Advancing Health Equity Through Community Driven Care at Cone Health with Olu Jegede, MD

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Advancing Health Equity Through Community-Driven Care at Cone Health

Podcast: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Episode: Advancing Health Equity Through Community Driven Care at Cone Health with Olu Jegede, MD
Date: February 13, 2026
Host: Mackenzie Bean (Becker’s Healthcare)
Guest: Dr. Olu Jegede, Senior Vice President & Chief Health Equity and Community Impact Officer, Cone Health

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on Cone Health’s ambitious efforts to advance health equity through community-forward initiatives, featuring Dr. Olu Jegede. The conversation explores Cone Health’s innovative “CATCH 5 in 5” program, their focus on addressing both medical and non-medical drivers of health, the challenge of sustainability, and strategies for embedding equity into the fabric of the health system—making these practices inseparable from daily care.

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Guest Introduction and Organizational Background

• Dr. Olu Jegede introduces himself (01:15), highlighting his background as a physician, particularly caring for sickle cell disease patients, and his executive leadership at Cone Health focused on health equity and community impact.
• About Cone Health:
  • Large integrated nonprofit system in North Carolina
  • 150+ care locations (5 hospitals, ambulatory centers, outpatient surgery, urgent care, 120+ physician practices)
  • 13,000+ team members, 1,650 physicians
• Dr. Jegede’s Role:
  • Sits at the intersection of strategy, care delivery, and community
  • Drives health equity strategy across the system by eliminating disparities, improving outcomes, and embedding equity into policy, care, and partnerships
  • Leads the “CATCH 5 in 5” initiative: “To increase life expectancy by five years in five years in those targeted zip codes that are impacted by lower life expectancy across our market.” (02:50)

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Key Initiatives and Results

1. CATCH 5 in 5 Initiative (03:55)

• CATCH = Collaborative Actions toward Community Health
• Community-driven: Solutions designed with, not for, the community
• Components:
  • Community-based screenings for medical and non-medical drivers (mental health access, transportation, nutrition)
  • Focus on neighborhoods with the greatest disparities
• Results:
  • “We've seen double digit reductions in non-emergent emergency visits and meaningful decreases in inpatient admissions and readmissions in our targeted population.” (04:54)
  • Access to care improved; patients who previously lacked access are now supported

2. Blood Pressure Equity Program

• Focused on hypertension as a key health disparity
• Blood pressure control across the patient group increased from 64.9% to 70.5%; within the blood patient group, from 69.8% to 71.7% (06:00)
• Community Pharmacist Impact:
  • “In the subset of the patients that were assigned to this incredible pharmacy team, the blood pressure control improved from single digits around 7% to 63%.” (06:46)
• Program recognized with the 2025 Bernard G. Tyson Award for the Pursuit of Healthcare Equity (Joint Commission & Kaiser Permanente)
• “When we expand our care team and we leverage trusted community partners, we can make changes dramatically in our health outcomes.” (07:14)

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Priorities, Challenges, and Health Equity Strategy (2026 and Beyond)

1. Big Priorities for 2026 (08:04)

• Addressing Social (Non-Medical) Drivers:
  • Housing, food access, transportation, financial mobility
  • Making screening of these drivers a "true north metric”: “That means screening every patient across every setting so we can proactively identify the barriers that impact health and health outcome and connect people to the right resources.” (08:44)
• Scaling Successful Programs:
  • Expanding CATCH 5 in 5 and strengthening transitional care
• Institutionalizing Equity:
  • Embedding equity into clinician education, policies, quality metrics, and leadership decisions
  • “The goal is to make health equity part of our work, not a separate initiative that we talk about.” (09:44)
• Main Headwind: Financial Sustainability
  • “The challenge is to ensure that health equity investments are not seen as optional add ons, but as essential drivers of quality, value, and long-term outcomes.” (10:04)

2. Role of Culture in Health Equity (10:40)

• Implicit Bias & Cultural Humility Training:
  • Essential for frontline staff and clinicians
  • “We're now treating everyone equally, but we are treating everyone equitably, giving each and individual patients what they need to remain as healthy as possible.” (10:53)

