Dr. Kimberly Moore (00:02)
I am Dr. Kimberly Moore, a host of the Envision More Workforce Insight podcast. Join us as we explore workforce and leadership through an innovation lens with leaders from across the country and every industry. Whether you're in education trying to crack the code for workforce or industry seeking to address your workforce talent strategy, for maybe you just need to be inspired. We've got you covered. Tune in, save us as a favorite, and let's innovate together.

of Workforce Insights. I am so excited with the speaker that we have today sharing in conversation. But I want to remind you if this is your first time joining into the Workforce Insights podcast, you made the right decision. It is your go -to for all information thinking about sectors, whether it's the private sector, whether it's nonprofit government and or education. It's your go -to spot for hearing what's going on and how you can connect with it.

If it's your second time, then I know that you've already subscribed and I would encourage you to have everyone that you know, subscribe as well, because these are must hear conversations. Today, I am joined by Nathan Lancebaum, amazing, amazing leader. And I can't wait for you all to hear just about the journey that he's taken and honestly about his leadership. I know him and it's much more than leadership that you get from Nathan. You'll hear the heart. And so.

Just make sure you're grabbing your smartphone or even your sticky to take some notes because I know this is going to be some good information. Nathan, so glad to have you here. Yeah. Thank you very much for that wonderful introduction, Kim. I really appreciate that. You are welcome. I think we're going to go ahead and jumpstart with, I call it a softball, but this is a great one that will want to level set the conversation. Can you share with our listeners a bit about your journey?

into the healthcare industry and literally what inspired you to pursue a career in healthcare and how'd you navigate even becoming CEO of Sunshine Healthcare? Yeah, well, you know, a lot like a lot of healthcare professionals, you know, I didn't actually think about entering healthcare until the opportunity presented itself to me almost 20 years ago. I'm a finance and investment management.

professional by trade. And there was a small company in St. Louis, Missouri called Centine Corporation way back in 2005, a company that nobody really knew anything about, including myself, even though I actually worked right across the street from it. And I knew a guy who worked at Centine and he called me and he said, hey, there's this company that does healthcare and they are looking to grow through acquisition. And I knew how to do that.

and I got connected with them and I remember the first time I met with folks there and I literally just, I admitted I knew nothing about healthcare and that was okay and so I spent the first five years at Centene doing acquisitions. Certainly you learn a tremendous amount about the healthcare industry looking at potential acquisition targets.

sifting through diligence and other information, talking to so many people. It's a wonderful area to learn the industry. And in 2010, I decided that I didn't want to do, wanted to do transactions for Centene forever. I wanted to have a more meaningful impact on our members and our business than just simply the transaction side would provide. And so that's when I went to Florida to become the CFO of Sunshine Health.

And so it was just kind of progressed from there and it's been a wonderful journey. It's an amazing journey because again, for the listeners, you know, you don't have to pigeonhole yourself into one space because again, if you think about and if you've had any interaction with Nathan, you know that he is so people centered. And so it's amazing hearing that transition of not knowing going into a space that he did know.

and then moving out of a comfort zone. So Nathan, could you give the listeners some insight regarding Sunshine Healthcare and what is it that you do? Yeah, so currently I'm the CEO of Sunshine Health. Sunshine Health operates throughout the state of Florida. We've got about 1 .5 million members, not only in traditional Medicaid, but also in specialty programs where there are higher acuity children.

children in the foster care and adopted out of the foster care program, and then members with serious mental illness, and then long -term care as well. So it kind of runs the gamut from birth to the elderly, keeping people safe and happy and healthy in their homes and managing chronic conditions. So we've got roughly 3 ,000 members throughout the state, located from Pensacola all the way down to Key West that interact with our members and our...

on a daily basis. Wow, what a huge footprint and what a huge responsibility. Could you share with our listeners because this is again one of the most important pieces that comes from these conversations. What's the current health care landscape and you know, what are some of those recent trends or changes that have impacted your industry? Yeah, so I'd say a more recent trend over the last five to 10 years is really wrapping our arms around all of our members from.

a social determinants of health standpoint. 10 years ago, it was simply just payers paying providers and that's kind of it. But we needed to do more. We need to be more intertwined in the social welfare system, the fabric of the communities and the members that we serve, more aligned with the provider community. So you're gonna see these days a much more team approach with.

community organizations, charitable organizations, advocacy groups, and the provider community along with the managed care entity in order to make sure that we remove those barriers to getting good healthcare for our members because the barriers are very numerous. wow. Such an important role. And I guess, you know, thinking along these lines because of their shift.

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge that's facing the healthcare industry today and specifically, how is Sunshine Healthcare addressing it? I'd say engaging our members is incredibly complicated because people move around, contact information moves around. We don't have mobile phone numbers for a lot of our members. And so the simple traditional...

address and landlines, you know, those aren't reliable as they once were, but people have that mobile phone and many times we don't have that because they don't have to put that on the application for Medicaid eligibility. So we have to constantly look for our members and we can't, if we can't find them, we can't engage them. And so there's those folks that...

need our help, they don't know the services and benefits that we can provide. And just getting that initial contact in order to bring somebody in and tell them and show them really what we can do to help their personal situation is our biggest challenge. But once we get them engaged and they see the benefits and they see that we can improve not just their healthcare situation, but their social situation.

