068_Leading Value-Based Care: Top Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities With Jessica Savage

Host: Jarvis T. Gray, The Quality Coaching Co.
Guest: Jessica Savage, Founder & CEO of Savvy Healthcare LLC

In this insightful episode of Excellence In Healthcare, Jarvis T. Gray sits down with Jessica Savage, a healthcare industry leader and founder of Savvy Healthcare LLC. Jessica shares her journey from clinical operations in radiation oncology to overseeing value-based care initiatives across health systems, payers, and IPAs. The discussion dives into leadership mindsets, the entrepreneurial leap, and top trends transforming healthcare today, with a special emphasis on data-driven care, technology, and patient engagement.

Key Takeaways

• Leadership Mindset: Jessica Savage emphasizes maintaining a patient- and provider-focused mindset, drawing on her early experiences in radiation oncology to guide her leadership style and daily decision-making.
• Entrepreneurial Journey: She discusses the challenges and rewards of leaving corporate healthcare to build her own consultancy. Her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in healthcare? Believe in yourself, network diligently, and understand the long timeline required to gain traction.
• Healthcare Trends:
  • MLR & Utilization Patterns: Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) and utilization are top-of-mind, with significant implications for health plans and risk-bearing provider groups.
  • Telehealth Evolution: Anticipated changes in telehealth regulation are set to impact care delivery.
  • Patient Engagement & Rural Health: There's urgent need for tailored patient engagement solutions, especially in rural areas lacking infrastructure.
• AI & Data: Artificial Intelligence is rapidly advancing in healthcare, though the industry still struggles with synthesizing and operationalizing data. Clean, actionable data—used strategically—will be a major asset.
• Leadership Challenges & Opportunities: Rising utilization costs, inflation, and outdated systems create serious headwinds. At the same time, technology and smarter data practices offer real opportunities for transformation.
• Mentorship & Core Values: Jessica highlights the importance of aligning with organizational values and credits her mentor at Brown & Toland, Delia Peterson, for instilling confidence and providing growth opportunities.
• Career Insights: Take calculated risks, invest in relationships, and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone—these are the action items for leadership longevity and impact.

Rapid Fire Highlights

• Inspiration: Positive self-talk and comfort with uncertainty drive Jessica’s personal motivation. She inspires others by helping them recognize and develop their unique strengths.
• Best Advice Received: Don’t pass up opportunities when they arise—embrace risk even when outcomes aren’t guaranteed.
• What She’d Do Differently: Focus earlier on interpersonal relationships and networking.

