Utilizing configurable medical software solutions for more streamlined service and better patient care
Recommended Book:
Best Way to Contact Charlie:
Mentioned Link:
Saul Marquez:
Hey Outcomes Rocket listeners thanks for tuning into the podcast again. Tired of your businesses healthcare costs unpredictably increasing every year? Healthcare costs are typically a business’s second or third line item expense. And if you’re like most employers, it’s an expense that’s growing faster than your revenue. Luckily for employers Noveta Health has the solution. Noveta Health is a full service healthcare consulting firm with proven strategies to lower your health care costs by up to 30% or more. They operate on a fee for service model and never mark up any of their medical or pharmaceutical claims. None of your employees have to leave their doctor or pharmacist either. Their health captive and pharmacy benefit manager are the most cost effective and transparent solutions in the whole country. What they do is not magic. It’s just honest. So if you’re tired of over spending on health insurance and want to learn more visit outcomesrocket.health/save for a free spend analysis to see how you too could save by switching to Noveta Health. That’s outcomesrocket.health/save for your free spend analysis outcomesrocket.health/save.
Saul Marquez:
And welcome back to the podcast. Today I have the pleasure of hosting Charlie Hutchinson. He’s the CFO of InSync. InSync Healthcare Solutions is a leading provider of integrated EMR and practice management software, revenue cycle management services, and medical transcription to thousands of healthcare professionals throughout the US. Charlie is responsible for leading the company’s strategic financial initiatives with over 13 years of executive experience, Charlie brings to InSync a well-rounded background that includes extensive experience in the hi tech software industry, IPO, acquisitions, you name it. Prior to joining InSync, he was the CFO for Vitals, LLC, and Biz Vibe so it’s a true pleasure to have Charlie with us today. And with that Charlie I want to welcome you and also allow you to fill in any gaps in the introduction that I have that I may have left out. Welcome to the podcast my friend.
Charlie Hutchinson:
Thank you Saul. Just that I had started it in electronic medical records and practice management back in about 1996 with a company called Medical Manager. Spent about three or four years there through their IPO and then there’s their sale to Web M.D. they had at the time was the largest practice management software in the entire country. I think we had estimated at the time over 60% of the doctors or fighters had used medical manager or so been in a while seen it evolve and very excited about where it’s going.
Saul Marquez:
Now that’s certainly you’ve been around for a while. So it’ll be great to hear some of your thoughts. You know a lot of talk around the EMR, EHR space and things happening and so be interesting to hear your perspective on the financial side as well. Today is sort of you know we continue talking about interoperabilities, happen, et cetera. Before we dive into those details I love to hear what got you into the medical sector to begin with?
Charlie Hutchinson:
Well we had at the time back in 1997 it was very opportunistic. We had an old friend of mine actually an old friend of my dad and he knew me growing up and he was looking for someone to be his controller and it was just in the right place at the right time. Why we’re in InSync right now is that we were offered the opportunity to buy InSync about four years ago November last November have been for years. But at the time we were in a patient engagement and patient record aggregation platform that we were working on called Vitals. So this is where meaningful use stage 1 and stage 2 was just coming out and the idea of having you know with the whole view download transmit experience for the patient. But there was some acquisition going on up in the Northeast and there was a clearinghouse that had a small EMR called InSync and we had been offered the ability to purchase it. So because I had the experience way back when and we were trying to do that you get the whole meaningful use it being a actuated stage it seemed sensible the time for us to get an EMR there’s a point of care. So we went ahead and closed that and then operating it primarily set about four years ago.
Saul Marquez:
Nice and so…
Charlie Hutchinson:
Opportunities.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah. Yeah you got to keep your eyes open and and your head up a lot of folks talk about hey you know what. But just put your head down and work hard. Well that really doesn’t work in healthcare. You got to keep your head up and look around. Right.
Charlie Hutchinson:
Exactly. Yes sir.
Saul Marquez:
So you’ve been doing this in sync for the last four years and obviously over 20 years with EMR. What do you think a hot topic is that needs to be on health leaders agenda and how are you guys addressing that?
