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- [00:00]
A
This is Alan Condon, back with the Becker's Health Care Podcast and today I'm delighted to be joined by Todd Latz is the CEO of Go Health Urgent Care, which has nearly 400 centers nationwide and partnered around about 12 leading health systems across the country, including recent partnerships with UPMC in Pennsylvania, Community Health Network in Indiana. Todd, a real pleasure to have you make your debut appearance on the Beckers podcast today. But for those of our listeners who mightn't be as well acquainted with you or the work that Go Health Urgent Care does, do you mind sharing a little bit more about the company and your background?
- [00:40]
B
Absolutely. So pleasure Alan, to be on the podcast and really appreciate you giving me some time today. Again, Todd Latz, I've been the CEO here at Go Health for a little more than a decade, so I've been with the business from earliest days back when we had just five locations. And as you mentioned, we're nearly at 400. And maybe the best way, Alan, to describe Go Health is that we were purpose built, consumer focused on demand care business. And we really have a unique feature in our differentiated partnership model. And what that means is that we partner, as you said, round about 12. So you've got it about exactly right. We have 13 health system partnerships today and in each one of those partnerships we act as both the physical and digital front door to the health care ecosystem for those health systems and for the markets in the communities that they serve. And you know the business from the very earliest days, and I think we'll probably get into some detail here as we move forward, has been a technology forward, true omnichannel business certainly. And what I mean by that is both brick and mortar with a robust virtual platform, all designed to make care for our patients and communities personal, connected and effortless, all about trying to take friction out of the system.
- [02:08]
A
Fantastic. No, I really appreciate the wider context and background there. So 13 health system partners and obviously growing excited to kind of dive in a little bit deeper here. Todd, to your point, we've seen a significant interest, growing interest in terms of partnerships, joint ventures in the ASC space, in the urgent care space, specifically as what we're going to be talking about today. To your point, in your opening statements, your partnership model has really gained significant traction recently. Can you share some of those lessons that you've learned from some of these recent joint ventures with health systems? And maybe what do you see as health systems and Go Health? What do you really need to get right in these partnerships to be successful? When you think about the Long term, absolutely.
- [02:51]
B
So, great question, Alan. And what I would say, thankfully, is that the lessons we've learned from our recent joint venture ventures are really not dissimilar from those lessons learned in our first 10 +JVs. So going back over a decade now, and part of it is I think pretty simple and basic in terms of any joint venture or true integrated partnership, which is shared beliefs, open communication, trust are obviously very important. Aligned incentives, again, in any partnership is key. And as we think about it, it's collaboration. You have to have a commitment to what you're doing and be able to execute against that plan. That commitment and the right market opportunity is a huge piece of it. So that gets to your question around why are health systems looking at this more aggressively today? And that's certainly been a building momentum over the last several years. A big piece of that is maybe what we would typically call product market fit, right? There are many similarities across markets, across the country, but each one of the markets we're in, and I think this is even more true in healthcare maybe than other industries is there are very unique characteristics and we think about this together with our partners, that our centers and the care that we're delivering in our communities needs to also reflect the specific characteristics of that market. Our partners are looking, when they partner with GO Health for a proven model of success. And that's everything from site selection to data driven operational decisions, our speed to market, the ability to execute as well as that consumer and retail mindset that focuses on, you know, an established set of customer acquisition tools. And then the really the special piece about the partnership is how we integrate with those health systems. And for us, that's using either a common or interface electric electronic medical record. Our ability to really generate other points of continuity and connection into the health systems. And our partners and our partnerships are really focused on increasing convenient access to care at the right price points. And in all of our mature partnerships, Alan, we are the single largest driver of net new patients into our health system partners. And that's a key component of, you know, answering the question, why are more health systems, you know, moving into the space and partnering with organizations like GO Health? And that's a, that's a really meaningful component of it. They're trying to drive more new patients and market share there. And we truly believe that the partnership model is a one plus one equals three or four year. You're bringing together the best aspects of what our health system partners have to deliver that high quality clinical expertise, broad and integrated services, brand recognition with all of the unique attributes that we bring to the table at GO Health.