Connect with Jessica Savage

• LinkedIn: Jessica Savage
• Website: www.sahvie.com

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Transcript

1:20

Hey, healthcare leaders. Welcome back to another episode of the Excellence in Healthcare podcast. I'm your host, Jarvis Gray, and today I'm joined by my guest, Jessica Savage. Jessica, are you ready to share with our audience, the healthcare leaders? I sure am. All right, perfect. Well, before we jump in, we always love to start every conversation off on a high note. So, Jessica, I love if you could share a leadership quote or a leadership mindset that guides you, but also share with us how do you apply it on a daily basis. So for me, my leadership mindset is really around the patient and the physicians that help support our healthcare system. So when I started back several years ago in healthcare, my role was in radiation oncology. And it gives you a really strong perspective of what patients endure and sort of the worst situations. And I found by bringing in that patient experience and the support to really drive clinical outcomes has provided me a lot of support and groundwork and the work that I do today. All right, fantastic. Well, I always love hearing about leaders that have kind of built it from the ground up to really appreciate the journey that leaders go through, that healthcare professionals go through. So I would love to kind of dig in a little bit deeper, maybe from your roots in radiation oncology. But if you could, Jessica, if you could just walk us through your role. But always love to hear the story. What inspires you to even jump into the healthcare industry? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for me today, I am the founder CEO of Savvy Healthcare llc and I built that organization to help support value based care here in the United States. My background, as I mentioned, started in the clinical operations in an outpatient setting, but I also had some exposure to inpatient as well. We just during the time of risk adjustment coming to life, you know, 15 or 20 years ago was when I started getting involved in that type of work. And that really then led itself into understanding HEDIS and quality NCQA guidelines and metrics. And also again, patient experience also was one of the leaders as it related to pioneer aco performance about 13 years ago. So after I left the large health system here in San Diego, I went to Brown and Toland, which is an IPA in the Bay Area. And it was at the time just the gold standard for MSOs and really IPA performance and managing that HMO population. So that gave me a really strong foothold in understanding capitation and engaging providers and again, really supporting the patients in the care that they receive. I've spent some time on the payer side at Molina, all lines of business, about 13 states. Risk adjustment has again always Kind of been my backbone, but again, it parlays into so many other types of work that we do, whether that's contracting, network performance, again, provider engagement. It really is the full construct of how we think about healthcare today. And also from there spent several years at OptumCare as well as on the vendor side. So I've kind of come closer. Okay. When it comes to healthcare, which I think is important. And I do feel like I take a lot of pride in knowing that I came from that outpatient setting where I answered phones and picked patients up down the hallway and led them to their next appointment and what have you. So I enjoy that piece and it's really why I felt there would be an opportunity with savvy to help support providers and physician groups and health systems and plans across the country, knowing that I've done the work and I can really tie all those pieces together. Nice. Well, and it sounds like the perfect example, you know, as you start to go and grow through your healthcare journey and leadership to take that expertise and to turn it into a self owned business. Jessica, I love just maybe for some of our exam, our executives and our up and coming healthcare leaders who might be playing with similar thoughts because I know I talk to a lot of folks that kind of wish they could go ahead and launch their business. Could you give any insights just for that launch process, what was that transition, leaving corporate and starting your own business? Any, any tips or any insights to give our audience just if they are thinking about that journey? Yeah, I mean it's, it's very cliche, but you have to believe in yourself at the end of the day. And if you don't believe in yourself, then possibly no one else will. So I think that's the most important thing to keep in the back of your mind. It is a tough transition. I think you possibly underestimate the number of people that would consider engaging you down the road. It takes some time, it takes almost a good year to start really building your business, but it is possible and you just have to maintain that positive mindset at the end of the day. So networking, going to conferences like you mentioned, talking with older colleagues and former friends that understand the type of work and value that you bring is really important. You know, I built out a website. I think there's several lessons I could have probably learned. In retrospect, the business development is huge and things often come in waves. So you sometimes are just drowning in work, which is fantastic, and then it will dry up very quickly. So again, that business development and networking becomes Very prominent. Yeah. And that, that becomes to your point about the business development part for me as part of my daily disciplines, you know, I have dedicated time every day just to make sure I do a little bit or I, I keep the networks pretty fresh, even creating opportunities like podcasting where I can reach out and connect with amazing leaders like yourself, Jessica. Just different strategies, but it is a constant grind for better and for worse. I mean there are, there are, there's the pros and cons, but I, I appreciate you sharing your insights. I, I try to bring it