3. Expanding Access & Place-Based Intervention (11:28)

• Example: Resurgent Access Point
  • New care center in partnership with North Carolina A&T University
  • Delivers urgent care, primary care, and women’s health services in identified underserved areas
  • Responds to as much as a “15-year gap in life expectancy between some zip codes less than five miles apart.” (12:18)
• Mobile Health and Continued Community Screenings

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Challenges and Opportunities Moving Forward

Hardest Challenge in the Next 12 Months (13:09)

• Sustainability (“building the plane as we fly it”):
  • Need for consistent financial, infrastructural, and leadership resources
  • Coping with evolving community needs, shifting policies, unstable healthcare economics

Biggest Opportunities for Growth (14:30)

• Value-Based Care:
  • “At Cone Health we define value based care as providing convenient personalized care that improves health, prevents illness and lowers costs.” (14:33)
  • Emphasis on prevention, care coordination, reductions in avoidable ED visits, and healthy communities
  • Aspires to be a “proven case study that there is value in equity driven care” (15:15)
• Cross-Sector Partnerships:
  • Collaborating beyond healthcare: schools, employers, government, faith organizations
  • “When all these organizations come together, including the health system, we are strongest and when we move together, we make bigger impact.” (15:44)
• Innovation in Care Delivery:
  • Transitional care, community health workers, digital/mobile outreach aimed at meeting people where they are
• Notable Quote:
  • “Your home address or zip code should not determine how long or how well you live.” (16:41)

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Memorable Quotes

• Dr. Jegede:
  • “When you do health equity work, everyone wins.” (06:28)
  • “The goal is to make health equity part of our work, not a separate initiative that we talk about.” (09:44)
  • “We're now treating everyone equally, but we are treating everyone equitably, giving each and individual patients what they need to remain as healthy as possible.” (10:53)
  • “Your home address or zip code should not determine how long or how well you live.” (16:41)
  • “In many ways it's like we are building the plane as we fly it.” (13:30)
  • “When all these organizations come together, including the health system, we are strongest and when we move together, we make bigger impact.” (15:44)

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Key Timestamps

• 01:15 – Dr. Jegede’s introduction and background
• 02:50 – Overview of the CATCH 5 in 5 initiative
• 03:55 – Community-driven program design and early results
• 06:00 – Blood pressure equity program details and success metrics
• 07:14 – National recognition for Cone Health’s equity efforts
• 08:04 – 2026 priorities: social drivers, scaling, and institutionalization
• 10:40 – Role of culture, implicit bias, and equity in care
• 11:28 – Expanding place-based care and new access points
• 13:09 – Main challenge: long-term sustainability
• 14:30 – Opportunities in value-based care, partnerships, and innovation
• 16:41 – Key equity philosophy: “Your home address or zip code should not determine how long or how well you live.”

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Conclusion

Dr. Olu Jegede offers a compelling, practical, and optimistic look at what genuine, community-driven health equity can achieve—emphasizing rigorous measurement, broad partnerships, and a culture of humility and commitment. Cone Health’s journey showcases measurable impact while acknowledging ongoing challenges, especially sustainability and systemic change. The episode gives listeners a blueprint for embedding equity not as an add-on, but as an inseparable part of care delivery, offering valuable insights for anyone invested in the future of health systems.

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Transcript

[A]

This is where health insurance leadership comes together. Becker's fourth annual Spring Payer Issues Roundtable brings together over 400 payer and health plan executives and more than 100 speakers to Chicago April 13th and 14th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with the industry's top leaders and former President George W. Bush. For the full agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalreview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you here in Chicago.

[B]

Hello everyone and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Mackenzie Bean, Associate Vice President and Managing Editor of Becker's Hospital Review. Today I'm so thrilled to be joined by Dr. Olu Jegade, who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity and Community Impact Officer of Cone Health. Dr. Jagiray, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. How are you doing?

[C]

I am doing well. Thank you for having me.

[B]

It's such a pleasure to have you on the podcast. I was hoping we could kick off the discussion by having you share a little bit more about yourself, your career background and then Cone Health.

