Kate Warnock

In his fourth year attending the World Economic Forum, an annual convening of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland (the Forum is also known as “Davos”), Pat Geraghty can draw a direct line from this global meeting to his role as president and CEO at GuideWell. Each year, the agenda at Davos reflects the most pressing forces that can disrupt and shape society, the global economy and international security. It is no wonder, then, that the opioid epidemic and the drivers evolving the health industry were focal points. As a health industry executive experienced in both issues, we are honored Pat was invited to share his perspective with this global audience.

If you’ve been following our series on the opioid crisis, you already know this is a public health epidemic that is devastating for its thousands of lives lost, and complex for its social, economic and health factors. This “epidemic of epidemics” necessitates a multi-prong response. With oversight from an internal task force, GuideWell is currently engaged in executing an enterprise-wide tactical program to combat the opioid crisis in our home state of Florida. We interviewed our chief medical officer and president of GuideWell Health, Elana Schrader, M.D., along with our vice president of commercial and specialty pharmacy programs, Scott McClelland, PharmD., to learn more about how GuideWell’s health insurance company is working to protect members’ health during the opioid crisis.

Imagine becoming addicted to a drug from your very first use – and living through your first bone-shaking withdrawal within two hours of taking the drug. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and the hundred-times more powerful carfentanil (described by the NIH as “for large-animal use only”) have made this unimaginable situation a reality for too many Americans, and have helped escalate the opioid crisis to a nation-wide epidemic. Yet while synthetic opioids are a significant driver of the crisis, there are other factors that have made this public health emergency so complex that no single response alone can reverse the damage.

In our most recent GuideWell Insights podcast, we interviewed two health industry experts to unpack the opioid crisis, seeking to better understand its root causes, and what approaches they believe are required to save lives.

The stories of how Alex Porter and Rico Bodin became addicted to opioids might differ. For Alex, prescription drugs were easy for the then-16-year-old girl to steal from her mom’s medicine cabinet. Rico abused drugs to help escape from complex family problems. But what they now share is a recovery that includes rescuing others from the profound grip of addiction. Both Rico and Alex are peer recovery specialists at Gateway Community Services (GCS), an addiction treatment center in Jacksonville, Florida.  This year, The Florida Blue Foundation awarded GCS, a recognized leader in the treatment of addictive disorders for adults, adolescents and veterans, an additional $100,000 grant for a total of $400,000 to help fund the peer recovery program with partner St. Vincent’s Healthcare through 2022. This partnership enables peer recovery specialists access to the overdose survivors St.

Health care reform ushered in by the Affordable Care Act was a defining moment for most health plans: some survived while others thrived. Under the aegis of Pat Geraghty and his leadership team, GuideWell thrived in the years since the law was enacted, transitioning the parent company from a single-state Blue plan to an enterprise with five distinct lines of business, a combined revenue of $16 billion, 29-state footprint, and over 16 million served. No longer defined as a payer, GuideWell has become a health solutions company that can compete in the insurance, care delivery, population health, government and health plan consumerism spaces.

Ask Pat Geraghty about his top takeaways from his third year at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, and he leads with a point not about the impact of artificial intelligence or universal coverage, but gender equality in the workplace. As you’ll hear in our GuideWell Insights interview with GuideWell’s CEO, AI and universal coverage are critical topics Pat looks to advance within and beyond our enterprise. But when 70 percent of GuideWell’s employees are women, Pat indicated his most practical takeaway from Davos was understanding how pervasive gender bias at work can be.  

Watch our debrief with Pat for more of his practical takeaways, including:

How does the health care industry begin to address key factors like housing, economic status, health literacy, and even air quality that prevent some of us from being our healthiest selves? GuideWell’s Prakash Patel, M.D., knows that one’s health is not determined in the four walls of the doctor’s office – it happens in the home. As Chief Operating Officer for GuideWell and President of GuideWell Health, Prakash oversees an innovative new care delivery system designed to directly impact those factors, known collectively as social determinants of health, with clinicians such as nutritionists, social workers, behavioral health specialists and others who can conduct home visits and coordinate outreach between doctors’ appointments.

As a health solutions company dedicated to helping people and communities achieve better health, GuideWell participates in and captures thought leadership discussions on health industry innovation through our GuideWell Insights Lounge interviews. After hosting more than 130 conversations with health industry thought leaders in 2016, here are the top five themes that we believe are driving health industry transformation today.