up every so often just, just as a part of my natural journey on the podcast here, but always want to, you know, let the audience hear from different leaders and get extra insights just in case. I think it's a worthwhile journey for those thinking about it. Yeah, absolutely. So let me, let me move into the real first question because again, Jessica, when I came across your LinkedIn profile, your background and your expertise on all things value based care really stood out to me. Not, not that I'm pointing you in that direction, but I, I will jump in with some questions if you don't say it's a top trend. But my first big question, Jessica, is what is the top trend that you feel is a game changer for healthcare leaders to have, have on their radars nowadays? I mean, mlr, I think is top of mind right now. Actually, I'll say three things. So we'll say mlr, we'll see. Also, like the possible changes in telehealth at the end of this month is going to be really prominent. And then I think lastly, just understanding that patient engagement component and those, all three of those sort of all tie in together. Honestly, when we talk about the utilization patterns that we've seen increasing exponentially over the last few years, that's something that I think health plans and risk bearing provider groups are really challenged with right now. The best thing I think that we can really offer our leaders is to understand that all that information and data that all comes full circle. So when you talk about risk adjustment and assessing and capturing patients disease severity, the ability to actually ingest and synthesize that information to understand how that then later leads to disease progression is paramount. And I think sometimes because risk adjustment can be so reactive in the industry, it becomes less top of mind to think about the downstream effects of all these different conditions that patients may be experiencing. Rural health, the information that came out with the big beautiful bill and the states having some ownership in thinking about what rural health looks like going forward, I think is really important. I think for most health plans that have rural health communities, it's always been a challenge to try to engage that population just due to proximity to health systems and different clinics, as you know, and also engaging them, some of them may not even have the appropriate infrastructure to have Internet at the end of the day. So it's really something that makes it challenging to manage that population. And that's here in California or that's where, where you are or I think anywhere else in the country. At the end of the day is it becomes that population that needs the most support but is the most difficult to reach. I mean, if we could from my viewpoint, have the Zuckerbergs or the Elon Musk of the world come and just build infrastructure so that people do have Internet and connectivity, that would be a huge game changer. I don't know that these people in these rural health system settings have the best transportation or they can afford to have gas. Right. And so there's things that most of us take for granted here, but at the end of the day it's, it's some real, real life scenarios that are going on and we have to think more holistically and macroeconomically about, about changing that, that environment for them. Right. Lastly, I think the, the member engagement, which ties into both the, the utilization patterns that we're seeing, we're looking at also, you know, the rural health, it's, you know, one size fits all solution is not going to necessarily be something that, that solves the issue or is a game changer. So finding the right tactics and interventions and in some cases that might be, yes, having some sort of really cool and sharp, you know, platform or tool to engage the patients may work for 40 to 60% of your population. But you also have to think about people in the community that are embedded there to really drive education, have the language, ability to connect and communicate with these people is vastly important, as you know. So those I say are the top three top of mind things for me at this point in time. And I'm sure that there's several more, but those are the first few for me. Well, I almost think it's an understatement to say that it feels like healthcare is changing faster now than ever before. And I know we could almost always say that, but in my almost 20 years in healthcare, it just seems like every day there's something, I was just in rural New York yesterday, as a matter of fact, and some of the areas that I was driving through, I mean, to your point, no infrastructure you know, you know, you're in a rural area when there aren't even like road signs, billboards or anything advertising. Yeah, yeah, so. So we have a lot of work to do. I'm just curious, maybe from your point of view, Jessica, what's, you know, when we're looking out, I'll just call it five years. What do you see that's kind of coming with anything connected into value based care and you know, the big beautiful bill and its impact on healthcare. What's, what's your crystal ball kind of telling you? I mean, I think artificial intelligence will be playing a huge role as it already started too. If we go back 15, 20 years, when I first started in healthcare, you know, there's data that existed, but nobody ever leveraged data within healthcare. And I think even to this day as an industry, we really struggle with understanding how to synthesize information and make it actionable. So with the implementation of more advanced technology, I think we will begin to see an understanding of how to best execute, you know, healthcare. We tend to have a lot of conversations often or we think philosophically about what's the best course of action for patients. But if you can actually take that data, I recognizing it is often extremely messy and try to again put it into some sort of actionable initiative or program, that's really, I think, the place that we need to go. I think obviously with some of the changes that we've seen recently with