[C]

Thank you very much. My name is Olu Jegede and I am a Senior Vice President and the Chief Health Equity and Community Impact Officer at Cone Health. I'm a physician by trade and I see patients who have sickle cell disease as part of my role at Cone Health. So a little bit about Cone Health. Cone Health is a large integrated nonprofit health system serving communities across North Carolina with more than 150 care locations including 5 hospitals, 6ambulatory care centers, 3 outpatient surgery centers, 10 urgent care centers and over 120 physician practices. We are supported by more than 13,000 team members and about 1,650 physicians on our medical staff. My role here at cone sits at the intersection of strategy, care delivery and community. I am responsible for driving our system wide health equity strategy, working with clinical and operational leaders to eliminate disparities, to improve outcomes and embed health equity into how we design our policies, how we deliver our care and how we partner with our communities and the community based organizations. A major part of this work is leading our catch 5 in 5 initiative which is an ambitious initiative that is focused on our most at risk populations. And the goal here is so simple but very bold and is to increase life expectancy by five years in five years in those targeted zip codes that are impacted by lower life expectancy across our market.

[B]

Wow. That truly is such a ambitious but important initiative and I'm sure we're going to go a little bit deeper into that. And I love what you said about your role really being at the intersection of strategy, care delivery and community. As you think about, you know, the work that you've done at that intersection over the past year, what's one initiative that has really stood out to you and what were the results?

[C]

Thank you. In the past couple of years we have started this important initiative that I called CATCH Five in five. The CATCH stands for Collaborative Actions toward Community Health to Improve life expectancy by five years and five years. We launched this towards the end of 2023 as a deeply community driven effort. So rather than designing solutions in isolation, we met people where they are literally and figuratively. The work includes community based screenings for medical and non medical drivers of health, mental health access, transportation solutions and nutritional support, all tailored to the specific needs of neighborhoods experiencing the greatest disparities. What's been powerful about this is that the results are tangible and measurable. We've seen double digit reductions in non emergent emergency visits and meaningful decreases in inpatient admissions and readmissions in our targeted population. That tells us that people are assessing the right care at the right time and earlier. So before complications develop, we are seeing that patients now have access to care that they did not have prior to this initiative. Another initiative that I'm really particularly proud about is our blood pressure equity program. As you all know, hypertension is a major driver of cardiovascular disease and disparities in the control of blood pressure remains very significant among our population. So true intentional design and strong partnerships with our care teams across our health system. We improved blood pressure control among blood patient population from 64.9% to 70.5% across all patients. However, we improve control rate from 69.8% to 71.7%. This just tells me that when you do health equity work, everyone wins. One of the most striking successes came through our community based pharmacist engagement. In the subset of the patients that were assigned to this incredible pharmacy team, the blood pressure control improved from single digits around 7% to 63%. That reinforced something we strongly believe in our system that when we expand our care team and we leverage trusted community partners, we can make changes dramatically in our health outcomes. This work, and that will be one of the reasons why I'm so proud about this was recognized nationally when CoHealth received the 2025 Bernard G. Tyson Award for the Pursuit of Healthcare Equity from the Joint Commission and Kaiser Permanente. This is an honor and a validation that we are headed the right direction in our health equity journey.

[B]

Such an honor and a validation indeed, as you said, with some really significant and meaningful results as you just shared across life expectancy, blood pressure equity, and of course, blood pressure control with your pharmacy team. In the spirit of keeping that momentum going, what are your big priorities for the year and how are you thinking about some of the headways that are facing health systems in 2026?

[C]

Yeah, as we look toward 2026, our priorities are increasingly focused on the social drivers of health, or now called non medical drivers of health, such as housing stability, food access, transportation and financial mobility. So as we all know, these factors powerfully shape health outcomes and we are committed to addressing them in a systematic way. So one of our biggest next steps as a system is making the screening of these social drivers a true north metric for the organization. That means screening every patient across every setting so we can proactively identify the barriers that impact health and health outcome and connect people to the right resources. We are also focused on scaling successful programs like our Catch 5 in 5 initiatives and strengthening our transitional care models to ensure that all patients are seen and none falls through the cracks as they move between care settings. At the same time, we are working to institutionalize health equity. That includes embedding health equity into clinician education, into our system policies, into our quality metrics and leadership decision making. The goal is to make health equity part of our work, not a separate initiative that we talk about. I think the biggest headwind in 2026 and beyond, without a question, is financial sustainability. Like many health systems, we are navigating reimbursement pressures and the challenge is to ensure that health equity investments are not seen as optional add ons, but as essential drivers of quality, value and long term outcomes.

