Saria Saccocio, Chief Medical Officer, Essence Health

Summary

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast: In-Depth Summary of Episode Featuring Saria Saccocio, Chief Medical Officer at Essence Health

Podcast Information:

• Title: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
• Host/Author: Becker's Healthcare
• Episode: Saria Saccocio, Chief Medical Officer, Essence Health
• Release Date: July 14, 2025

---

Introduction

In this compelling episode of the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast, host Hayley Rutger engages in an insightful conversation with Saria Saccocio, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Essence Health. Recorded live at Becker's third annual Spring Payer Issues Roundtable, the discussion delves into the intricate balance between affordability and quality in healthcare, best practices for maintaining high standards of care, initiatives promoting health equity, and the future landscape of the payer space.

Balancing Affordability and Quality

The conversation kicks off with a critical examination of how Essence Health innovates to manage the cost of care without compromising—or even enhancing—member outcomes.

Saccocio describes their approach metaphorically, stating, “I like to describe the work that we do as an action packed documentary” (01:26). She emphasizes the importance of factual accuracy and comprehensive documentation in clinical care. By prioritizing engagement with primary care physicians (PCPs), Essence Health ensures that both preventive and chronic disease management are effectively addressed. This physician-led, value-based care model underscores the organization's commitment to providing high-quality care while controlling costs.

Best Practices and Tools to Maintain Quality Care

When discussing best practices, Saccocio highlights the simplicity and effectiveness of their strategies using the acronym PPD (02:18). She underscores the critical role of primary care access and the strong relationships between patients and their PCPs. “The relationship between a patient and their primary care physician is everything because they know how to give good care” (02:18).

Essence Health leverages data analytics and a robust tech stack to empower PCPs. This technology not only provides insights into individual patient care within the exam room but also offers a comprehensive view of the entire patient population. This dual focus ensures that no patient falls through the cracks, emphasizing proactive outreach and continuous engagement to maintain optimal health outcomes for all members.

Promoting Health Equity

Health equity is a cornerstone of Essence Health’s mission, as articulated by Saccocio. She encapsulates their initiative with a single word: “community” (03:46). For Essence Health, health equity encompasses understanding and addressing the diverse needs of their members and ensuring that every team member is equipped to contribute to this goal.

Saccocio highlights the importance of community engagement and partnerships with local nonprofits and health systems. “It takes a team, it takes a community… we can do so much more together to have the greatest impact” (04:47). By collaborating with established community organizations, Essence Health enhances its ability to meet members where they are and deliver tailored, culturally competent care.

Future of the Payer Space

Looking ahead, Saccocio identifies Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a pivotal opportunity for payers to transform care delivery and drive better outcomes. She advocates for demystifying AI to ensure its effective integration across all levels of the organization. “We need to demystify AI… it is everyone's job to understand AI” (05:02).

Essence Health is pioneering the use of AI through partnerships with innovative technologies like Aura Rings. By offering Aura access to members, the organization can monitor vital health metrics such as sleep patterns, heart rate, and physical activity. This data empowers both members and physicians to make informed decisions, enhancing overall health and vitality. Saccocio emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between technology and medical expertise in creating impactful healthcare solutions.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with Hayley Rutger expressing gratitude to Saria Saccocio for her valuable insights. Saccocio leaves listeners with a sense of optimism about the future of healthcare, grounded in community engagement, technological innovation, and unwavering commitment to quality and equity.

Notable Quotes:

• Saria Saccocio: “I like to describe the work that we do as an action packed documentary” (01:26)
• Saccocio: “The relationship between a patient and their primary care physician is everything because they know how to give good care” (02:18)
• Saccocio: “It takes a team, it takes a community… we can do so much more together to have the greatest impact” (04:47)
• Saccocio: “We need to demystify AI… it is everyone's job to understand AI” (05:02)

Key Takeaways:

• Essence Health employs a physician-led, value-based care model to balance affordability and quality.
• Strong primary care relationships and comprehensive data analytics are central to maintaining high standards of care.
• Health equity is achieved through community engagement and partnerships with local organizations.
• Artificial Intelligence presents significant opportunities for transforming care delivery and improving health outcomes.
• Technology integrations, such as wearable health devices, enhance the ability to monitor and optimize member health.

This episode provides a thorough exploration of the strategies and philosophies driving Essence Health, offering valuable insights for healthcare professionals and stakeholders interested in innovative, equitable, and efficient healthcare delivery.

Transcript

[A]

Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless innovation to create world class pharmacy care and benefits solutions. Barriers to care can lead to gaps in care which can drive up the total cost of care. Our capabilities work seamlessly together to create innovative pharmacy care and benefit solutions for today and tomorrow. Our connected health services make the treatment, prediction and prevention of healthcare's most complex conditions easier and more accessible as we drive organizations and people forward.

