'It's not simply the payer's fault': Aveanna CEO Jeff Shaner on listening to well being plans
When it comes to house well being suppliers' relationships with payers, Jeff Shaner, CEO of Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc., believes. (Nasdaq: AVAH) that the approaching years can be “transformative.”
Suppliers will should be intentional of their agreements to realize the longer term success they want, Shaner believes.
He mentioned this on Tuesday throughout a panel dialogue at Residence Care 100 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“I feel we’re on the cusp of probably the most transformative interval within the final thirty years in healthcare as we speak, on the subject of payer partnerships,” mentioned Shaner. “And understanding your payer, who you’re employed with, why you’re employed with them and the way you’re employed with them.”
Atlanta-based Aveanna offers house well being care providers in 33 states. Along with house and group providers and Medicare-certified house care, the corporate additionally affords pediatric house care providers.
Shaner assumed the position of CEO at Aveanna in January 2023. He was beforehand COO for the corporate.
Aveanna, which went public in 2021, has confronted vital headwinds in recent times. The corporate remodeled its enterprise mannequin to focus extra on seniors in the course of the pandemic.
Heavy macroeconomic pressures, along with excessive inner workforce points, have hampered progress in 2022 and 2023. Over time, nevertheless, the corporate has been in a position to get its toes below it.
“Probably the most worthwhile classes we’ve got discovered is the shortage of our services or products,” Shaner mentioned. “The physician who offers our service is value gold. And you’ll't simply let that go someplace. That you must concentrate on the place your physician, your sources and your schedule are going – and who you might be working with.”
Due to this fact, the corporate has drawn a tough line on who it’s keen to work with from a payer perspective, and who it’s not.
It seems to be at who we must always collaborate with, and maybe even extra: who we must always not collaborate with.
“One of many issues we've been engaged on during the last 18 months is [that question around], who’re our payer companions?” Shaner mentioned. “Actually on the lookout for a accomplice and being keen to be on the opposite aspect of the desk with them – whether or not it's in geriatrics or pediatrics, whether or not it's within the VA, Medicaid or Medicare Benefit.”
Aveanna has hung out listening to what payers want, not simply telling payers what they need as an organization.
“Two years in the past, in the course of COVID, we threw one [payer executive] on our providers,” Shaner mentioned. “At one level throughout a dialog he mentioned, 'Do you wish to know what's necessary to us?' It was simply a type of moments if you realized you needed to shut up and hear. It was an unimaginable studying second.”
So whereas Aveanna seems to be for payers keen to pay them sufficient charges for house care providers, the corporate additionally seems to be for the suitable options to payer issues alongside the way in which.
“It's not simply the payers' fault,” Shaner mentioned. “Now we have a accountability to say, Hey, what are your wants, and the way can we assist clear up them?”