Dr. Salil V. Deshpande: The Future of Health Ep. 10

Want a real look at how health care decisions get made? We sit down with Dr. Salil V. Deshpande, Chief Medical Officer at United Healthcare, to trace a morning of rapid-fire problem solving—resolving dialysis transport delays, auditing provider incentive rosters, and making the case to fund doula support in Texas Medicaid even when it is not a covered benefit. Along the way, we connect the dots from boardroom choices to patient impact, showing how ethics, data, and operations meet at the point of care.

We break down the leadership toolkit that matters beyond clinical skill: emotional intelligence to defuse conflict and build trust, crisp communication that moves teams, systems thinking to see how incentives and workflows interact, and business literacy to weigh costs against outcomes. Data literacy comes front and center as the map for strategy, while adaptability keeps leaders steady through policy shifts, new tech, and workforce pressures. For students and early-career pros, we share how to influence without formal authority and get heard in complex organizations.

On the technology front, we explore where Medicaid can leap forward: telehealth and remote monitoring to expand access; interoperability to align clinicians on a single story of the patient; and AI to target rising-risk members, cut administrative waste, and reduce fraud. We also highlight a less flashy but critical frontier—eligibility systems that reduce paperwork, prevent coverage churn, and keep families connected to care. Equity anchors the conversation with practical steps to build it into training now: focus on social determinants, volunteer in community programs, learn trauma-informed care, study structural racism, and use data to close gaps with humility and persistence.

The episode ends with a clear path forward: master the basics in science and communication, join teams that serve, find mentors, practice leadership in small ways every day, and stay curious. If this conversation sparked ideas or gave you a next step to try, follow the show, share it with a friend who cares about health equity, and leave a review to tell us what you want to hear next.

Dr. Deshpande LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salil-deshpande-md-mba-facp-10a33a/

Link to HOSA: https://hosa.org/podcast/

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

Welcome to the Future of Health podcast presented by HOSA. I have with me Dr. Deshpande today, Chief Medical Officer at United Healthcare. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 0:20

Thank you. Excited to be here.

Speaker 1 0:23

So just to start with your role as Chief Medical Officer at United Healthcare, what does a typical day look like for you in that role?

Solving Dialysis Transport Delays

Expanding Doula Support In Medicaid

Fixing Provider Incentive Gaps

Speaker 0:35

Well, part of what makes my job so fun is that there really is no typical day. It's every day is a little bit different, and it always keeps me on my toes. But I can just give you a sense for what one of those days looks like, just uh thinking about what I've been doing today so far. Um, my day started out with a meeting with my executive leadership team. Um we each gave each other a variety of updates. Um, there were a couple of unexpected updates, and so we talked through some of those. One of those had to do with an internal corporate staffing change in our compliance department, and so that was uh going to have a potential impact on how we communicate with our state Medicaid regulator. Um, another issue that came up today in that leadership meeting was um relevant to our insured members who are on dialysis. We discovered that the transportation vendor that takes our insured members from their home to their dialysis setting was having some challenges getting to uh the patient's home on time. And so we had to kind of figure out how we were going to ensure that that our that our members could continue getting their dialysis three days a week. Um, so that was kind of an urgent issue that we had to work through. Um later in the day, I had a meeting with uh my direct reports to talk through a couple of uh projects that we're working on with our um in our clinical area, and one of those involves an external uh vendor that is uh bringing doula services to some of the pregnant women that we insure. A doula is a lay person who helps women throughout their pregnancy and through um labor and delivery. And the important thing here is that in Texas Medicaid, doulas are not a covered benefit, but our insurance company is making them available to our uh members, and we had to work through a justification for our corporate team on why we should um allow this and why we could afford to pay for it and how and and how we were going to demonstrate the value. So that was another interesting thing that came up. And and another thing that came up had to do with our provider network. We have um financial incentive arrangements in place to give bonuses to some of our providers, and we discovered that one of our provider groups that takes care of people with developmental disabilities did not have the full provider roster that was getting their incentive payment. And so we needed to work through some operational issues to figure out how to make sure that all of the doctors in the practice were getting credit for the care that they were delivering and getting their bonus payments. So that was just a range of things that I was uh working on this morning. And and again, it's always different every day, and that's what keeps it fun.

