Transcript Generated by AI 00:00 Mark Parkinson here for Park Place and welcome back. 00:04 And I am super excited today to be talking with Steven Little Hale. 00:08 You know, the mission of our website is your 00:11 success. 00:12 We're trying to do everything we can to help providers, vendors, administrators, 00:16 owners, people connected to the long term Care 00:18 World succeed. 00:20 And the best way to do that is to get information from folks that know how the 00:24 whole thing works and can help us succeed. 00:27 This entire segment, the entire digest area, 00:30 is sponsored by CBS Omnicare. 00:32 Their payment to us allows us to offer all of these advice and all of these 00:36 videos for free. 00:38 So we definitely want to thank CBS Omnicare. 00:41 I've been thrilled that as we've reached out to what I think is really a who's who 00:46 of consultants and experts in the LTC space that they've agreed to contribute 00:51 to us. 00:51 And Steven, I, I, I can't be happier that you've agreed to 00:55 do this. 00:56 I, you know, you are, somebody told me yesterday you are a gift 01:00 to the sector. 01:01 That was Anton Wilson's description of you. 01:04 And to have you regularly contributing is just great. 01:07 Now I've, I've known you back from the point right 01:10 days when I started at ACA roughly 15 years ago. 01:13 And I know that you're a gerontological clinical nurse, a board certified. 01:18 You went to Georgetown. 01:19 That impresses me as a as AI went to Wichita State, I'm thinking Georgetown, 01:24 you know, that's a very impressive school, but I I need it for point right. 01:28 Some incredible work that you've done at point right over the years. 01:31 And now with Zema, tell us about your Well, first of all, 01:34 welcome. 01:35 Oh, thank you. 01:36 I'm really so honored to be here. 01:38 Thanks for including me. 01:39 You bet. 01:40 Tell us about your work and maybe start out with the 20 plus years that you were 01:44 at Point Right. 01:45 What? 01:45 What have you figured out? 01:46 What have you focused on? 01:47 Sure. 01:48 Point Right was founded by academics and clinicians from Harvard University, 01:54 Brown University. 01:56 And I got to work with them when I was at Hebrew Senior Life in Boston. 02:01 And what we were trying to do was to really leverage all the in the rich data 02:07 that was out there and to give providers data-driven strategies for quality 02:12 improvement. 02:13 Now that seems pretty digestible, pretty easy in today's world. 02:18 But now think back 30 years. 02:21 So having a conversation with a nursing home operator about predictive analytics 02:26 and data-driven strategies, that, that was a tall order, 02:30 but we did it and we were incredibly successful in moving the needle of 02:35 quality outcomes in US nursing homes. 02:38 I mean, it's, it's hard to believe, but it really wasn't that long ago. 02:41 And during your time at Pointwright 5 star didn't even exist. 02:44 That's right. 02:45 And so then you, you shifted over to Zemit 6 plus years 02:49 ago. 02:50 Were you the chief innovation officer? 02:51 What, what are you doing with the Zemit group? 02:54 Really the same thing. 02:55 But what is incredibly fun with the Zimmer Group is that they are even more 03:01 complete in that they have the insights into reimbursement, 03:05 they understand the financial aspects of the industry. 03:10 So adding in that data, those data sets to the quality risk 03:14 management, compliance work that I've been doing has 03:17 been fascinating. 03:19 So we truly are able to give a complete 360 back to operators into the industry. 03:25 So I know one of the things that you lecture on, 03:27 I've heard you make many speeches. 03:28 You're you've really become an expert on five star on the special focus list, 03:33 all things regulatory, giving folks advice on how to, you know, 03:37 get better on five star, how to avoid special focus list, etcetera. 03:41 Let's just talk about 5 star for a second. 03:44 Why, why, why are we here with what we have here 03:46 with five star and what's what's the reason for this? 03:49 It's interesting in, in 2008, the government decided CMS decided to 03:55 make available a rating system to help consumers, 04:00 elders and their families make better decisions when deciding which nursing 04:06 home to go to. 04:08 And that's admirable. 04:10 And it, they're all, the goal was transparency as well. 04:14 And I don't think there's any provider in the United States who cannot sign on to 04:19 that mission. 