Charlie Hutchinson:
Right now. Some of the hot stuff. You know obviously you know about the value based care. But one of the things that we’re starting to see in our pipeline is a lot of collaborative care and that’s where where you’re getting a setting where you have primary care and behavioral health and other specialties such as physical therapy speech therapy occupational therapy sort of that multi specialty collaborative care model. We’re seeing a lot of practices that are coming out delivering that and it’s playing really well into us because it’s basically one of the strengths of our system that most imams are coming from the medical side. We have pivoted into behavioral health about four years ago and we saw there was a demand for it. So in our case our medical records and charting capabilities can really present it and both a behavior health environment and a primary care environment as well as multi specialty and provide a different workflow, a different chart depending on the specialty. So it’s neat to see rather than having a patient having to make multiple appointments across multiple facilities and multiple dates, they can go to one facility and spend half a day or maybe longer and seeing multi specialties. There’s a… we’re seeing this a lot in pediatrics too. There’s a company that’s down in us I think San Antonio called Crit. That’s one of our customers and they are they’re in the pediatric rehab type of setting but it’s about addressing the whole patient not just the physical part but also the behavioral part and the mental part rehab you know a lot of times getting out of the hospital is just the beginning of the journey it’s not the end of it. So having some someone that can bring you back to the most whole state possible it seems to be delivered most effectively in ambulatory or community setting.
Saul Marquez:
Now that’s a really interesting thought. So you’re right this behavioral health piece, it’s becoming more and more you know accepted as part of healthcare whereas before it wasn’t and kind of strange in my opinion that it was that way. And it seems like it’s it’s working out for the better. As you guys have tried things and have made iterations you said guess pivoted four years ago. What would you say is an example of how you guys have made a difference, improved outcomes, made things work better by up by doing it differently.
Charlie Hutchinson:
We live through our providers we get a lot of feedback from them not only at the time of sale at the time of implementation but also years later and you know what they tell us as far as the efficiencies in the practice that our software allows them to do enjoy translate this self into more time with the patient, more understanding of the whole view of the patient versus just the last time they saw them. So that to us it’s rather than seeing it from or trying to inspect it from a data standpoint and looking at it from just a community or population standpoint. What we like to we hear voluntary comments from our providers especially in the multi specialty collaborative care environments where they’re saying look this made the difference. We had two or three systems before trying to do the same thing. And what you provided us from a fully integrated solution is we get to spend more time with the patient so that translates into better care for the patient a true believer that patient is delivered or personally care is delivered individually patient by patient. There could be certainly there information from a population health standpoint that you can say would generalize would create the best outcome but ultimately that’s only give to let’s say 80% of the way the old 80 20 rule what’s going to really get you the most the best outcome is to have a doctor that’s able to really understand your situation and that comes with time, you just you’ve got to be able to spend more time with the patient.
Saul Marquez:
Agreed.
Charlie Hutchinson:
Patient doctor relationship.
Saul Marquez:
Charlie So you guys are able to be more mindful in the way that collaborative care, multi specialty care is delivered. So how does that look like? I mean are you guys doing this because you’re able to bridge the different specialties into one screen? I guess what is the logistics of that look like?
Charlie Hutchinson:
We’ll just you know from a… if you think about you made mention of how the ABRA Health specialty is kind of is just now coming into sort of the whole EMR market and how it kind of been left out on the edge and I completely agree with that because that’s what would happen if you and it goes back to you know our system of payers. Our payers we’re not really including behavioral health unless you bought the more expensive plans there weren’t benefits for psychologists, psychiatrist probably included but a psychologist wouldn’t. Family therapy probably wasn’t. So they were in a direct pay model so they essentially the patient was like I got to come out of my pocket the entire amount to go see this. And it’s a recurring situation it’s not hey I’ll go the doctor once and get a checkup and be done in a behavioral environment these therapists are spending 30 minutes 45 minutes with a patient they’re gonna do it over multiple visits. It’s something that it’s a major financial commitment at the time for poor patients. So with the Affordable Care Act that essential services it required health plans to cover these type of specialty. So it’s forced them into the payer model where they have to submit claims and get reimbursed by the commercials, medicare, and Medicaid. But at the same time it provided the ability for patients to use those services more than they did in the past. Just because it has to come out of pocket. So we saw this happening about four years ago. There was a lot of investigation