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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Leading Priority Health Through Growth, Trust, and Transformation
00:16:44
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- [00:02]
A
This is where health insurance leadership comes together. Becker's 4th 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. Hello everyone, this is Jacob Emerson with the Becker's Payer Issues podcast. Thrilled today to be joined by Nick Gates, who is the president of Priority Health. Nick, thanks so much for taking the time to be with me on the podcast today.
- [00:47]
B
Well, first of all, thank you for having me, Jacob, and thank you for those who are listening today. As you mentioned, I'm Nick Gates, president of Priority Health. Just to give you a little bit of a background on Priority health, we serve 1.4 million members. We we're across four states in the Midwest, so that includes Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. We are the third largest provider sponsored health plan in the nation and the integrated health plan of corewell Health and Corel Health happens to be the largest Michigan based health system. So just to give you a little bit of background on my career, I started in public accounting at Ernst and Young in Detroit and I really always look at this as a great opportunity for me personally to learn about different businesses, industries and really gives me an opportunity to lead teams early in my career. So there's my plug for public accounting for those who are interested in a great career to start out with. But while it was a great start, I really wanted to find something that I was more connected with, connected to a community. And there happened to be an opportunity to join Priority Health, which I was really excited about, excited about joining healthcare organization. But I will admit I knew very little about the industry other than my experiences as a member and a patient. So what I learned pretty quickly is how complex this industry is. And I say is because it still is, it's not a past tense, it is still very complex. But I was very inspired with how passionate our teams were about the members, about the community. There was a lot of conversation around affordability, experience, doing what is right for the member. Really that was the culture and those values that I looked at and I observed, they were established and they were really lived by the leadership team. My experiences at Priority Healthy, I started through the finance side. I helped guide big moves, various acquisitions helped to expand our footprint In Michigan and throughout the Midwest. I've also had a front row seat to some of the major shifts in our industry, going all the way back to the Medicare modernization, our launch of Medicare Advantage, of course, the introduction of the Affordable Care act, and then more recently the COVID era with all the various regulations, and even working through the wind out of the Medicaid redetermination. So a lot of challenges that we've been through. And what I'd say is those experiences have taught me how to balance discipline with innovation, really balancing the two of those. And today what I'm excited about is I get to bring that perspective to leading a plan that's focused on affordability, quality and a better experience for our members.
- [03:15]
A
Absolutely. Well, I appreciate you getting us started, Nick, by talking a little bit about your career before Priority Health and then how you've evolved within the company over these last two decades that you've been with Priority. So you had served as interim president since May of last year. You were named permanent president late in 2025. So you mentioned you're the third largest provider sponsored health plan in the country. It's a lot of responsibility, as you know. It's a very complicated business, as you mentioned. So talk to us about what ultimately inspired you both personally and professionally, to take on this new position.
- [03:55]
B
Yeah, so, and I touched on a little bit of the personal standpoint, inspiration really, that it ties to our mission, improve health, instill humanity and inspire hope. That's been consistent in terms of our focus on the member, our focus on the communities since I've been here. So really I've embraced the organizations, why I've been here this long, more than 20 years, as you mentioned. And during that time I've had a chance to watch our team show up for our members with empathy, rigor and a relentless focus on affordability and excellence. And so really what inspired me to take on this role was the opportunity to build on this culture and really make a meaningful impact and meaningful difference during a time what I would call of significant transformation. I've been part of this transformation. And so I felt it was something that could really provide stability if I had the opportunity to step in and continue to lead this team. I look at Priority Health as an organization that's incredibly strong. We're value driven, like many organizations too, we're going through that very significant change, new technology, all the regulatory landscape that we're dealing with. So again, I felt like I could step in and provide that stability and clarity and really keep the momentum moving forward. Professionally, I saw this as a chance to further lean into shaping the strategic direction of our organization. And so as I mentioned previously, I've been part of several acquisitions, but I've also been part of financial transformations. I've been part of system wide initiatives. But in this role I can help ensure that our strategy, our culture, ensure our execution stays aligned with what matters the most. And that's serving our members and strengthening the communities that we live and work in. I also see as an opportunity to be an advocate. So being in the state of Michigan, we're now expanding others. We want to be represented and heard at the state and federal level. We want to have industry partnerships. We want to make sure that our decisions impact affordability, access and equity. And so it's something that I was really passionate about and looking forward to leading. What I'd say in terms of the common thread between personal, professional, really is trust. Trust in our team, it's trust in our mission and then the strategy we're executing together. So I'm really excited to be able to step in as the next leader of the health plan. Absolutely.