- [06:03]
A
And you talked a little bit about the market opportunities out there. I think to your point, almost 400 centers nationwide, huge growth in recent years, a number of health system partnerships Go Health. What are the opportunities or the markets that you're really seeking out? What are the markets that make sense for you and your partnership model as you continue to grow in the coming years?
- [06:28]
B
Most important piece, when you're running a partnership oriented organization. So for us, Alan, every single one of our centers across the country is in a deeply integrated joint venture with a health system. So partnership is effectively all that we do. And for us we have to get two key components correct, that is picking the right partners. So alignment in terms of how they think about the market, the opportunity that healthcare consumer and then the market as well. So certainly we look at things where we really like the set of potential partners, but maybe the market isn't right for what we're trying to do or vice versa. And for us it's really lining those two things up. And it comes down to the original tenets that I mentioned a moment ago, which is the ability to come in to offer something that is very consumer focused, you know, technology driven, different than what exists in the market today. We have based on when we got our start, Alan, we were never first to market. We're often coming into markets that have existing on demand care options, urgent care, retail care, and we're bringing in this partnership with these progressive health systems, something different that historically has not existed in that market. And so we're not afraid to go into a competitive market or a market that has a number of other alternatives because of the unique value proposition that we get by partnering with these large and really quality driven successful health systems.
- [08:04]
A
Yeah, shifting gears just a little bit. We know staffing is a major headwind for hospitals, health systems and healthcare really across the country specifically. We're seeing that in urgent care as well as. Could you talk a little bit about how GO Health is addressing maybe clinician burnout and the workforce shortages aspect, while also meeting to your point, rising demand that we're seeing really across the country in terms of walk in and same day care.
- [08:33]
B
Al, it's probably the most important thing that we talk about internally and you know, especially in a growth minded organization like our staffing would be an issue anyway given the significant amount of growth. But we're doing this in very difficult, challenging staffing markets. So it is both our greatest challenge, but internally and I think our team, which is, I have the great fortune of working with an incredible group. We would see this as our signal, greatest opportunity for competitive advantage moving forward too. And it starts with finding and then retaining the best team members. And that that really is as hard today as it's ever been. I've never seen a more difficult labor market in my career and it was really, really compressed and difficult during the pandemic, but it hasn't bounced back. It's still a very difficult market and I would say across the board for almost all healthcare providers. And so given that everyone is struggling with that same issue, it's again comes back to some pretty simple first principles of finding the best talent, keeping that talent and cultural alignment with that group and ensuring that they feel that they have a great path forward. And you do that by innovating, by utilizing technology to support that team. And as we think about it, to make it specific to Go Health, we have custom designed and flexible workflows, proprietary technology solutions all about allowing our caregivers and support team members to be present, to focus on what matters. So you know some of the newer things that many are doing today, certainly we are things like AI scribing, ambient listening, all designed to let the caregiver do what that caregiver was meant to do, right? Spend time with a patient to treat and help that patient get to a state of recovery. And the non value add, things like admin and all the clicks and everything else that they have to deal with, that's what really drives or can drive that burnout and make the team member experience not what they would hope for it to be. So we certainly think about the innovation, think about technology. We take a very team based approach, whether that's support for the team at the end of shift, using virtualization, a hybrid of in person and virtual. We do things that we call go support or go follow. So this is jumping in when a provider and a team is having a really high volume day with extra hands on deck. It's someone coming in to do follow up calls to make sure that the patients are recovering as expected and cross training our team is a really important one for us too. So having people in the center that can do multiple things allows for that load balancing to be more dynamic and to give people breaks when they need it.
- [11:37]
A
Yeah, and I think the innovation and the tech aspect I think is so, so key to the workforce component here and it kind of ties nicely into my next question here as well. But when we think about retail disruptors, the likes of CVS, for example, Amazon, one medical building out these digital urgent care models. How is GoHealth adopting? You talked a little bit about it there, but maybe just to expand on it, adapting the digital front door and consumer engagement strategy to compete with these growing models from some of these disruptors in the urgent care space.
