New UnityPoint CEO focused on patients

CEDAR RAPIDS - UnityPoint Health is working aggressively to transition from a volume-based health system to a value-based one, said the organization's new Chief Executive Officer Kevin Vermeer.

Vermeer, who became the CEO of the health system in January 2016, was in Cedar Rapids Friday to meet with UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's Hospital staff. It's the third hospital on his systemwide tour, he said, with Sioux City and Des Moines next on his list.

'I know the system and a lot of the people,” he said. 'I've been a part on it for 16 years. But my personal style, I always thought would be good for a CEO of a small company. I want that connection.”

He helped serve coffee and breakfast to the hospital's employees along with St. Luke's President and CEO Ted Townsend.

Vermeer sat down with The Gazette to talk about the organization's future, including UnityPoint's move to manage patients more effectively while also improving care and the upcoming Medicaid transition. UnityPoint has hospitals and clinics in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin and employs more than 30,000 people, including 900 physicians.

Vermeer, a CPA with more than two decades of experience in managing the financial operations of health care organizations, said he plans to carry out the vision and strategy put into motion by former CEO Bill Leaver, who led the health system from January 2008 until he retired last month.

'From a system perspective, we're focusing now on how we deliver care and managing populations,” Vermeer said.

UnityPoint, along with health systems across the state and country, is working on improving the patient experience and care while reducing the cost of care by focusing on primary and preventive care.

'We've been on a path,” he said. 'Transforming from a system that is hospital centric to one that is patient centric.”

That includes initiatives such as participation in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and patient-centered medical homes - a team-based health care approach that centers around care coordination.

Almost all of UnityPoint's clinics are now medical home certified, Vermeer said, and the health system is focusing on improving those services by integrating behavioral health services and telehealth services.

Another big shift the system is facing is the state's Medicaid transition, where it is moving from a fee-for-service system to managed care. Gov. Terry Branstad announced plans to move the $5 billion Medicaid program with 560,000 recipients over to managed care in early 2015.

UnityPoint has signed contracts with all three managed care organizations - Amerigroup Iowa, AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa and UnitedHealthcare of the River Valley.

'We're expecting, like any other major change, for their to be a period of bumpiness,” Vermeer said.

Vermeer believes the system works efficiently and effectively now, but said the health system is committed to working with the state to make 'the transition as smooth as possible” for Medicaid recipients.

'There are going to be problems, just like there are with any change as significant as this one,” he said. 'We'll see how things play out once we go live. I just hope the legislator continues to stay involved as far as oversight goes.”