Author: Deborah Lafer Scher served as Executive Advisor to four U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretaries over two Presidential administrations. In this series, we’ve asked her to share her insights from building national scale public/private partnerships using innovation to drive improved healthcare outcomes for Veterans.
It’s not always easy to get to a doctors’ appointment, even when your doctor is just a few blocks away. Now, imagine your doctor is a four- or five-hour drive away. That’s how it is for many U.S. Veterans living in rural America.
Veterans need and deserve the highest-quality healthcare. Making sure all Veterans have access to this care is front-of-mind for the VA every day.
With an expansive goal and some bold thinking, we were able to build a coalition of like-minded organizations motivated by the same mission… To remove barriers and expand access to healthcare for Veterans in rural America.
How do you transform your strategic mission into a movement? It all begins with a question.
“Who Else Cares About This?”
Companies and their teams want to do mission-driven work that aligns with their strategic and financial priorities. But, in a rush to execute, they often ask, “Who has what I need?” when they could be asking, “Who else cares about this?”.
“Who has what I need?” gets you to a limited, short-term solution.
“Who else cares about this?” is one of my favorite questions because it opens the door to strategic leadership, greater scale and impact, and accelerated growth.
The Challenge of Healthcare Access in Rural America
Healthcare access is an issue for millions of Americans living in rural communities. The American Hospital Association reports that 136 rural hospitals closed from 2010 to 2021, and nearly 46 million people living in rural areas across the U.S. currently face a significant shortage of healthcare services.
Veterans face the same challenge. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is the country’s largest healthcare system, delivering care to nine million Veterans through 172 hospitals and 1138 community clinics, handling more than 60 million annual appointments. But three million of the Veterans served by the VA live in rural communities — far away from the closest VA medical center.
Although the VA had great success employing telehealth long before the Covid pandemic, many Veterans lived in rural communities without sufficient broadband to host a video session or could not afford the unlimited data plan required to host these sessions.
So, with a challenge like this, who do you think is more likely to improve healthcare access for Veterans in rural America? A Walmart executive, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or a retired 78-year-old Veteran in Eureka, Montana? (The answer is…all of them, together.)
Stronger Together
When you ask, “Who else cares about this?”, you can find others who share your strategic priorities. Then, if you’re able to leverage each other’s diverse capabilities, the coverage of their teams, and the reach of their communications platforms, you can create a mission-driven coalition that not only accelerates the growth curve, but also expands the coalition’s impact. Here’s how we did it.
We started with a map of the VA medical facilities. We added where Veterans lived and charted who had to drive the greatest distance to get care. Then we asked, “Who else cares about rural Americans, Veterans, and health care access?” Once it was framed that way, Walmart was an obvious potential partner. When we went back to our VA map and overlayed a map of Walmart stores, the entire country lit up! We learned that 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart. Wouldn’t it be terrific if 90% of Veterans could live within 10 miles of a VA access point?
So, we approached Walmart and asked if, in select areas, they would dedicate a room where Veterans could go and use their broadband to connect with their VA health provider via telehealth. Walmart said “Yes,” because not only did they care about supporting Veterans, they also believed that telehealth would be an important service for their employees and customers — so this partnership was an opportunity for them to learn from the VA about delivering telehealth services.
Then we approached the cell phone carriers. First T-Mobile, and then all of the other carriers, agreed to zero-rate the VA Video Connect app, so patients and caregivers were able to access VA care without charges against their data plan. With the initial agreement in place, T-Mobile asked how we would let Veterans know about this new program. Without a marketing department, the VA could only offer the agency website, Twitter account, and blog which had about 16,000 readers. Underlying their commitment to drive access, T-Mobile then offered to produce and pay for the media associated with a national commercial. In the month after T-Mobile ran the commercial that launched this program, use of the VA Video Connect app soared by 78%.
Phillips stepped up to create and donate remote telehealth exam rooms which could be installed in VFW and American Legion halls in rural communities that needed them most. The physical rooms and the entire remote care experience was designed by local Veterans at the pioneer location in Eureka, Montana — nine miles south of the Canadian border and four hours from the closest VA Medical Center.
Accelerated Growth and Impact
Conceived in Washington, designed by rural veterans in Eureka, Montana, and powered by private industry, this initiative brought together a wide range of mission-driven leaders to accelerate the growth of our efforts and make a real positive impact for our Veterans.
Coalition Building at EnableComp
When Change Healthcare experienced a cyberattack in February 2024, the financial health of hospitals across the country was at risk.
Amidst the disruption and uncertainty, and with urgency and purpose, the people at EnableComp immediately began thinking about how they could do things differently to get claims flowing again for their clients. And they asked the question, “Who else cares about this?”.
What followed was a pivot toward their mission to help healthcare providers get paid for the work they do.
They opened conversations and relationships with clearinghouses and payers and found creative workarounds and direct connections. In what is typically a heavily siloed industry, EnableComp found other entities that cared about helping their healthcare provider clients get paid and get paid quickly.
By building a mission-driven coalition, EnableComp was able to break down barriers and leverage their specialty revenue cycle management platform to help healthcare providers avoid the disruption and uncertainty and, in turn, helped those organizations stay focused on their mission to make a positive impact on their patients and communities.
Building Your Coalition
What is your company trying to achieve? Who are you trying to help? How do you transform your strategic mission into a movement? Ask yourself “Who else cares about this?” and begin building your coalition for accelerated growth and the greatest positive impact.
This article is part of EnableComp’s Healthcare Symposium Series in which we bring together industry thought leaders to inspire conversation and share strategies and solutions with individuals and organizations in healthcare.
Learn more about Deborah Lafer Scher