[B]

This is Hayley Rutger with the Becker's Payer Podcast and we are recording live at the Becker's third annual Spring Payer Issues Roundtable. I am thrilled today to be joined by Saria Sakochio, Chief Medical Officer at ESSENCE Health. Sariya, thank you so much for joining me today. Can you go ahead and tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background?

[C]

Sure, Hailey. And what a fantastic conference. I just have to say, the voices in the room, the energy that we're feeling here today is fantastic. So. And I'm so impressed with the way you said my name. Sera Sacosio. Very good. I'm the Chief Medical officer for ESSENCE Health and we are a Medicare Advantage health plan. We've got about 60,000 members. We focus on a physician led approach for true value based care.

[B]

Awesome. Well, to begin our conversation, I'd like to start talking about balancing affordability and quality. So how is your organization innovating to manage the cost of care while maintaining or improving member outcomes?

[C]

I like to describe the work that we do as an action packed documentary. I'm going to start with a documentary because it's so important to be factual with what we do and accurate with how we document the clinical story of the patient. Where the action comes from is that PCP engagement that we have. Quality of care is critical in everything we do. Every visit, every time. We focus on taking care of that patient just for chronic disease, but for preventive medicine, chronic disease, to optimize the vitality of health for our members. So it takes a whole team to do this and by telling the story, we have an action packed documentary.

[B]

Well, that was an awesome way of explaining that. Now, moving on to my next question. What are some of the best practices or tools that your organization relies on to keep quality of care at the forefront?

[C]

Well, first of all, Haley, we keep it simple. And I've got an acronym that I use, a ppd. So the clinicians who are listening will get a PPD and what we're looking for there. But for us, it is truly about starting with primary care that access to a PCP cannot be overemphasized how important that is. The relationship between a patient and their primary care physician is everything because they know how to give good care. But it takes a frequency of access to primary care to ensure that you're covering both preventive and chronic disease. We partner with our physicians and engage at a high level. In fact, they help us develop our program based on what they believe our patients or members need. And you can't do that without data. And instead of just saying we have data analytics and just like everyone else, we do have a tech stack, of course, but we think data enable our PCPs to be very successful and for our members to receive the best care every time. Our tech stack helps them not only see the individual patient as they're in the exam room, but their entire population, because what often is missed is the patient who doesn't cross the threshold. So we believe that outreach to every patient, every member, is critical to good healthcare. Awesome.

[B]

Now I want to take a moment to address health equity, which is a critical focus for many health plans. Can you share an overview of a key initiative here that you're involved in or particularly excited about and what are.

[C]

You hoping to achieve? I sure can. In one word, community. And community means so many things to us at Essence Health, community means our team members. And it takes every single one of us to understand what is health equity and why it matters. Because it does. Whether you're the member in the room or you are the PCP serving this patient, we need to understand how to meet everyone, where they are when they need it. So that's something that we do. I'll also say that community engagement is important. So often we try to do our things ourselves. As a family physician, I'm a self starter and I think I can do everything myself. I can't. It takes a team, it takes a community. And why we're not only partnering with community nonprofits, we partner with the community in our health systems as they already have these relationships. We can do so much more together to have the greatest impact if we focus on the big C. Absolutely.

[B]

Now for my final question. Today I want to talk about the future of the payer space. So what do you see as the biggest opportunity for payers to lead the charge in transforming care delivery and driving better outcomes for all stakeholders? And how can leaders take a step.

[C]

In this direction now? Well, the latest, sexiest acronym is. I know you know this one. It's AI. Okay, we talk about AI every day and it is so sexy. But we need to demystify AI. It is everyone's job to understand AI. In fact, we all do AI. If you've been on Google lately, you have AI'd. And so whether it's our members that understand AI and how to use it best, our team members and our primary care physicians, that is critical in the work that we do. Demystify, educate, and let's train everybody up to be successful in that. The last thing I'll share is about technology. For example, with our company, with essence, we are the first health plan that aura Rings have partnered with. So our Medicare Advantage plan offers to some of our members aura access. And this gives us the opportunity to partner for the greatest health and vitality that each member can have. Whether it's measuring their sleep, their heart rate, how active they are, all of these things matter. And then we partner with our physicians to create the greatest impact with that medical information now available.

[B]

Yeah, that's really amazing. I feel like I haven't gone a single day without hearing about the word AI, you know? Well, thank you so much for joining me today on the Becker's Payer Podcast. Again, this is Haley Rutger. We were recording live at the Becker's third annual Spring Pair Issues Roundtable. Sariya, thank you so much.

[C]

Thank you. And have fun at this fantastic conference.

[B]

Thanks. You too.