Transcript 0:02 [upbeat music] Hey, everyone. 0:18 Thanks so much for joining me on the Slice of Healthcare podcast. I'm your host, Jared Taylor. Today, we have two guests, which is a, a little different and I, I really like it, so this will be fun. 0:27 Uh, today's guests are Dr. Sherri Friedrich, who is the chief psychology officer at MediTeleCare, and Steven Tipping, who's the vice president of operations. How are you both doing today? Doing great. 0:40 Thanks so much for having us. Yeah, doing great, Jared. Thanks for having us. Perfect. I'm, I'm really excited to have both of you. I, I think we should start rolling. Uh, let- let's start with, I guess, Dr. Friedrich. 0:50 I'd love you give the audience quick one, two-minute snapshot of your background, and then Steven, if you could do the same thing, that'd be great. Great. 0:57 So I am a clinical psychologist by training, and the chief psychology officer here at MediTele. 1:04 My background is in lifespan development, and, um, my interests really fall with working with the geriatric population, uh, providing services and leading a team of clinicians performing, uh, psychological testing, assessments, and individual therapy services, as well as working with families of aging patients who live in the community as well as in skilled nursing facilities. 1:33 Great. I'm Steven Tipping. I'm the VP of operations with MediTeleCare. Um, my background, my education's in occupational therapy. Um, I did that for many decades, um, in the therapy world. 1:45 Um, and I came to behavioral health because I was always passionate as a therapist about behavioral health. 1:51 Um, not just the physical, the physical part of therapy, but also the mental capacity, and I saw a great need in our community, and I'm happy to be aboard with MediTeleCare. 2:03 Um, I oversee our operations in New England currently, and am in charge of the operations as we've launched this new platform for the community. Thanks both of you for the quick intros. Appreciate it. 2:18 And just so the audience knows, you know, this is, like, an ongoing... We, we talk with members of the MediTeleCare team. Ed's been on a couple of times and it's... 2:27 He's really given us a good overview of really what you're trying to, to build over there, what you're continuing to do, your growth. 2:34 Uh, and then on the last episode, we talked a little bit about the launch of, uh, MediTele, and I want this podcast episode to focus a little more into that. 2:44 Uh, so I'd, I'd appreciate if one of you could tell us more about the project, uh, also why you decided to launch it, if you can. 2:52 And then we can also go into some, uh, some other areas that kinda trickle down from, from that topic. Yeah, so MediTele is a new project, new service line that we are really passionate and excited about growing. 3:06 Uh, MediTele really evolved during the pandemic when we saw a greater need for access to behavioral healthcare amongst a number of populations. First off, uh, the aging population. 3:17 That's what we specialize in, working with older adults. 3:19 And so we were finding that we were getting a lot of requests to provide outpatient ambulatory services to older adults who we had previously only treated in the long-term care sector. 3:32 Um, additionally, there had been increased interest in nursing staff and, uh, medical providers who were working on the front lines during the pandemic and found themself wanting their own behavioral health and support. 3:47 So we really developed, uh, MediTele in response to the needs of those populations. 3:53 Um, additionally, families were finding themselves really isolated from loved ones in facilities, and so through the technology we use at MediTele, we've been able to start to introduce service lines to families who have, as you probably know, been really struggling this past year as they've been isolated from their loved ones. 4:15 Steven, do you- Thank-... want to talk a little bit about the technology and about, um, how people can access MediTele in a, in a telehealth environment? Sure. 4:25 Um, we, our app is either, we can, you can log on to meditele.com, or you can download it on the Apple or, uh, Google Play store. 4:35 And, um, you can log on and sign up, and we have a customer service rep that can get back to you, um, within the day and get you started with our platform. 4:47 Um, and it's, you know, as Sh- Sherri said, it's, it's community based, but it's also for our existing long-term care customers. So we're, we're super excited about this. So I did see it in the App Store too. 5:01 It, it, and, uh, I think it's in, it's in Android too as well. It is. Google Play. Yep, Google Play. Cool. Absolutely. Um, it, it's always nice to see both. Um, 5:10 it, it's, it's, uh, it's a rarity now when you see someone only doing one, but, um, 5:15 I mean, I'm, I'm a big Apple, Apple guy, but I know there's people that also leverage Android and, um, that, that's great that you, you included it in both. Can we, can we talk a little bit about... 5:27 I think this was one of the, the things that we wanted to kinda dive into, right? 5:29 Was, um, access to, the topic of access to care, which is obviously one of the big important, um, let's call it, a lot of people actually name it, like, a moonshot, right? 