Episode 49: Exploring the New Rehabilitation Partnership

Jolene Francis, Vice President and Chief Development Officer, visits with Mike Wiltermood, President and CEO, about the partnership Enloe Health forged with Lifepoint Health to manage the Enloe Health Rehabilitation Center. 

Mike hopes to dispel rumors about employment and operational issues that have resulted from the partnership. He also explains the related issues of admission to the rehabilitation center, billing and payment through Medicare.

Finally, Mike and Jolene express their thanks for the hard work Enloe caregivers demonstrate every day.

Transcript

Jolene Francis: [00:00:00] Enlo Senior Team message is presented in this caregiver centric podcast providing an update on what's new and exciting across the campuses of Enlo Health. Hello everyone. I'm Jolene Francis, chief Development Officer. Welcome to the February 20, 26 episode of En LO's Message. Today we welcome back our CEO Mike Wiltermood to discuss a topic of interest to our caregivers.

Hi Mike. Thanks for being here today. 

Mike Wiltermood: Thanks for having me, Jolene. 

Jolene Francis: How are you doing? 

Mike Wiltermood: I'm doing great. How 

Jolene Francis: about you? 

Mike Wiltermood: Good. 

Jolene Francis:  I'm good. I'm good. Mike. We recently announced a new partnership with the LifePoint organization to manage our outpatient rehabilitation center, and there are several specific questions that I wanted to make sure we shared with all of our caregivers.

So let's dive in. Who is LifePoint? 

Mike Wiltermood: Good question. [00:01:00] LifePoint Rehabilitation is an operating division of the Brentwood, Tennessee based LifePoint Health. They manage more than 45 freestanding inpatient rehabilitation facility, sometimes referred to as rfs IRFs. 

Jolene Francis: We have an acronym for everything, don't we? 

Mike Wiltermood: We do.

Jolene Francis: Okay. 

Mike Wiltermood: It can't help it. And you know, they, they manage those facilities for systems across the country and are considered an industry leading. Organization and clinical, operational and financial outcomes. LifePoint also manages more than 250 hospital-based rehabilitation units like ours. Mm-hmm. Medical, surgical and outpatient, uh, therapy settings with proven rehabilitation management and service expertise.

They have a strong record in this service and we believe they will be an excellent partner for us. 

Jolene Francis: Well, I know that this partnership has been considered for more than two years with in-depth research being conducted, and there's a lot of thought put into the decision. I was just wondering, in your opinion, what was the deciding factor [00:02:00] to choose LifePoint as a strategic partner?

Mike Wiltermood: There were several advantages to contracting with LifePoint. First of all, I, I just wanna say that our inpatient rehabilitation services outstanding. 

Jolene Francis: Mm-hmm. 

Mike Wiltermood: One of the main questions that I get, or concerns that people have in our community is why their loved one can't qualify for inpatient rehab. After they've had an inpatient stay on our Esplanade campus.

Jolene Francis: I've heard that too. Yeah. 

Mike Wiltermood: And, and yeah. And we, we have a number of people that just, they're too complicated for skilled nursing. 

Jolene Francis: Mm-hmm. 

Mike Wiltermood: Sometimes we can't get 'em into a skilled nursing facility, or they're not complicated enough or not able to withstand therapy or endure therapy at the rate that they have to in order to qualify for inpatient rehab.

A couple of years ago, we started getting inquiries from a number of organizations claiming that our Medicare discharge data would [00:03:00] indicate that we had much more of an opportunity to place those patients in our inpatient facility. Over the years, we've been very conservative, well, fairly conservative as to what kind of patient we could admit.

We've had periods of time where we've had denials and. And that causes hardships for us as well as families of of those patients that are admitted In talking to LifePoint, LifePoint has agreed to bring their expertise to help us increase our census there, which will help many members of our community.

It'll help with bed capacity on our campus. And importantly, if we happen to admit a patient that is ultimately denied, LifePoint is at financial risk. Now we believe strongly that this is going to help us increase our census, and it will really help members of our community that can [00:04:00] qualify for inpatient rehab as opposed to skilled nursing.

In addition, LifePoint has experience with skilled nursing services in case we ever want to get into that business, which we could be forced to get into. And, and within the next few years, you, you just don't know how things are gonna go. 

Jolene Francis: And that would be of course, because like 300 skilled nursing beds were lost during the campfire and nobody's rebuilt those.

Correct. 

Mike Wiltermood: So absolutely. The skilled nursing services in our community have really been reeling under the, the loss of, of those nursing home beds during the campfire. And this state does not make it easy to train. Nurses aides, which there's continually a shortage of. Mm-hmm. So often our skilled nursing facilities, they may have an available bed, but they don't have the available staff, and that creates problems as well.

So in addition to all of that, one of the, the looming issues that we need to deal with is the [00:05:00] federal government, the Medicare program has been rolling out gradually, a demonstration project. Across the country, which fundamentally changes how we will admit patients into inpatient rehab facilities going forward.

That has been rolled out in several states and will hit California in May of this year. LifePoint already has experience with this and we are very, very pleased with this relationship. Couldn't be coming at a better time in order for us to manage this now. The demonstration program sounds easy enough to manage, but our experience with the federal government is that they usually don't roll out these projects unless they're going to make our lives more complicated.