going on by the specialty that we just sort of group is behavioral health but it’s more than just a psychiatrist, it’s psychologists, it’s therapists, it’s care coordinators, it’s… So we started providing an EMR that was competed in the behavioral health environment and you can imagine the difference. Okay. So a medical doctor is going to come in very encounter based. Okay. So what are you presenting with okay what is a review of systems. You know here’s a diagnosis here’s how we’re going to treat it. So and then he moved on and then if you if you needed another appointment or there was you would come back and have another encounter. And so vitals would be retaken, bloodwork would be re taken to see progress. So there was that’s totally different than behavioral health major health is about a journey through getting better. It’s not going to happen in one visit. So yeah the system that needs to be able to chart progress and this is what outcomes based care is about. So it’s almost funny how behavioral was doing this the whole time and now how medical adopting it. But we have a system because it was able to do this sort of journey approach in a behavioral setting that the original software we bought was for primary care it was in your traditional medical specialties everything from O’BGYN, cardiology, it was your down the middle EMR. So what we did is instead of creating new product we create a different experience based on your user log in. And if your user log in was a behavioral workflow you… that’s what you were delivered if it was a medical workflow, that’s what you were delivered. But it all comes back into the same chart. It all comes back into the same calendar. It all comes back in the same practice management which means perfect now we’ve got a collaborative care model that comes back to the same same person that’s there to bill and collect without having two systems and that’s whenthe biggest pain point we’re seeing and collaborates care is they they’ve created this with multiple systems. So I’d like to say it was because of how strategic we were four years ago. But again going back to the opportunity where we saw the opportunity and we’re very nimble and we pivoted and made sure that we met the need. And that’s why we’re here today.
Saul Marquez:
I love it. Now it’s really great Charlie. Thanks for walking us through that. Definitely makes a lot of sense. Very insightful the way you guys did that delivering a different experience to the user depending on what they’re targeting and then putting it all on the same chart. Fascinating work. It’s working. So what would you say while you are doing this right. Because it definitely is not an easy thing to do. What was a setback that you guys experienced that made you better?
Charlie Hutchinson:
Our own knowledge you know obviously we did not know behavioral health four years ago as well as we do today. And so relying on our initial adopters initial providers that were adopting the system you know we had to learn and it was a lot of it was self-taught. We had to listen to the providers, we had to listen to the provider community and behavioral health, and say ‘okay so what doesn’t work with your current system how could it work better?” And so it was about that we still do this today. We we listened very intently to our customer base to our providers. We’re constantly moving the product in what’s in the best interests of the practices as they see it not necessarily as a program or we move based on reality not on a lot of. I’m going to say blue sky concepts it’s what makes the practice better. Which means the provider is more efficient which means the patient gets better care. That’s our working theory.
Saul Marquez:
Love it. I love it. What would you say one of your proudest experiences has been to date?
Charlie Hutchinson:
Looking out my window and seeing all the employees when this office started when there was six people years and I’m looking out there’s over 55 now and this is just a temp office that we’ve got overseas offices which have doubled in size to over 200. It’s just in to see the just see everybody working together when someone has a question. The resources are right next to them and it’s very rewarding to feel the energy coming out of everybody working together and all aligned and working in the right direction in the same direction.
Saul Marquez:
Definitely rewarding and congratulations on the grow. Thank you. It’s not easy to do in this space. So tell us a little bit more about an exciting project you guys are working on right now.
Charlie Hutchinson:
You know we’ve got some things that are coming out like telemedicine. We think behavior health a perfect setting for telemedicine. Just because it’s a very on demand type of a of a solution it doesn’t need physical machines such as blood pressure machines stethoscopes just basic vital type stuff in a medical setting needs telemedicine for. So if you think about substance abuse if you think about someone that’s trying to manage someone in a critical crisis the ability to basically use telemedicine be at face time be it a camera on your P.C. but something simple it’s available to everybody to reach out to someone that can help them through that crisis. To me is a perfect telemedicine setting. So really excited about that. We’ve got we’re constantly listening to our providers so we see opportunities and people and the needs out there that are being met we meet them. That’s why we’re very nimble very agile and that’s so I think telemedicine will hang that one on the hook for this year and say that’s going to be somebody who’s going to be important because you hear about it a lot in the medical setting but everybody saw to it they’re still not saying oh wait a minute what about behavioral. And actually it fits better in my mind.