Beyond Clinical: Skills For Leaders

Speaker 1 3:54

I think it's always good to get a look behind the scenes for students who want to go into the healthcare field. And um, so what would you say, what skills matter most beyond clinical excellence in this field?

Speaker 4:07

So I there's the the types of skills that one might want to uh to really become an effective uh leader in uh in healthcare are far ranging and yet in in some ways um similar, I think, no matter what you you want to do. But but I think it uh I would include um emotional intelligence um at the top, and and that really can encompass so many things, but things like um being self-aware, having empathy for others, being able to give feedback to other people, um, conflict resolution, those are all kind of what I would consider in that emotional intelligence category. Um, communication skills are critical. Um, the ability to speak publicly, the ability to communicate your ideas concisely and clearly in writing. Um, systems thinking is another important skill. Really understanding organizational structures, understanding how different aspects of the healthcare industry interrelate with each other, um, understanding workflows uh in the workspace. Um, you know, for healthcare people, it's really important to have a solid understanding of business and financial literacy, um, just understanding budgets and cost effectiveness and allocating different resources. Um, and you know, speaking of allocating resources in sometimes resource-constrained environments, one needs to have ethical courage to make kind of you know decisions about what resources to bring to bear. Um, data literacy is another important skill. Um, you know, we need to know how to interpret research, we need to be able to read dashboards. Um, adaptability. There are constant changes in healthcare. Um, there's changes in technology. A few years ago we had the pandemic. Um, there's always issues with workforce shortages, um, there are regulatory issues that come about, and we have to be able to adapt to all of these different issues that are constantly being thrown at us. Another one is just being able to influence without authority. And I think that becomes particularly important for younger professionals who are just entering the space. How do you get your voice heard and how do you get your needs met when you know when you might not be the person in charge? Having the the ability to make that happen is a critical one. So whole bunch of skills. Um, I don't know that one is important or more important than the other, but there are a lot of things that I would look to to kind of begin to hone your skill set.

Where Tech Will Transform Medicaid

Speaker 1 6:56

Absolutely. Uh you touched on a little bit to shift kind of into the current evolving landscape. Um, where do you see technology, AI, data analytics, digital health uh having the biggest impact in Medicaid over the next decade?

Speaker 7:14

Wow, there are um lots and lots of uh new applications of technology that we see literally every day. Um in the Medicaid space, I think I would I would um speak to a couple of specific and yet different areas. I think one thing certainly people are more familiar with telehealth and remote monitoring. I think virtual care will help to expand access in the Medicaid space, especially in rural areas and for people who have transportation challenges. So that's an important one. Um interoperable data and health information and technology is essential. Really, the ability to exchange health information from one provider to another provider is going to be so important in improving the health of individual patients, but also populations at the same time and really uh will give us an ability to coordinate care across multiple providers on behalf of individual patients. So that health interoperability and health IT is important. Um, things like AI will allow for advanced analytics. Um I think that can become important in so many ways. It can reduce administrative burden in the healthcare system. It can support improved care coordination and disease management. It can help with predictive decision making to help us identify which of our patients will really need our help or which of our patients might need our help even though today they seem to be healthy, but tomorrow they might not be, and helping us to kind of figure in, figure out who to focus in on. AI can even help us to reduce fraud in the system. So there are lots of different ways that that can help. Um, you know, something that's a little bit more kind of technical or even operational, but so important in the Medicaid space is how technology can improve our government eligibility systems and platforms that help our citizens enroll in Medicaid. Technology will help reduce that paperwork that causes delays, and it'll help really improve access to care and improve continuity of insurance coverage for people. So, so many different ways, both clinical and non-clinical, but that will ultimately have an impact on health care.

Advancing Health Equity As Students

Speaker 1 9:46

That's great insight. Um, and just to speak to HOSA a little bit, um, many HOSA students are passionate about health equity. Um, how can these future healthcare professionals help reduce disparities in underserved communities?

