really well said because that it sometimes does feel overwhelming and almost a bit hopeless. Because healthcare is so big, so complicated, right? Every problem is big. And there's 100,000 of them. What I hear you describing is HealtheMed's ability to take what is a significant and real problem and make an impact. And that by itself doesn't transform health care, but it creates a bit more space, maybe the flexibility for a health system to work on a different problem that they couldn't before because the system is so gummed up. The thing that should be five minutes takes five hours multiplied by 100 and 1000. Yeah, really well said of that impact having a broader implication. Maybe shifting for a moment, slightly selfish question. I hear you describe all of this and I think about, you know, my parents as they age and the the challenges they face, and then me and my sister trying to help take care of them. I want this. Is this something that individuals might be able to do it for their family members eventually? Or is there that core focus on the Medicare waivered population? 

Steve Pontius  10:18

It's a great question. And the answer is you can. We are going to roll out private pay in 2024, Q1, and we're going to roll it out just in the state of Minnesota, which would mean that your parents would have to be in the state. That will transfer quickly to other states, right? Because this comes from us presenting at shows and having multiple people coming to the booth saying, hey, my mom lives in Ohio, and I can't be present for her doctor's appointments. And I have no way of following her health. Can you help me? And the answer is, we can absolutely do that. So you'll start to see it in 2024. And then as we roll out to other states, you'll start to see it in other states.

Frank Jaskulke  11:05

Well and that state to state piece, you know, that makes me think about the role of policy in healthcare. And I'm curious, what's the role of policy or the the need to change policy or legislation, say in Minnesota or elsewhere that, you know, might benefit HealtheMed or might remove some of the barriers to being able to deliver the kind of care that you're delivering?

Steve Pontius  11:27

So the challenge in Minnesota, and that's we're just in Minnesota today, we'll be in a couple of other states in 2024. But the challenge has been that you have to work with county case managers, and county case managers are underpaid, overworked, and they have a high turnover rate. So it's really hard to get them to understand, here's what we're doing, right? We get a lot of questions like, 'You guys are just giving TVs away?' No, no. We're not giving TVs away. But here's what we're doing and here's why we're doing it. The interesting piece that's happened is on the backside of our platform, a case manager can and I'm kind of going off track here, so you can just circle me back if you need to. On the portal on the backside of this, it allows the case manager to log in at any time and say, How's Frank doing today? How's Steve doing today? Let me see what their RPM devices are showing. Let me see what the notes are from that. And that can be a family member, it can be a caregiver, it can be anybody that's associated with the patient or the client. So just for us, what we have been talking about is, we would like our program to be an opt out program, meaning that the state would come to us and say, here's a population that we want you to serve. And the patient or the client can opt out if they'd like, or we can opt out saying you're just not the right fit for our organization, because that takes the case manager piece out of it, which would help the case managers as well. This isn't a a, we're trying to get rid of the case managers. Not that at all. It's just trying to make it easier. And what's happened is we've received calls from other states that are interested in us coming. And that's the first question we have. It's got to be an opt out program, or we're not coming. 

Frank Jaskulke  13:17

Yep. That makes a lot of sense and kind of addressing the same challenge he talked about with the EDs of, you know, overworked, and not always being able to do the highest level of their work. If you can take some of that off, deliver the care in a better way, you're ultimately going to make the case manager's job easier and the outcomes better, which is the whole point. And that makes a ton of sense. Maybe shifting then just one more direction, if I remember right, I think you also have a partnership with another Medical Alley member, Accra. Can you talk about what you're doing with them and how that collaboration has come about and how it's gone?

Steve Pontius  14:00

They've been a great partner for us and Accra Home Care has a large population of Medicaid waivered clients. And so what we've done is we've worked with them directly for referrals of hey, here's a client that we could jointly help together, and using our system then that they can log into and see data on and we can help with the nursing or with provider visits as well. And so what that started as they were just gonna refer clients to us, and it's gotten to the point where in 2024, you'll see Accra providing nursing for their clients as well. Love that. Happy to have them doing that. And we'll either provide the provider visits or if the client has one then they can go down that path too. But they've been an fabulous partner to work with and we meet multiple times a week and are continuing to expand with that.

Frank Jaskulke  14:57

Oh that's great to hear. I really love seeing the collaboration. And I love seeing so many different organizations now that are finding better ways to deliver care, patient centric, but are also bit by bit moving the direction of healthcare delivery. Last question I'll ask is probably the easiest one, what's next? Where are you guys going with this? And what should we be on the lookout for?

Steve Pontius  15:23

Well, the interesting piece of our model is that we've proven that it works. And if it works with this population, it works with pretty much any other population you want to put in there, whether that be Medicare Advantage, whether that be private pay, whether that be working with payers, because everyone has those patients or clients or members that need help. It's not, this isn't, this is if you can prove it in the Medicaid waivered population, which is one of the most difficult ones to do, it's an easy plug and play. Our concern is we want to stay focused on the Medicaid waivered population because we're really good at it and it's hard. That's one. So you'll see that expand into other states. But you will also see other opportunities because the technology is the technology. And the beautiful thing about the technology, give me just one second to go down this path, is that we were asked early on why a TV? Why not an iPad, why not a smartphone, why not a computer? Here's the thing. When our installers go in to install the platform, here's how the training works. The TV and the RPM devices are set up. And our tech takes the remote control and hands it to the client and goes, here. And the client picks it up and starts navigating because they already know how to do it. This isn't a whole thing about, Well, if you hold the button too long, then the app starts blinking and I don't know what that means.

Frank Jaskulke  16:59

If you triple click with two fingers on your iPad, it does one thing. Yeah. 

Steve Pontius  17:05

So what we can share is that our engagement on our platform is 90%. So in October, we had 22,000 interactions on our platform by the 300 clients we have. So what we can tell you is not only do they use it, they use it a lot. And the platform runs in the background so the client can watch Price is Right or Netflix or whatever they want to watch. And the platform will give them medication reminder notes. Time to take your meds, it's time to exercise. You have a visit coming up with a nurse, regardless of what you're watching. So it's not, I like to refer it as it's not gee wizzy technology. It's just simple technology that connects things together.

Frank Jaskulke  17:56

It meets the patient's needs, as opposed to look at the cool tech. 

Steve Pontius  18:00

Yes, correct.  

Frank Jaskulke  18:02

Right on. Well, thank you, Steve, I really appreciate you sharing the story of HealtheMed, what you're up to. That's fantastic. Thank you. 

Steve Pontius  18:09

You're very welcome. Happy to do it. 

Frank Jaskulke  18:11

Yeah. And folks, that's been another episode of the Medical Alley Podcast. If you're not already a subscriber, you can find us on medicalalleypodcast.org, on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us now on the Medical Alley YouTube channel. Just look up Medical Alley. And hey, do me a favor. Would you share this episode with one other person? If everyone listening did thatm you'd help spread this important story a bit further and contribute to healthcare transformation. I'd really appreciate it. Until next time. Thank you.