legislation and the President of the United States sort of minimizing the ability for patients to possibly have care in the future, we may see decreases in enrollment or changes to the way folks actually qualify to get services. So things to think about that way. I always caution folks when they're thinking about their members and growing their network and their population is you really have to be strategic about that. Oftentimes a health plan or provider group will say, more lives the better, more lives. We want more, more, more. And it's like, well, we do, but we also want to make sure that if we can't also manage our existing membership effectively and our MLR is running high and we're not able to actually have that patient engagement that we're looking for, our provider network needs some, some retooling. Those are really things that folks should be focused on. So I know there's a lot of panic going on in the industry right now with membership possibly decreasing. But it's also, I think, an opportunity to really look deeply into your existing members and understand stratifying them, how to best support them and then doing the right things first before you think about moving into acquiring more members at the end of the day. Yeah, well, and I mentioned to you right before we started recording that I was just at a conference last week. One of the things I would say I'm hopeful for, Jessica is, is a true transformation. I know that that term is going to get thrown around a lot in the coming months and years, but a real true transformation in the care delivery model. I was talking with a rural health CEO last week and some of the things they're already working through even before all of the legislative changes, but they have the same worries. They're really worried about a decrease in coverage for their populations, but they've already started doing some really innovative things, partnering with, you know, partnering with local businesses and so forth on how they're going to provide care. So I'm really hoping transformation kicks in. But also mention to you many of the leaders I met last week do not have a plan. And we're almost at the time where a lot of these things are going to start kicking in. So it's definitely coming down to a real critical point. It is, it is. And I think again, it just goes back to that point I made earlier where healthcare just tends to be so reactive at times and there's so many fires to put out in the day to day. It's really difficult to pull your head out of that and then think more strategically about how you run your business on a move forward basis. Those folks are not alone for sure. No. Not unfortunate. For better or for worse at this point. No. Well, Jessica, let me move you to my next question. Thank you so much for that conversation. Again, I was so impressed with your expertise. I could probably just sit here and make the whole conversation. We can keep going down rabbit holes. But you know, I love to ask because, you know, we all kind of have the bumps and the bruises in the road as we go through our career paths. Was there a pivotal moment or a challenge in your career that you went through and how did that experience help to just shape your approach to leadership? Oh, I've had a lot of bumps and bruises and probably some self inflicted. I think as a leader you can' have that retrospect and hindsight is 2020 without having some, some bumps in the road, if you will. I think it's been anything from, you know, possibly not having my vision and my alignment of where I think healthcare could be versus maybe where the organization was going and thinking about how that really allows me to reflect on my core values at the end of the day. And it's really important, I think, for even folks entering the workforce and young leaders, you have to find an organization that mirrors your own core, core values at the end of the day. And so for me, when it talks about patient care, we talk about providers and really making it an ultimate experience for them at the end of the day, if there's not something within the organization that's aligning with that or it's really just about trying to make money, you know, that's not something where my, my values lie either. It's, it's really about trying to, to make healthcare a better place. And I've, I've observed that and, and experienced that and then probably several roles, which is, which is fine, because I think unless you have experiences, it's really hard to learn. Like, you know, it's. Healthcare's not rosy every day. It's challenging, it's, it's stressful. And so just taking, taking that experience and really trying to understand how to best move forward and do the right thing by yourself. Well, and I love to ask, but have you had any folks in your path, excuse me, that have just, I would say, influenced you or kind of helped to mentor coach you through different moments in leadership? And if so, what's the key lesson that you may have learned from any of them? I mean, I think one of my biggest mentors was at Brown and Toland, so her name is Delia Peterson, and she and I still keep in touch. And I think she definitely took me under her wing when I went to Brown and Toland, and she gave me a lot of exposure to the organization. She wasn't afraid to put me out there and say, you know, I'm going to have you go meet with these physicians or I'm going to have you go run this part of the town hall. And so, like, having that person, like, believe in you is so important. And I've taken that experience and really tried to give that same sort of support to others that have worked for me. And so believing in other people and giving them the tools to be successful is something that has always been so important to me. And I am, I'm grateful for her at the end of the day. All right, well, we're gonna have to give Dilly a big shout out and let her know when this episode comes out for sure. And I, I do love the pay it forward mindset as well. That's, again, something that I personally believe in very much so it resonates with me. And I'm, I'M sure that's going to resonate