Mm-hmm. And so having a backstop such as LifePoint is real critical for us, especially as we enter into this demonstration period here in California. Finally, LifePoint [00:06:00] Rehabilitation has been. Has had some great success partnering with health systems to build new buildings. They have a project going right now with uc, Davis, El Camino Hospital in the Bay Area, Porado Hospital down in Escondido, California.

And for us, the ability to expand our footprint and create more inpatient beds of any kind could be very critical for us going forward. We already know that. Critical access hospitals in the area are starting to flag a little bit. Of course, Glen Medical has gone outta business. Mm-hmm. We don't know what's gonna happen in Oroville.

We, we hope that Oroville is going to be able to maintain their services, perhaps even expand them with their new building. But we need to be ready with a plan to increase our bed capacity. And this is one way of doing it. 

Jolene Francis: Yeah. Having a partner with that expertise is, is going to be very beneficial to us.

It seems like with any change that occurs at Enlo Health, it's [00:07:00] challenging to make sure that correct information is disseminated throughout the entire organization quickly, which can sometimes result in information spreading. That's not entirely accurate. Some of the rumors that are circulating include layoffs related to this new partnership, displaced employees closure of the inpatient rehab program, et cetera.

So let's lay some of those to rest. With some facts. What would you like to ensure that everyone understands about this new partnership? 

Mike Wiltermood: First and foremost, this is a program our, our relationship with LifePoint is designed to grow the program. We do not anticipate layoffs of any kind. Now we have over 200 employees affiliated with inpatient rehab.

The vast majority of those are gonna retain their current positions. Hopefully we'll be expanding our inpatient rehab capacity going forward. 

Jolene Francis: Now they're gonna retain their positions with Enlo? 

Mike Wiltermood: Yes. Yes, they will. [00:08:00] They will retain their positions with Enlo as Enlo employees. And that was another point regarding our decision to move with LifePoint.

Typically, these management companies want to hire the therapist. 

Jolene Francis: Mm-hmm. 

Mike Wiltermood: The health systems usually retain nursing and other, and support personnel. LifePoint agreed that the therapist would remain in low employees. Now going forward, new employees may come up, may decide, or, or may be asked to join LifePoint.

That's something that we're gonna see, but the people that are there now will stay in low employees. There are 10 individuals in our organization that have jobs that LifePoint needs to. Supervise in order to give them the flexibility in their management model to get the job done. 

Jolene Francis: Mm-hmm. 

Mike Wiltermood: And of those 10 employees, several are part-time all will have an opportunity or have had an opportunity to interview with LifePoint for [00:09:00] roughly those same positions.

If those don't work out. We have 50 to 60 positions open up every month in our organization and I am very confident that for those people that want to continue. To be employed at Enlo, there'll be opportunities. 

Jolene Francis: Mm-hmm. 

Mike Wiltermood: A third option would be to take severance. And we've already had indications that some might do that.

Mm. So these are, while the positions may be eliminated as enlo positions, there's other opportunities and certainly opportunities with LifePoint for those 10 individuals. But 

Jolene Francis: the vast majority remain in low employees. Well, that Abso, 

Mike Wiltermood: absolutely. Yeah. And again, we don't anticipate layoffs rather. We, we have a, a very conservative plan for growth.

Jolene Francis: Mm-hmm. 

Mike Wiltermood: And that growth will be dependent on our ability to recruit and retain those key employment positions. And so we're looking forward to expanding the program. 

Jolene Francis: Well, thanks for sharing those facts with everyone. And I, I just [00:10:00] wanna point it out to kind of sum it all up. It's, it's just a great idea for anyone that has questions.

About this or any other topic to speak with their department manager to get more detailed information, particularly about this new partnership and what it means for us to expand rehabilitation care for patients in our region. What else is on your mind today, Mike? Any burning issues or new topics that you wanna share with the organization?

Mike Wiltermood: Well, I, I think our organization is in a good spot. I know a lot of people are wondering about what's happening in Oroville and. We've certainly had our share of changes over the last couple of years. Some, some have been in, in response to what we think the federal government's going to be doing with respect to reimbursement.

We're trying to stay ahead of the curve. I really wanna express my appreciation for the people who have faith and trust in us who, who feel that we're moving in a positive direction, even though some of these changes may be a little bit difficult. Knowing that we're [00:11:00] making 'em in the best interest of the organization and community, it, it really helps a lot to know that we have that, that support.

And I just encourage individuals to continue to ask questions. You know, we, we don't want those rumors circulating, especially if there's, there are causing stress and we want to be able to respond appropriately when, when people have concerns and so. Any way you can get your question answered is great with us, and I would encourage at, at a bare minimum, I hope people know that they can always text me or email me and we'll, we'll get to the bottom of whatever is bothering them.

Jolene Francis: Yeah, I, you know, I always appreciate that about you, that you're even say that in every orientation, you know, you give everyone your email address and say, just ask the question. I think that's the most healthy way for us to make sure that the information that goes throughout our organization is good information.

And that everybody's comfortable. At least they have the facts, right? That's the important thing. Well, thanks for [00:12:00] all of that information, Mike. We appreciate that. That's about all the time we have for today. But thanks so much for joining us on the podcast. It's always a pleasure to chat with you, and a special thanks to our caregivers for spending time with us and sharing this program with your colleagues and friends.

We'll talk again in March when we're joined by another member of the senior team to discuss what's new and exciting across our campuses. Thanks for joining us. Take care everyone.