- [06:08]
A
And you know Nick, I think what's interesting even from my perspective, talking to leaders like yourself all over the country at the helm of these insurance companies, everyone comes from a lot of different backgrounds, often whether it's directly outside the insurance industry when they step into the top role, there's physicians leading insurance companies all over the country. There's leaders like yourself that have been within and grown within the company for a long time. So I wonder, given what we see across the industry, what inspires your leadership style? What do your employees, what do they know to expect from you in their day to day? And given all the change that you mentioned, a lot of change going on in this industry right now, what attributes do you think today's leaders need to be successful in this industry? So two pronged question there. What inspires your leadership style? And, and what do today's leaders need to be successful within this industry?
- [07:05]
B
Sure, that's a great question. And I'll start with I think, I think good leaders remain authentic but continue to learn. We are all different but we can learn from our experiences. And I, I prefer and really appreciate learning from great leaders. Over the years I've observed some incredible attributes, incredible leaders over my lifetime. And so I think that's a place where we can learn. I'm not going to bore you on the accounting side, I'm not going to bore you on that background, but I'm going to give you a little Bit more of a story to give you a little bit of a flavor of my leadership style. For me, my leadership style was shaped long before I ever held a leadership role. That really gets into my inspiration. I'm going to touch on my grandfather. My grandfather was a farmer. He was a farmer in rural mid Michigan. If you're familiar with the area, it's primarily corn and soybeans. And beyond his work on the farm, he was deeply committed to his community. He was the chair of the board of the local bank. He was a big supporter of the local senior center and he spent his time serving his church. And he could keep an eye out for his neighbors as well. The story I like to tell is a very difficult time in one of a family friend's life was he was laid off from a local factory and really struggling to make ends meet. And I watched my grandfather hire him. He hired him to work alongside him on the farm. And it was not because he needed the extra labor, but he was part of the community and this was a member that needed his help. So he gave this individual steady work until he was able to get back on his feet. And from my perspective, that had a lasting impression on me. For him, leadership, it wasn't about position or authority, it was really about lifting those others up. And he jumped in when somebody needed help. And it really was an opportunity to create a pathway for this individual. And so I always look at, he looked out for people, treated them fairly and did what was best. And what that did is it built a community of trust. And I'll use that word, trust throughout because I think it's really important to have trust. And as I mentioned, had a lasting impression on me. It really shaped how I think about leadership today. I think it's about supporting your team members with a purpose. And this really, again, I'm going to use the word, again, trust. It builds trust. And when you have that trust, it opens the door to collaboration, accountability and speaking up in a fast paced environment. That's my biggest concern, that people are fearful, psychological safety. They're concerned to speak up, we need to be able to speak up, listen, learn, say yes, let's move that way, no, let's not move that way. But we need to be comfortable speaking up and talking. And that goes from right on the front line all the way up to the CEO and president of the company. What it also does, it helps build trusting relationships with our customers. So you have the trust in your team members that will resonate and ultimately build trust in our customers. As far so your second part, as for what leaders need today, I look at building again, building a great culture, really important. And that gets to the trust factor that I was discussing. We also need to make sure we're adaptable, have the ability to remain grounded and a clear mission. Health care and coverage, as many of you who are listening know, moves very fast. So if you can build trust, stay flexible, keep people at the center, I think as a leader, you'll find those decisions come much more naturally.
- [10:17]
A
Wow. Well, I really appreciate you sharing that story with us, Nick. In terms of why the purpose of community and trust is so important to you, going all the way back to your grandfather and now trickling down to the millions of members that your company serves, it's really impactful. So I appreciate that. And I want to also hook on to the second part of what you were saying in terms of just the rapidly evolving nature of this industry right now, being adaptable as a company operating in this space. I wanted to switch gears and talk a little bit about some of the things that went on under your leadership as you went from interim president to permanent president. You had advanced a company wide digital transformation effort last year and then you also guided plans to expand Priority's regional footprint to four states that came official this year and you're now operating in Wisconsin. So talk to us about how these efforts align with overall goals for the company moving forward.
