Marc Harrison: Today I'm at Park City Hospital with Julienne West, an exercise physiologist with the LiVe Well Center here. It's great to have you here. I'm anxious to hear a little bit about you and what you're thinking and have a conversation.
Julienne West: Thank you. So as we, as Intermountain, try to help people live the healthiest lives possible, what is our strategy to keep preventive care growing within the Intermountain system?
Marc Harrison: Well, that's actually the perfect question. I think that we’re moving quickly along the population health trajectory. Part of population health is keeping people well so that we keep their healthcare affordable and so that we’re able to utilize the minimum number of resources necessary to keep them doing exactly what they want to do in their lives. The way to do that is through prevention.
So for the first time in Intermountain's history, we have all the stars aligned to be able to make investments in not just sick care but in keeping people healthier and healthier. That's a decentralized process. That'll be Homecare. That'll be care in the community. That'll be opportunities for people to exercise. That'll mean helping people have healthy diets and healthy foods available to them, et cetera.
So we're in a really enviable position compared to most other healthcare systems that are really stuck in the fee-for-service cycle, that we are at a place where I think you're going to see more and more of this. Does this make sense to you?
Julienne West: Yeah. You answered part of my question already, which is where I work in the LiVe Well Center, we’re focusing mainly on prevention. I just wanted to know what other areas of Intermountain are going to take that portion on as well.
Marc Harrison: You know we sort of say that quality is everybody's concern or patient experience is everybody's job? I'm hoping that prevention and optimal use of valuable resources becomes everybody's worry. So I just came from a meeting with a whole bunch of orthopedic surgeons and podiatrists. Remarkable people. They asked me what the single most important thing they could do to be valuable in the system for the future. I said have quality be good and please don't do anything to patients that they don't actually need. Make sure that utilization is appropriate.
So the specialists, they should be involved in prevention and optimal use of resources. The primary care folks, physical therapists, occupational therapists, nutrition people, et cetera, this is all of our job together.
Julienne West: Then are we planning on having any conversations with SelectHealth and getting them to help cover some of these cash pay services that are more preventive?
Marc Harrison: Yes. SelectHealth is actually right now considering what services should be free and included, including some visits versus things that people should pay for. So that is an active area of our conversation. We have, I think it's almost 500,000 people who are completely prepaid for now in SelectHealth.
Julienne West: Great.
Marc Harrison: So a lot of people. That's more than half of the total people who have SelectHealth insurance. For those folks, it makes even more sense to make sure that they get all of these preventative services and therapies.
Julienne West: Great. Then just my last question regarding this is, how are we going to encourage employees to also take on that preventative care?
Marc Harrison: Were you listening to our executive team meeting earlier?
Julienne West: I was not.
Marc Harrison: Well, you might have been because one of the things that I'm really pushing for is more of a select share approach for health insurance coverage for our caregivers. Those products incentivize people to stay well.
Julienne West: Okay, good.
Marc Harrison: They align the interest of the employer; in this case, it would be SelectHealth or Intermountain, the caregiver, the provider, et cetera. So look for more of this to come. I'm not sure it's going to make it into the 2019 benefit package, but it should into the 2020.
Julienne West: Great.
Marc Harrison: Yep.
Julienne West: Okay. That's all I have.
Marc Harrison: Well, before we break, a couple of things. Can you tell me a little bit about your history at Intermountain?
Julienne West: Yeah. So I'm actually an exercise physiologist. I started with Intermountain in 2007 in cardiac and pulmonary rehab at Logan Regional Hospital. After working there for about five years, decided I wanted to go more preventative care, and so I went back and got a master's degree in health and human movement and then took on the job here at Park City as the exercise physiologist at the LiVe Well Center. So I've been here in Park City for six years, with Intermountain for about 11 and a half, and I'm also the supervisor over the sports performance for the LiVe Well Center as well.
Marc Harrison: Well, we've got hopefully some exciting plans for sports performance coming up, don't we?
Julienne West: Yes, we do.
Marc Harrison: I really hope this becomes a destination. I will say that the evaluation that I got downstairs-
Julienne West: With Dr. Testa?
Marc Harrison: ... with Dr. Testa, was terrific and probably the best bike fit I've ever had. Now if he could just wire my jaw shut so I didn't eat so much, we'd be in really good shape.
Julienne West: Yeah, wouldn't we all?
Marc Harrison: But I'm really excited about what you guys are doing down there.
Julienne West: Yeah, there's a lot of potential.
Marc Harrison: Last thing, what advice do you have for me?
Julienne West: Advice for all of Intermountain?
Marc Harrison: Yeah, whatever, besides wiring my jaw shut. I know I should do that.
Julienne West: We talk about living healthy and encouraging employees to not only emulate that in their own lives but to encourage patients as well. But I think that sometimes we lack the opportunity to do so. I know we're working on gym space and trying to get employees access to gyms and they can use the nutrition education as well, five visits with SelectHealth. But sometimes I think there's also some missing resources in helping us do that.
Marc Harrison: Fair enough.
Julienne West: We have some, but there are some gaps.
Marc Harrison: This is a journey. Look, I think you're right. I would love for our caregivers to think actively about how they keep themselves well. Look, there's a minority of folks who are going to always be relatively passive or not really care or want to put it off. But I think a lot of people are really ripe for more active involvement in their own health and wellbeing.
Julienne West: Agreed.
Marc Harrison: Tell you what. Can we work on that together?
Julienne West: Absolutely.
Marc Harrison: Okay.
Julienne West: Love to.
Marc Harrison: Well, thank you.
Julienne West: Thank you.