04:21 We believe in transparency and being measurably successful. 04:25 The challenge is they went about doing it without really talking to the consumer to 04:31 find out what was valuable to them. 04:35 So imagine basically bureaucrats deciding what quality care was in nursing homes 04:41 and how it should be measured. 04:44 It leverages too much on the survey process from from my perspective, 04:50 because I've been saying this my entire career. 04:54 From looking at the the evidence, the best predictor of your survey 04:58 outcomes is your zip code. 05:01 Yeah. 05:01 And you know, we at ACA, we have been lobbying CMS for years to de 05:05 emphasize survey and increase the waiting on quality measures because I mean, 05:10 isn't that what it's really all about? 05:13 Exactly. 05:13 And it feels like we're slowly making progress, 05:15 but we're definitely not there yet. 05:17 Well, why, why do you, why do providers need to be hyper focused 05:21 on their five star? 05:22 Well, what CMS also did when they put this 05:25 system in place And, and, and I'll just note that the five star has 05:31 been used to measure improvement and providers have improved steadily since 05:37 2008. 05:38 The rules get changed the the IT gets recalibrated, 05:41 but providers have been improving, which is a wonderful thing. 05:47 The thing that CMS also did at the time is they linked five star success to 05:55 having entry into alternative payment models, for example, 06:01 or accessing loans from HUD. 06:04 So they they created knowingly or unknowingly, they, 06:08 they created a business case for being A at least a three star facility and 06:13 managed care followed suit and REITs followed suit and said, well, 06:17 like it or not, we're going to we're going to latch on to 06:21 this measurement as well. 06:23 Yeah. 06:24 I mean, it feels like if you're going to be a 06:26 part of the VBP world, the future and all of that, 06:28 you've got to be at least three star exactly preferred networks from hospitals. 06:32 So you really have to pay attention to it, even though I think we all agree it's not 06:37 the best tool. 06:40 You have no choice. 06:41 So I again, you're going to be contributing on some 06:44 regular basis to be determined on to Park Place and we're thrilled about that. 06:48 What are what are some of the topics and areas that you plan on getting into over 06:52 the coming months? 06:53 Sure. 06:53 In addition to five star, we'll take a, a deep dive and SFF as well, 06:59 and the regulatory snafus that can get you on that list and, 07:04 and also strategies for getting off that list. 07:09 And in the case of five star as well, how to improve your five star scores, 07:13 how to better understand them and ultimately make them work for you. 07:18 I'd also like to get into and, and this might surprise you a bit because 07:23 maybe you haven't heard me or, or, or read this particular element of 07:28 something I'm very passionate about is, is looking at culture and looking at how 07:33 to leverage the strength of the people who are working in our industry. 07:39 We're a mission driven industry and I think that's our superpower. 07:43 And I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about this, writing about this, 07:46 lecturing on this, and I'd love to share that on Park Place. 07:50 Well, I mean, that's what we're all about is being 07:52 mission driven. 07:53 I mean, you, you just cannot, you can't be, 07:55 if you're not mission driven in this sector, you, you, 07:57 you shouldn't be in this. 07:58 Exactly. 07:59 It's the it's the perfect place to to live our mission driven, 08:02 really purposeful life. 08:04 Well, Steven, thank you so much for being here in this 08:06 with us in the studios today. 08:07 And we can't wait to see what you contribute in the upcoming months and 08:12 years. 08:12 And I again want to thank CVS Omnicare. 08:15 I want to thank all of you for watching this segment. 08:19 And we appreciate your support of Park Place. 08:22 Oh my God, if you're still watching this, this means that you watch the end of a 08:27 very long video on Park Place. 08:29 I'm not sure what that means. 08:30 It says something about you or maybe there was just nothing else to watch 08:34 today, or maybe your priorities are a little bit 08:36 off. 08:37 But whatever it is, we really appreciate your support. 08:39 And if you want to continue to follow us, follow us on LinkedIn, 08:43 on our various social media sites and, you know, 08:46 try to find something else to do.