5:39 Like, how do we, how do we continue to improve access to care? Can you tell, talk us through a little bit how MediTele, uh, helps, uh, like, improve access to care? 5:50 Well, there, there's a number of ways that we improve access to care. I mean, first is just utili- utilization of telehealth technology. That's huge right now. 6:00 There's a shortage of mental health providers nationwide, and that even, that problem even worsens when we're talking about caring for aging adults. 6:09 A lot of people in the fields of psychology and psychiatry sort of cap their area of expertise at the age of, um, 65, so we eliminate an entire population from receiving services. 6:22 So telehealth allows not only the patient to easily access care, they don't have to worry about transportation, they don't have to worry about, um, you know, burdening family members with driving them for visits, no long waits. 6:36 They can just, you know, reach, um, out to providers from the comfort of their homes. So that's one, um, way that we really target access to care. 6:45 The other thing, um, that's so important though is that we're able to really have a great team of clinical providers who are skilled at treating aging adults, and with telehealth are able to do so without geographic boundaries. 7:00 So no longer, um, do we have to, you know, find somebody who's working and living in a certain radius. 7:07 We can really reach out to our network of providers across the country to then have, um, easier access to care and less of a wait before that first visit that's so critical. Appreciate that. 7:22 Uh, Steven, is there anything before we jump over to the next topic, uh, that you'd wanna add to that? 7:27 Um, no, I think Sherri hit pretty much all of our points and kind of why we thought this was a great opportunity for the community. 7:35 Um, I think the only thing I would add is it also gives the community the ability to access behavioral health via telehealth, um, in what I would consider, um, quote unquote, "non-business hours." 7:49 So, you know, if you go into a physician's office, they might only be open certain hours that, A, doesn't work for the patient, or B, they can't find family to transport them during that time because they're, you know, they- they're busy with their own lives or their own job. 8:03 So this gives a little bit more flexibility for people in the community to access the necessary behavioral health that they, that, that they need and deserve. That's a great point. 8:13 Jared, do you mind if I jump in and add something? No. Contin- please, please add more. One of the things, um, that's really unique about our services in terms of access is also our care coordinated model. 8:26 So there's a lot of telehealth, um, services out there right now, and that's really boomed, um, obviously, throughout the pandemic. 8:33 But we have found for the patients that we're really treating and working with, they do need high touch. They need somebody on the other end of the technology to help them. 8:43 This may be their first telehealth experience, their first time seeking care in this way, the first time using the technology in this capacity. 8:51 So our care coordinated model, um, puts a lot of resources in place behind the scenes so that the person doesn't become overly burdened or frustrated with the technology, but can actually reach a human being that coaches them through, that actually is there at the time of their first appointment to link them with a provider and make sure everything runs smoothly. 9:12 Uh, so I think that that really improves our access when we are, you know, working with a population that might find this approach to treatment really novel and could otherwise become easily frustrated and sort of give up. 9:27 Great point. It's, it's definitely something that I really enjoy about our platform. 9:32 Um, you know, a lot of people struggle with technology, and us having that ability to help them navigate it is gonna help decrease their stress and anxiety, for, you know, many people, they're coming to our platform because of stress and anxiety. 9:44 We don't wanna add to it. Um, so it's really a benefit of what we do, and I think we do it well. What, what's next in terms for, uh, MediTeli? So this was a... How, how soon was this launch? 9:58 This was not too long ago, right? The launch of MediTeli. No, no. We've been doing the work behind the scenes for the past year. 10:03 It's only been a few months since we've released, um, our first version of the app and have our, um, browser base fully operating. Okay. 10:13 All right, so you're, you're still, yeah, you're still in those early stages of the app. Um, 10:18 although, like, like you just mentioned, right, it's, it's not like even though you just launched it a couple months ago, it's been a work in progress for, you know, about a year now. 10:26 Which, which anyone who understands software products knows that, uh, it, that, that's, that's actually really good that you were able to get out that product, um, i- in that t- time period. 