[B]

Absolutely. And on that note of institutionalizing health equity, you know, you mentioned bedding into Clinton Mission education quality metrics. I'm curious how, how does culture really play a role into that? Right. If you have sort of it embedded on the metric side, how do you really like help drive that forward as a leadership team?

[C]

As a leadership team, I think one of the very important work around culture is to improve training on implicit bias and cultural humility that allows our providers and all clinicians to see patients from their standpoint. We're now treating everyone equally, but we are treating everyone equitably, giving each and individual patients what they need to remain as healthy as possible.

[B]

That training can be so important. I appreciate you sharing that. You also mentioned efforts to scale the 5 in 5 initiative this year. Can you Share any more details about what's to come there?

[C]

Yeah, we are providing more access to care in our communities and one of such an example is our recent opening of Resurgent, which is a care access point in partnership with our North Carolina A and T University that will provide access to urgent care, primary care and women health care. This is right there in the heart of the communities that need the care the most. This is the same communities that we have identified through our community health need assessment as having barriers to accessing care and also being impacted by lower life expectancy up to 15 years when it compares to other zip codes that are not even within 5 miles radius of these zip codes. So we are providing more access care, we are improving our mobile health reach and we are continuing the community based screening and providing place based intervention for those patients that need the care the most.

[B]

I imagine that a screening of non medical drivers of health across every patient in every setting will really give the system a lot more visibility for further action as well.

[C]

Absolutely.

[B]

Well, you've laid out a lot of important efforts that you'll be focusing on over the coming year. I'm curious, what do you think will be the hardest thing that you'll have to do over the next 12 months?

[C]

The hardest thing in the coming year will be sustainability. Have to be very honest about that. Making sure that long term health equity initiatives have the financial backing, the infrastructure and the leadership support to endure beyond the current phases. And at the same time we are navigating constant change. In many ways it's like we are building the plane as we fly it. The community needs evolve, policy landscapes change and shift and healthcare economics are anything but stable. So the challenge is staying responsive in the moment while remaining disciplined about long term strategy and impact.

[B]

Really that balance between staying responsive and flexible, but then disciplined in terms of your true north and strategy there no small task for a leader to manage. Wonderful. Well, I think I'd love to shift gears a bit to end on away from perhaps some of the challenges to opportunities. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for organizational growth or improvement in terms of health equity?

[C]

I see, I see some of our biggest growth opportunities in value based care. At Cone Health we define value based care as providing convenient personalized care that improves health, prevents illness and lowers costs. It's grounded in evidence based practice, strong care teams and seamless care coordination across our system. For us at Cone Health, value means caring for patients at the right time, in the right place, at the right cost, preventing those avoidable emergency department visits and hospital admissions and readmissions and helping people stay healthier in their homes and in their communities. Our broader vision is to be a proven case study that there is value in equity driven care, creating longer, healthier and more vibrant lives for everyone that we serve. We also see powerful opportunities in cross sector partnerships. This is working alongside our schools, our employers, the community and faith based organizations and local governments. You know, health doesn't start in hospitals and when all these organizations come together, including the health system, we are strongest and when we move together, we make bigger impact. Finally, I think innovation in care delivery remains key. Expanding transitional care programs, engaging pharmacists and community health workers, leveraging digital outreach and deploying mobile health solutions allow us to meet people where they are, especially those who have historically been underserved. I always say this. Your home address or zip code should not determine how long or how well you live. And that is what Kohr is doing. In our communities, that is where we have the most opportunities.

[B]

Wonderful. And I am excited to continue following Cone's health work in this area. I think you're already making such a meaningful impact on your community and it's only going to grow from here. So Dr. Jaggedh, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today and sharing your insights. We so appreciate it.

[C]

Thank you. Appreciate your time.