Speaker 10:04

Yeah, that is such a critically important opportunity today. And I think really where I would focus, you know, as you are in school, as you are kind of um learning and and going through your professional training, really I would recommend building into how you train, into how you think and how you lead right from the beginning. Think about social determinants of health. Those are the things that are not healthcare specific, but they do have such a critical impact on health, whether it be your access to food or having safe housing or having an education that allows you to be health literate. Um, those are the kinds of things, if you are thinking about them right from the beginning, that becomes really important to that long-term ability to ensure health equity. I'd recommend volunteering in community-based programs, not just in healthcare settings, but in the community so you can see some of the issues that people face day to day. Um, learn about structural racism in healthcare. Um, build skills now in active listening. Um, understand what trauma-informed care means and why that's important. Use data to identify gaps or differences between health outcomes for one group of people versus another group of people, and ask why do different groups have different health outcomes? I think those are all ways that, you know, as as you are thinking and training in healthcare now, um, if you're thinking about those things effectively now, that will really help uh you to be in a position to mitigate those health inequities as you go forward in your career.

Why The Next Generation Inspires

Speaker 1 12:02

Absolutely. And um, as a member of the Host 100 Advisory Council, what excites you most about the next generation of health professionals?

Speaker 12:15

Um lots of things really. I'd say probably first and foremost is young people's passion for helping other people. It is it's so much more than uh just a job. I think people are driven by purpose, and and that is um that's absolutely inspiring and and helps me keep going, knowing that this is what people coming into our profession want to do. I I appreciate and and the fresh ideas. Um people uh people question the old ways of doing things, and I think that's important, and I think it's uh important to bring new ideas, creative solutions to the table. I like young people's focus on fairness. Um, you know, we just talked about health uh equity a moment ago, but I think people care deeply about other people and serving all communities. That's that's really great. Um, young people are comfortable with technology. We just talked about technology a moment ago. It's critical that people know how to use these evolving tools and technologies to improve care and to improve access to care. Um people these days recognize that healthcare is a team effort. Um, I think young people have a team mindset and they value collaboration and working across roles. These are all super important. And you know, maybe I'll just leave with you know, I started out with the most important thing is passion, but I think people, um, future health professionals are committed to having a real impact. They want to make a difference in people's lives, and that's super exciting and super motivating for me too.

Speaker 1 14:03

And so for the hosts of members all across the country in high school and college, hoping to enter into roles like yours, do you have a final call to action for them?

Speaker 14:17

Yeah, um, I do. I think it is um, I you know, I identify first and foremost as a physician. I'm an internal medicine physician, but it is also my clinical background um that helps me be in a position to serve in in leadership roles, certainly within my uh day-to-day job, but also in the community. And I think as other future health professionals think about how they can um how they can be leaders uh going forward, um, I think it's it's it's important, again, first and foremost, to build that strong foundation as a healthcare professional, as a scientist, as a clinician. At this juncture, focus on the math, the science, communication, and critical thinking, focus on those basics. But more importantly, or I shouldn't say more importantly, certainly as importantly, get involved outside of that, outside of your classes. Join clubs, join student government, um, join organizations either at school or in the community, volunteer, um, shadow healthcare professionals, volunteer in healthcare settings, volunteer in non-healthcare settings, um, practice teamwork. Uh, you know, whether it's sports, whether it's group projects at school, um, whether it's your job after school, practice working with other people. Look for mentors. That's another really important one. Learn from adults, learn from teachers, your counselors, your coaches, learn from healthcare professionals that you might engage with. Um, develop your character, uh, show and demonstrate your responsibility and your empathy. Um, and maybe foremost, stay curious. Um, whether it be keeping an open mind about the direction you want to take your professional career, uh, follow health issues, follow innovations, follow what your community really needs to be a healthy community and to succeed. These are all the things that I think you can certainly do now and will be an absolute amazing grounding for what you do going forward.

Speaker 1 16:47

Wow, completely agreed. I just want to thank you for being here today and thank you for all the work you do for HOSA and to make the healthcare space better for the future all around. Um, just thank you for being here today.

Closing Thanks And Sign‑Off

Speaker 17:02

My pleasure, it was fun.

Speaker 1 17:04

Thank you. Thank you so much.