- [12:13]
B
It's certainly an appropriate question given the markets that we operate in today. And we had the good fortune, and maybe some of this is even lack of timing, that when we got our start, people were already, businesses were already enabled from a cloud computing perspective to be more nimble from a technology aspect. And so we've been really digitally enabled from the very beginning. So the digital front door that I mentioned, that was true for us. Day one, we had a queuing system immediately, very early to online registration that allows us to give price transparency and payment options to patients digitally. And today you're more than half, upwards of 75% in some of our markets of our patients check in online, they're able to complete their full registration, they can even pay before they arrive, all unassisted by a team member. So that gets back to that question we were just discussing about staff. These are all sort of the non value add, both for the customer and for our team member. And all of that's being handled, or at least capable of being handled on the front end. And so in order to execute against that, you have to have great consumer engagement. And for us being in an episodic type business, right, it's not that you're coming to an on demand care center on a regular basis, it's just there when you need it. It requires us to truly be top of mind with our customer. And we have always had this hypothesis, this goes back to our earliest days, that our, our consumer has an issue, so they're not feeling well, they've injured themselves, or it's a family member, friend, what have you. But they're already in motion seeking some form of care, but they haven't always decided where they're going to get it. That's the definition of an on demand care business. And so we want to be top of mind for them and we want to be out in front of it. And to get back to your question about these newer entrants, right, the retail driven piece, you know, what we've certainly seen over several years is that health care is very complex. I obviously don't need to tell you that you understand it and some would call it byzantine at times. It's a difficult environment to operate in and the retailers certainly have a very keen sense of consumer needs how to meet those. I think what we have seen certainly over the last five years is that while you can be really expert and do a great job on the acquisition front, right. And on the digital experience, you also have to be able to deliver in our world on the core components of healthcare. Right? And being very connected into the broader healthcare ecosystem is really important. And our perspective, certainly my personal perspective has been that savvy healthcare operators and providers can adopt and advance the consumer and digital experience. It's much more difficult for a prototypical retailer to learn and execute well in this complex byzantine healthcare environment that we operate in. And Pat, have been quite clear with this that those experiences they get from Amazon and all the retailers you named on the every other aspect of their life, not healthcare, they want that same personalized, effortless omni channel experience in healthcare. And historically most healthcare providers haven't been very good at delivering that. I think that the good news is there are many of us very focused on that and it's getting better, but healthcare still has a long way to go.
- [15:56]
A
Yeah, no, that's kind of fascinating point. It's something that just came up in a recent interview I did with the CEO of University Hospitals, Dr. Cliff McGarrian, kind of talking about to your point, just how important consumer strategy is, just how important hospitality is from a healthcare standpoint today as we think about competition across the board, this kind of shopping era of healthcare where so many choices out there. I'm just curious, how does that kind of fold into your strategy at Go Health and something that you think about as well as more and more new entrants into the space, the hospitality, the kind of patient experience standpoint.
- [16:39]
B
It's paramount Alan, and we've our vision statement from the again early days of the business has been unparalleled experiences. I'm a big believer that the currency, as it were in health care going forward is experience. Our modern healthcare consumer today has many, many options. And as much as the health systems or anyone else who operates in the healthcare environment would like to have loyal patients who only come to that one provider, the practical reality is that every patient effectively is a splitter, meaning they have providers that their primary care clinician might be at one system or they go have surgery or some other specialty care from another. And so lot of options out there for the modern day health care consumer, the patient. And so absolutely Cliff is correct that that hospitality component, that consumer experience is what drives so many of those decisions. The good news in this country is that we have an incredible amount of high quality, capable caregivers, providers, systems. And so that hospitality, that effortless experience, taking friction out of, you know, what's been a pretty difficult environment from a consumer perspective historically is what drives both differentiation and your ability to capture that patient and to maintain that loyal relationship. The experience that they have, especially to bring it back to our world in a true on demand environment where it's pretty easy to vote with your feet. Right. If you have a bad experience there today, the next time you try something else that brings back that incredibly important component of hospitality and consumer experience. So it's something that we spend an immense amount of time talking about, strategizing for and executing against.
- [18:35]
A
Yeah, no, no, great to kind of get your perspectives there. It certainly seems a major component of providers across the board in terms of their strategy going forward in this day and age, to your point. So, so paramount. Todd, the one other question I wanted to get your perspective on, I think no secret to you, to myself, to any of our listeners, the ongoing kind of trend has been happening for a long time now. Outpatient migration, payers, providers pushing cases, more complex cases, specifically in urgent care, we talk about emergency cases pushing somebody's maybe emergency department cases out to the urgent care, the right setting and the right place for care. Excuse me, can you talk a little bit about how the urgent care model fits into the broader push toward value based care? This shift that we're seeing away from volume towards value, what kind of roles do these centers play in potentially reducing the total cost of care there?
