Transcript Generated by AI 00:00 Mark Parkinson back with Park Place and we are continuing our series on what it's 00:06 like to operate facilities in Arizona. 00:09 And we are joined by a great operator, Lisa Leveque, 00:14 who has a lifetime experience in providing care. 00:19 She is very young, as you can see, but despite that has decades of 00:23 experience in the sector and near and dear to my heart is that she started out 00:27 in Kansas, which is great. 00:29 She's now in Arizona where she is the Vice President of Strategic Alignment and 00:33 Transformation for Bandera, which is an Ensign affiliate. 00:37 And in that capacity, she's overseeing over 40 facilities so 00:40 she can really tell us what it's like to operate in Arizona. 00:45 Lisa, thanks for being here. 00:47 Thank you, Mark. 00:48 So honored and grateful to be here with you. 00:51 And I, I left out another really important thing 00:53 which is that you're the Vice President of the Arizona Healthcare Association 00:57 will eventually run that organization. 00:59 And I think that also adds to your perspective. 01:01 So Lisa, when you think about operating in Arizona, 01:05 what are some of the first things that come to mind? Well, Mark, 01:09 we here in Arizona, we have a unique situation in which we 01:13 have a lot of unique programs. 01:15 These programs have been developed over the years with collaboration with our 01:21 state regulators, our payer partners. 01:24 Those unique programs range from everything from ventilator, trach, 01:30 dialysis to bariatric. 01:32 And when I talk about bariatric, it's very unique. 01:35 Bariatric, it's not what the typical skilled nursing 01:38 facility is admitting. 01:40 These are patients that require, you know, a lot of assistance and a lot of 01:45 engagement with therapy services and a lot of partners are involved. 01:50 We also have a lot of behavioral health units. 01:55 We've been able to develop over the years multiple levels of care within that 02:03 behavioral health sector and we even have adolescent boys with autism with 02:10 behaviors program. 02:12 We also have a substance use recovery program here. 02:15 So when I think about Arizona, the first thing that does come to mind is 02:19 that unique programming. That's really great. 02:21 It's a terrific perspective because I think, you know, 02:24 we've talked a lot about how you're a managed care state and you certainly are. 02:28 But another thing that distinguishes Arizona from the rest of the country are 02:32 that you have all of these specialty programs. 02:35 There are states that certainly have one or two of them. 02:37 But I think as people really analyze Arizona, 02:40 they've got to realize because of the some good work that the sector has done, 02:43 that the state has done, there are a lot of opportunities that are 02:46 beyond just what we think of as traditional nursing home care. 02:49 And, and you should be congratulated on that. 02:52 Now tell us about reimbursement in Arizona. 02:54 What's, what's your assessment of that? 02:57 Yeah, I would say it's healthy comparatively, 03:01 right. 03:01 There's always room for improved reimbursement as related to certain lines 03:07 of business when it comes to like the programming I talked about. 03:12 But for us in general, it's healthy and it's because we've had 03:17 these partnerships with our payers for so long. 03:20 And one thing that we've done over the years is really work with our payer 03:26 partners to really dive into like how do we provide care that's collaborative with 03:32 the payer and align with the payers initiatives. 03:35 And so for us, it's about focusing on those quality 03:39 outcomes and working collaboratively with our payer partners. 03:44 I mean, that's another thing that struck me about 03:46 Arizona. 03:46 I remember the first time I came to a state convention back in 2011, 03:50 there were managed care companies there at the convention working side by side 03:55 with the providers, which is not something you typically see 03:58 in other states. 03:59 It's really, really interesting. 04:01 Yeah, it's, it's exciting to have them at these 04:04 conventions, not only like to, you know, to have a booth, 04:09 but they're actually there and they're engaged, they're presenting, 04:14 they're having conversations that I'd say the typical provider member doesn't have 04:20 access like we do to those health plan partners. 04:24 Yeah, it's a very different relationship than 04:26 most of the country. 04:27 Tell us about the survey environment. 04:28 How would you assess the regulatory situation there? 04:33 Well, we a couple years ago we did pass a bill 04:36 to enhance that collaboration with our regulators. 04:40 So we've been able to and not just recently, 04:43 but historically been able to get at the table, 04:46 really talk through the challenges we're experiencing in the individual facilities 04:52 and, and collaborate on how to fix that. 04:55 And the Department of Health Services here has been really good about listening, 05:01 engaging and, and figuring out ways to continue to 05:04 support us. 05:06 That's, I mean, you're, you're, you're telling us things that we don't 05:09 hear from most states. 05:09 So let, let me ask you about the association and 05:12 how you assess the effectiveness of the Arizona Healthcare Association. 05:16 Well, I, as you probably know, I really do love to brag about Dave 05:21 Voepel. 05:22 We're incredibly lucky to have Dave as our leader. 05:28 And not just Dave, but his whole team. 05:30 We have an amazing team here in Arizona that not only works for the association, 05:35 but volunteers and supports the board and other initiatives. 05:39 So we are very, very lucky to have Dave Voepel and his 05:43 team. 05:44 Well, Lisa, I think you all are showing us the way in 05:46 Arizona as to how we ought to be doing it in the rest of the country. 05:49 When you have a united sector with great leadership in the association, 05:53 you end up with things like specialty programs, decent reimbursement, 05:57 A regulatory system that works, and hopefully others will watch this and 06:02 listen and learn, and we'll be able to spread some of this 06:05 great success across the country. 06:07 Lisa, thanks for being with us today. 06:09 Thank you, Mark, and thank all of you for your continued 06:12 support of Park Place.