10:36 Um, what, what's next though in terms for the platform? Uh, are there any, like, updates that you foresee in the, in the near future or anything else that you can comment on kind of where, where MediTeli's heading? Sure. 10:49 Do you want me to take this, Sherri? Yeah, go ahead and I'll jump in... 10:53 Yeah, so I think, you know, the, the next logical step for our, for our, our platform, our, you know, our app, um, and our ambulatory services is the transition of care. 11:03 So we're gonna be able to use this, um, with our, our existing business, our long-term care facilities, our skilled nursing facilities, our assisted livings, and be able to offer the facilities and the patients in those buildings the opportunity to continue their behavioral health services with us when they get discharged back to the community. 11:22 Um, it's, there's such a need and there's so much anxiety on the facilities' side when they take a patient and they are looking to discharge them back to the community, finding the necessary behavior health services and coordinating that. 11:36 Sometimes it holds up the discharge, and, um, that's the last thing anybody wants. The facility doesn't want that and the patients don't want that, right? The patients are looking to get out as soon as possible. 11:47 So we're, we're really happy to be, being able to partner with our current facilities and offer this as a way to offer behavioral health to the-... individuals being discharged back into the community. 12:00 Um, it also allows the patients, you know, when they're discharged back, there's times when they wait up to nine months for an appointment, you know, or greater if there's a shortage of behavioral health in their region, um, where our goal is we're gonna have that continuity of services. 12:15 They're used to something in the, in the facility during their stay, and we're gonna be able to offer that immediately when they get discharged. Um, it's, it's exciting. 12:24 Uh, I think our, our facilities, it's going to be a real value add for them. I think it's going to help bur- uh, take the burden off their discharge planning. 12:33 I think it's gonna help their admissions process, where they might be able to take patients that they may not have taken before because they're thinking discharge and the, the, um, struggles it is to find community-based behavior health. 12:48 Um, I think it's gonna help 12:50 the facilities and the patients with decreased hospitalizations and, you know, what I would consider unnecessary ER visits, um, because we're giving them that access to behavioral health immediately. 13:01 Um, I think the patients are gonna like the continuity of care, that they're going to know that someone's following up with them very shortly after discharge. 13:09 It gives them a softer landing 'cause, you know, we're all readjusting no matter whenever we make a change in our life. 13:15 So they're making an adjustment when they go from community to long-term care, long-term care to the community. So giving that softer landing and helping them through that transition is very beneficial to the patient. 13:27 Um, it's, you know, like we said, no delay in services. There'll be, you know, no waiting period or hoping, hoping my insurance takes this or hoping that this person can fit me in. Um, and then, 13:40 you know, a lot of people get dis- discharged to the community with, um, home healthcare, and part of the regulations for home healthcare is that they have to be homebound. 13:50 They can't leave, they can't leave to do things. You know, technically, they shouldn't be leaving for appointments. 13:55 So this gives us the ability to do the behavioral health in their home virtually with a, um, much better time for them, what works for them. Um, so it, it def- it definitely is a benefit for the patient. 14:10 And lastly, for, for Medi Telecare and Medi Teli, you know, our mission is to consistently give people access to world-class clinicians that will help improve their quality of life, and I do believe this is the next step for us. 14:23 This platform is gonna allow us to deliver that next step. We do it so well in long-term care. 14:29 Now we're gonna be able to follow these pe- people in the community and, uh, it's, it's really, really gonna be groundbreaking for us. Thank you. Thank you for that, Steven. 14:41 Had myself on mute for a second, and I- All right... I wanted to talk, and I was like, someone was holding me back. So, uh, yeah, really appreciate that. 14:48 And, and I appreciate both of you coming on and, uh, I doubt this will be the last time you actually end up coming on the podcast, right? 14:54 We'll, we'll put together some other episodes and some good content together, and I look forward to continuing to hear the story of what Medi Tele- Me- Medi Telecare is doing, but also how things are going with Medi Teli, and how that's allowing you to continue to execute upon your, your grand vision, right? 15:10 So, uh, thank you both for, for joining me on the podcast today, and, uh, look forward to having you back on soon. Anytime, Jared. Thanks so much, Jared. Thank you so much. Take care. Thank you. 15:23 [outro music] Thank you to everyone that listened to this week's episode of the Slice of Healthcare podcast. 15:37 If you'd like to check out more of our podcasts, we're available on all the major podcast channels, and you can check us out on our website, www.sliceofhealthcare.com, and that'll have all of our past guests on there. 15:54 Uh, you can see our sponsors, and you can learn more about actually becoming a guest. Thanks, and look forward to another episode next week. 16:06 [outro music]