- [11:20]
B
Thanks, Jacob. And I'll clarify and just emphasize that these initiatives, they didn't just start with me. Our leadership team has been working on these for a year, really, really as part of our long term vis at Priority Health. And I'll look at the digital transformation and regional expansion efforts. They really are a result of years of planning and collaboration. These efforts, while we, they really will help move us forward, they take a lot of planning and collaboration. So for me, as the interim and now stepping into the president, it's really to keep this momentum going. I want to make sure we're preparing our teams for change and we really have to stay aligned with those strategic priorities. So when I think about both of the efforts they do, they align very well with our overall goals. And it really comes back to something very basic. And it's making Priority Health a simpler, more unified organization that can move quickly. I talked about that. Agility allows us to make smart decisions, address affordability, which is something we've been talking about since the day I started here and years before that and will continue on in the coming years. And then we need to make sure we're staying Centered on the people we serve, really the mission of why we're here. And that's the kind of foundation I want to keep building on when I think about the digital side, our move to epic. So we're moving to EPIC and it focuses on simplifying how we work. We're creating a better experience for both our team members and our customers. We've been updating our systems, modernizing workflows because we need an operating model that helps us move faster again, back to the agility and allows us to continue to simplify the member experience and to better connect our members with their provider. And that's something that we're really focused on. And then we need to make sure that at the end we're improving outcomes and we're able to stay competitive because this, this industry is rapidly changing. And then I look at the, the, the expansion and you touched on that as well. So yeah, it is true. We're expanding our footprint. We're very excited to be part of four states and we're integrating plans. We're going to integrate plans like a Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire and Physician Health Plan of Northern Indiana. And what this does, it allows us to bring access to our high quality coverage to more people. It also positions us to serve more people while leveraging shared systems. So when you think about scaling this, we're going to take multiple systems and put them onto one platform so we have a really that unified experience. We're also going to be able to tap talent throughout various states and then we're going to have what it's being able to have, unified capabilities across states. And those capabilities, I take the technology expansion that's going to help us improve experience and then at the end of the day, affordability for our members. When I think about moving forward, we will continue to build on this foundation, look to leverage technology, make care more personalized and really look to expand our reach so that more people can benefit from what we offer. We think we offer a really compelling product and really excited to touch, you know, 1.4 million looking to continue to expand that to more and more individuals and members throughout. Now those, those four states that you referenced and I say none of this happens in isolation. It is a collective effort. We have a really strong team here. We have wonderful people that I've been really blessed to work with. And I look at, we have strong partnerships inside and outside the organization. This isn't just us. We have some really strong partners as well. So really excited about the foundation we built and excited about the future for Priority Health.
- [14:42]
A
Well, clearly a lot of growth happening and on the horizon, Nick, for Priority Health. So before we go, what else are we missing? Any other final thoughts, final bits of advice you want to share with all the other health plan leaders listening in?
- [14:57]
B
Yeah, I guess my final thought and kind of tie it all together that again, in a fast pacing pace, fast changing, difficult industry that we, we are in. I just. The advice I give is stay grounded. Want to stay grounded in our mission and continue to trust our people. And if we can, I think it takes a leap sometimes. But really building that trust with our people will pay off over time. In terms of other health plan leaders, my advice is simple and it gets into embracing change without losing sight of, we'll use the term fundamentals. Be data driven. Kind of going back to the finance background. I love data. So be data driven. Let's be transparent with each other, be transparent with our communities and then making sure we are investing in our teams. And so I go back to our technology. That's a big part of that. We're investing in our teams. The expansion. We're investing in our teams. And then I look at, never underestimate the power of aligning around our clear strategy. So whether again, that's modernizing our technology, expanding it into new markets, or tightening our focus on outcomes and affordability, those are the things that help us stay steady in a shifting landscape. So to kind of wrap it up, at the end of the day, we're all here for the same reason. Our goal is to make healthcare better for the people and communities we serve. And if we keep that front and center, you'll create real impact. And I said real impact during very challenging times. So thank you for the opportunity, Jacob. I really appreciate it. Absolutely.
- [16:27]
A
Thank you, Nick, for taking the time to chat with us and for sharing your insights with our listeners. We really appreciate it. And to our listeners. If you'd like to listen to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare, you can visit Beckershospitalreview.com.