- [19:33]
B
Alan, I certainly agree with your setup there. We have been really over the last two decades seeing mass migration outside of the four walls of the care into ambulatory settings, both driven by the payers and patients themselves. And I've seen that in certainly urgent care is at the sort of center of the bullseye there. That's true for imaging asc, you name it. And the beauty and what I really liked about this urgent care on demand care space is that you're really there at the aaa, right? You're getting more convenient, more consumer patient oriented at a lower price point. And as we think about that broader move to value based care, I think it's moving more slowly than many of us would have predicted or frankly liked. But it is still happening. And another thing that I like a great deal about the on demand care urgent care space that we're in is I think if done correctly, we've certainly proven that you can be very successful in a fee for service model. But the truth is that I think urgent care Works even better in a value based, value enabled world. It's more convenient, it's faster, it's at a much lower price point that you brought up this notion of diversion from an emergency department. We're going to be 1/10 of the cost in urgent care of that ED visit and a huge portion today still of the patients and visits in EDs could be seen in urgent care or in primary care. And I think we've proven over the last decade, working with health systems payers, that anyone taking total cost of care risk is in a much more advantageous position by getting patients into the right side of care, the right place, at the right cost and the right convenience. And in our model, we've been able to close gaps in care, get in front of issues earlier so that you can avoid a more acute or costly outcome. We're trying to avoid readmission to the hospital. We can take timely and frictionless risk scoring in our environment. Care coordination, we've added behavioral health to our platform. So doing that in a collaborative care model alongside primary care, even some transitional primary care itself, really trying to bridge patients and make sure they get to the right place. But they're not having, for instance, an urgent care visit and then an ED visit and then an admission to the hospital. And that's one of the beauties of our deeply connected partnership model, that we can skip some of those steps and take better care of all of our patients at a lower price point.
- [22:17]
A
Yeah, no, fascinating to kind of just get a wider perspective and the urgent care model at GO Health and kind of how you're thinking about some of these partnerships and growth as well. Todd, been very generous with your time. One last question I'd love to get your perspective on before we wrap up. Looking ahead, say five years or so, in your view, what do you think will separate the urgent care strategies that scale sustainably maybe from those that potentially fizzle out?
- [22:46]
B
I think the timeliness of that question is spot on, Alan. We are seeing today in our environment that differentiation is critically important. And you have to have a unique model or some other value proposition to feel confident about future growth and moving forward. And obviously from our perspective, we believe deeply in this integrated partnership model. But there are other models out there that have shown a lot of success too, which is some of those might be a rural model or some sort of specialized care. So it's a pediatrics focus, for example. And I think if you look back five years scale in our environment was pretty probably enough for most to ensure some level of success. But there is no question that today just simply having scale won't get it done. You have to have scale and differentiation. We're seeing this play out now that many of the large independent models are stuck or in decline. And so for us, it's this notion of a truly connected care model where you can offer the full spectrum, you can ensure same day, next day specialty visits when that's appropriate. And so I think it's that connected model of differentiation. And then again, as with anything, you have to pick the right markets, the right partners. So just the basic tenets of any business operating in these, you know, in these times, in the tough labor market, it's about efficient and innovative operations, being nimble and being able to pivot the business when necessary. And that's certainly been a critically important factor over the last several years in, in healthcare. And it gets to having sustainable unit economics that give you the opportunity to continue to move forward, to continue to reinvest and innovate the business and that supports that growth going forward. And together with our partners, we've had the great fortune of being able to do that. Wow.
- [24:51]
A
So scale and differentiation obviously so, so key and to your point, really holding, honing in on that truly connected care model and to your point as well, in any of these partnerships, I imagine making sure that you're doing your due diligence up front, partnering with like minded systems, like minded partners, fantastic insights across the board. Todd, great to kind of spend some time with you today here about some of the fantastic work that you and your team are doing at Go Health and I'd love to catch up with you again down the line. Thank you so much.
- [25:19]
B
Thank you, Alan. I look forward to that and really appreciate the time.