Saul Marquez:
Now very good and definitely a great call out Charlie. No doubt you guys continue to look ahead. You know you’re playing where the puck is going and I think that that’s kind of really a big reason why you guys have been able to be successful. So thanks so much for sharing that. In this part of the podcast, really kind of getting close to the end. It’s a lightning round where we’ll go through five questions with you. The ABC’s of Charlie Hutchinson on how to be successful in the healthcare EMR business. So I’ve got those questions for you followed by a book that you recommend to the listeners. You ready?
Charlie Hutchinson:
All right.
Saul Marquez:
All right. What’s the best way…
Charlie Hutchinson:
I’m a little nervous but I’m okay.
Saul Marquez:
All right. Here we go. What’s the best way to improve healthcare outcomes?
Charlie Hutchinson:
Patient engagement certainly.
Saul Marquez:
What is the biggest mistake or pitfall to avoid?
Charlie Hutchinson:
Pitfall is not having people around you that aren’t aligned with you.
Saul Marquez:
How do you stay relevant despite constant change?
Charlie Hutchinson:
Embrace constant change.
Saul Marquez:
And what isn’t one area of focus that drives everything in your organization?
Charlie Hutchinson:
Its employee customer relationships. Just a little extra on that. That’s that you see people that say well customers number one employee number one. They’re both number one they’re equal. They’ve got to be together. And the relationship has to be aligned.
Saul Marquez:
Love it. And this last one is a two part question. What is your number one health habit and what is your number one success habit?
Charlie Hutchinson:
A life balance. And I would say success habit is also that they play well together. It’s a life balance.
Saul Marquez:
What book would you recommend to the listeners Charlie?
Charlie Hutchinson:
That one’s fun and it’s from a long time ago The Jimmy Buffett Tales from Margaritaville. Some short stories that just take you to a different place.
Saul Marquez:
That’s kind of cool man. I never knew about that, it’s a good one?
Charlie Hutchinson:
Yeah it’s you know being in Florida, Jimmy Buffett is a big deal but it’s his collection of short stories that really take you to an escape and it’s fun because just like his songs they’re fun to sing over and over again. So are the stories they’re fun to read over and over again.
Saul Marquez:
That’s pretty cool. Great recommendation I’ll definitely have to pick that one up put it on the coffee. It seems like it’d be a good coffee table book.
Charlie Hutchinson:
Great conversation piece actually. Yeah absolutely.
Saul Marquez:
Love it. Love it. Listeners you can get all this fun resources, the great conversation that we’ve had with Mr. Charlie Hutchinson. Just go to outcomesrocket.health in the search bar on the website type in InSync or type and Charlie Hutchinson and you’ll see an entire transcript pop up with show notes and links so you could listen again or get the tidbits that you’re looking for. Charlie, I love if you could just leave us with a closing thought and then the best place for the listeners can get in touch with or learn more.
Charlie Hutchinson:
Just thank you for the opportunity. Everybody in this healthcare community is open to change and I appreciate them listening to people that have the energy to help them with that change. Get it you know InSync is at www.insynchcs.com as well as from there you’ll find find contact information to get hold of us and that’s about it.
Saul Marquez:
Outstanding Charlie. Hey this is fun. Definitely educational and for you folks listening and wanting to have a solution that’s really kind of going where the puck is going, this is something that you ought to check out so Charlie I just want to say thanks again for spending time here to inspire and educate us and really looking forward to in touch.
Charlie Hutchinson:
Thank you Saul. Thank you very much.
Thanks for listening to the Outcomes Rocket podcast. Be sure to visit us on the web at www.outcomesrocket.com for the show notes, resources, inspiration, and so much more.
Sonix quickly and accurately transcribed the audio file, “Mental Health and Revenue Cycle Management Insights with Charlie Hutchinson, CFO at InSync Healthcare Solutions, LLC”, using cutting-edge AI. Get a near-perfect transcript in minutes, not hours or days when you use Sonix, the industry’s fastest audio-to-text converter. Signing up for a free trial is easy.
For audio files (such as “Mental Health and Revenue Cycle Management Insights with Charlie Hutchinson, CFO at InSync Healthcare Solutions, LLC”), thousands of researchers and podcasters use Sonix as a simple software solution to transcribe, edit, and publish their audio files. Easily convert your mp3 file to text or docx to make your media content more accessible to listeners.
Researching what is “the best transcription software” can be a little overwhelming. There are a lot of different solutions. If you are looking for a great way to convert mp3 to text , we think that you should try Sonix. They use the latest AI technology to transcribe your audio and are one my