big time with a lot of our audience members as well. I'm looking at my next question for you, Jessica, and I feel like I may have jumped on this one a little bit a few minutes ago, but I'll ask the question and kind of see where you go with it. But you know, when we look at the healthcare landscape today, what do you see as the single biggest challenge facing healthcare leaders? And then on the flip side, what's the single biggest opportunity? Yeah, biggest challenge I think is the utilization expenditures. Just with inflation. Supply is becoming more expensive, patient procedures becoming more expensive over time and the capitation often for, you know, that Medicare Advantage population or maybe an ACO like model has not been sufficient enough to cover those expenditures. And so that's really, I think, where people are in a bit of a panic. You can also tie in, you know, our recent NCQA Hedis benchmarks and stars benchmarks and those continue to become more and more challenging for people to try to, to hit certain four and five star performance. You've got, you know, the CAHPS experience has become really prominent as part of stars. So again you talk about patient experience, patient engagement, you really have to be getting that correct. And there's so many elements to that. There's, you know, there's your call center, there's your work that your providers are doing to see patients in a timely fashion. It's the, you know, appeals processes and what have you. And so there's just so much to think about right now when it comes to value based care. But I'd say those are the big ones. And I think the, you know, the tailwinds in healthcare are again, we're getting more sophisticated. You know, we're still in my mind, light years behind other industries when it comes to technology and data, I think, and understanding it. And I think that's just because, you know, some of these systems that have been in place for like a health plan, like a claims system, I mean it, it's possibly been there for 30 or 40 years. Right. And so things are antiquated still in healthcare and to move antiquated systems into new environments is an enormous lift. And so the reason I mentioned that is as we continue to get more advanced with the artificial intelligence, I think that will be a good, you know, augmentation to sort of really help drive decisions. At the end of the day we get really, you know, I think caught up in the data and not understanding how to synthesize it. I think that's Kind of where I come in is I'm, I love looking at the data and then making decisions from it. I find that it's often extremely accurate when you utilize it. With the caveat that the, the data has to be accurate itself. Right. So whatever tool you're using, you kind of have to make sure that everything is nice and as clean as possible. Which I know again is not easy in healthcare, but I would say that's probably the biggest tailwind at the end of the day is really the integration more and more of artificial intelligence and then technology as we continue to evolve. Perfect. I hear maybe a big opportunity there is reaching out to experts like you and I and so many other folks that have kind of left the day to day corporate life and now serve as experts. Experts are coaches, just help kind of push the game a little bit faster. So yes, speed is necessary right now for sure. Well, speaking of speed, that was a perfect segue. Jessica, I'd love to shift gears and kind of go into our rapid fire 2 minute drill with you, but I always love to check and see, make sure you're ready before I start pelting you with more questions here. Yeah, let's go for it. All right, so my first question is a little bit of a two parter where I love to first ask what inspires you to do your best, but then also have you share with us. How do you inspire others to do their best? I think for me, I inspire myself with a lot of positive talk, positive reinforcement, positive mindset. I try not to let myself have those doubting thoughts in your mind enter because that can really derail you quickly. And I also tend to think about, I wouldn't call it a backup plan, but I always tend to think, well, if this doesn't work out, I'm going to work on X, Y and Z instead. And so if this doesn't happen quickly enough, you know, we're not going to keep our eggs all into one basket. It's really about having the comfort in feeling uncomfortable, if that makes sense. And so that's what really I think keeps me motivated and, and moving forward. I think the way I do try to inspire others is helping them believe in themselves. I've been able to work with some fabulous people in my career and recognize some extreme talents that may have gone overlooked previously. And so I love being able to partner with others and understanding what really drives them. And maybe for some folks it's, you know, they're perfectly comfortable where they are in their existing role. But for others that really have some unique capabilities or some grit. I think it's giving them the tools they need to be successful because I myself really enjoy having that, that level of support. So I would say that's how I take on that, that type of activity. All right, very nice. And I want to slip this question in. Have you heard of Motiversity? It's a YouTube channel. I have not. It's like Motivation University, Motiversity. Okay. You like the positive talk. It's all these like super inspirational speeches that have been chopped up and put into like one super long video. All right. That's how I start every morning. All right. Every morning while I'm working out. That's, that's my go to now. Okay. All right, back to the rapid fire. So, Jessica, what is the best piece of career advice that you've ever received. That I've ever received? People have such differing opinions. I think I tend to consult with a few close colleagues when it comes to, to advice. I think back in, in my early 20s, long, long, long time ago. If something, if an opportunity comes up, you know, they don't always come up all the time. So my dad would say, you know, when that opportunity presents, you should at least consider pursuing it because you don't know when an opportunity is going to come up again. So I think feeling comfortable in risk, knowing that there's not always certainty, but being able to feel comfortable again, I think moving in a direction that maybe you haven't been in historically creates, I think, a lot of momentum for you to get propelled to exactly where you need to be. Very nice. I like that one. If you could rewind time, knowing what you know now, what's one thing that you would do differently throughout your leadership journey? Oh, gosh. I could probably honestly write a, write a book on this one. Um, I think, I think in my earlier career I was really a heads down, more introverted individual. Probably needed a lot of work on the people skills and so still, still work to do there. But I think understanding that, you know, people and relationships are vitally important to your success is, is something that was an attribute that I think I could have had more focus on and recognize that it is so valuable in your career. So I would have rewound time to probably polish that up a lot more. That is a very fair one. I just want to underscore that one for maybe some of our younger listeners, honestly maybe even our older listeners too. But a lot of power in relationships, especially if you want to have an impact in this industry, very strong. So thank you for that thought. Jessica. Yeah. Do you have a book, a podcast, or a publication that you could recommend as it had a positive impact on your personal development? I do not have an actual book per se. I spend so much time reading CMS guidelines and regulations and trying to understand them that I feel like I don't have a lot of time for a book, which I know is not a popular answer. But just to maintain honesty and transparency, I think for me, again, I trust try to take a variety of different feedback. Whether that's something I. I learned from someone else or something that I read somewhere, I can't say that any single piece of publication has. Has been something that I've leaned on extensively. Well, and even what you share, though, I think is something of note because I. My gut tells me, Jessica, not a lot of healthcare executives have read a lot of the actual policies like the downloaded from Joint Commission or the CMS website. The actual policies. I've only done it a few times myself when I was in some very formal regulatory qualities, patient safety roles. And then when I read I was like, everything I need to know about healthcare is right here in these books from the administration side at least. But yeah, so I will actually count that. I think that's worth a read for all of our healthcare leaders, if you haven't done so already. Yeah, it's. It's not for. It's not for the week. It can be quite lengthy and arduous. But it definitely is your point of source information. So I try to stay away from reading other, you know, information coming from a vendor or from another constituent and make sure that I go in and I read it myself to make sure I'm ingesting it. And sometimes I have to read those things a few times. Some of the information is very complex, so it's, it's not always fun, but it's. I found it's been pretty valuable tool for me. That's a good resource. I'm just thinking back, I feel like that might be the first time anyone's ever recommended that specifically on the podcast. So just. You just hit a podcast first for us. All right. All right, good to know. Next question is, just as you look ahead over the next year, what's a major, you know, thing that you're excited about achieving over the upcoming year? And then more importantly, how are you planning to celebrate that win? Yeah, I mean, for me, I think it's continuing to. To grow my business. I think reaching out, getting more comfortable with that business development is a continuous opportunity for me. Personally. So I think being in a place where I've got a steady stream of clients that I'm trying to support and really helping them achieve their goals is what makes me, you know, happy, content, and feeling successful. So helping others in that regard, I think is. Is a win for me. You know, whether that's improving the clinical outcomes or improving their reimbursement or their star's performance, that's. That's something that every day for me is a win. Is. Is someone else's win. All right, nice. And then how are we celebrating? I guess I don't know that I celebrate too much. I don't know what I need to get too comfortable. I think I, you know, probably give myself a quick pat on the back and. And move forward, and there's more work to do. All right, well, that's exactly why I asked that question, because so many of us will just kind of grind it out and grind it out and grind it out. But take it a moment to celebrate. There's nothing wrong with that. No, not at all. But, no, Jessica, first, I just want to say thank you so much for your time, for your expertise. I know I got a lot. I was over here kind of taking notes as you were talking, just because these conversations, they help keep me sharp and keep my thoughts going about the work that I'm trying to do. I know it's going to have a positive impact on our audience. Before I let you go, Jessica, I'd love if you could share the best way that our audience can connect with you online, follow you, or learn more about the great things you're doing. Yeah, absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn, Jessica Savage, or you can go to my website. It's savvy.coms a h v I e. And feel free to shoot me a message. Reach out anytime. I would love to talk with you and support or even just folks feel like they want to bounce something off me. Happy to take that on as well. All right, fantastic. Well, I will be sure to connect those links directly here in the show notes. Jessica, thank you so much again. And for our audience, thank you all for tuning in to the Excellence in Healthcare podcast. I hope this entire conversation was a value add. Until next time, this is Jarvis and Jessica. We're officially signing off.