I think that they're always appreciative of the engagement that we have with them. I love that focus on not only social, it's social and economic mobility that you're looking at the whole person. So I guess keeping along that path of, you know, there's always the flip side and the flip side is, you know, what's the biggest opportunity that you see for growth and innovation in your sector? Yeah, I mean, along the lines with that challenge comes the opportunity and that's the

That's the technological innovation piece. So getting the visibility out there in the community from a digital standpoint, ensuring that we meet our members where they're at. We have digital care management capabilities. We have texting capabilities, but really extending our reach out into the community. We've got 11 community connection centers located throughout the state that we can engage.

our members in person. Of course, we've got lots of care management and community outreach staff that are out there in person. But not every member wants to interact with us in person. They want to interact with us. Maybe it's texting, maybe it's digital care management or telehealth. And so we've got to come up with all of those ways so that we capture the engagement with our members that we need. So that's...

That's that opportunity, innovating the ways we reach out into the communities. That's so powerful. And when you think about the last few years and a lot of that driven from the pandemic, we go to that, COVID -19, how has that reshaped the healthcare landscape? And really, was there a significant lesson that Sunshine Health learned during that time?

Yeah, there's a few things that came out of the pandemic, you know, in a positive way. One is our ability to work remotely. That's huge. We used to have, you know, hundreds of people that would gather in offices and now it's all out in the community. So we have very few people in the office and we've discovered that we operate very, very well from a remote work environment. So it has improved.

our work -life balance for our staff. From an engagement standpoint, there's been mass adoption of telehealth. And on the part of the providers and the members, that was something that was very limited prior to the pandemic. And it kind of forced that mass adoption of telehealth, which has really helped those folks in more remote areas, folks who don't have quick access to specialists, the ability to...

Simply get online and interact with a physician or another provider digitally has been huge for our membership. So that those have definitely positively impacted the interaction we have in engagement with our members. I think I'm going to stay on that question just a bit more because I'm thinking about the leadership piece, the leadership piece of saying and realizing that remote could be.

a way that you all operate and actually lead to greater efficiency and productivity. And, you know, the work life integration and balance. A lot of organizations are fearful of that. You know, what, you know, thinking about that whole process that you went through as a leader, how did you land on that? This is just the right thing to do for so many reasons. Well, you got to listen and trust. Yeah, right. I mean, you, I mean, people want to feel trusted.

They want to feel a part of the organization. They want to feel like they're listened to. And so I think interacting with line level staff, hearing their personal situations, and really just responding to them. And I think that folks work harder and are more dedicated if you listen to them, if they know that they are valued and that they're...

and that you've given them the flexibility they need to not only do their job, but also take care of their personal lives and their kids. And we've got a workforce that's about 75 % female. wow. And a lot of those are dual work households. And so that remote work environment was necessary for them to manage their work -life balance.

And I'll tell you, that fear associated with, well, maybe they're not gonna be working as many hours. I guarantee you they are. They are, we see that. And so there's obviously technology that we have put in place and that we have had for years to know who's doing what, how they're doing to measure that performance. But you've got to extend that trust, that flexibility, and they're gonna work just as hard, if not harder than they ever did before.

Wow, I did not want to miss that moment. And also for leaders out there to just see, I mean, you have such a, I call it the hybrid skillset. I mean, yes, you have the numbers, but you also have the people in the heart that God's that. And so it's, and I know that that certainly permeates within the organization. And that's why you've been so successful at what you do.

So, you know, we think about the internal and taking care and listening. So let's shift to community involvement and giving back. I know that that's integral to when you think about health care, the organization's mission. How does Sunshine Healthcare prioritize community engagement and societal responsibility? What does that look like for you all? Yeah.

We do that in many ways, whether it's through our workforce development program, our partnerships with the community college and the providers community to fill those critical staffing needs in the communities where we have staffing shortages, which is a lot of them, or it's our community connection centers, our engagement in the community with many, many events. We've got...

partnerships with over 700 community and charitable organizations throughout the state that address everything from food and housing insecurity to behavioral health, education, making sure that we get as many of our folks and programs out into the community so that people see Sunshine Health as a very trusting

trustworthy organization that they can engage with so that when they do get a call from one of our care managers, they say, you know what, I interacted with those folks at, you know, this church health fair, or I interacted with those folks at a vaccination event. And so they see that and that's all reinforced. So they're more encouraged to pick up the phone and listen to our care managers who are trying to remove their health care and social barriers.

I love so much about that because it's not just the organization recognizing what strength and capacity it brings, but how you partner with others to, I call it leverage and create even greater impact in these communities throughout the state of Florida. Just a great message. And again, that speaks to even from the membership perspective, that it's not just about the moment where you are, it's where we believe that you can go to and be. And that's with education and other resources.

So when you think about how all this intersects, you know, healthcare industry intersects with societal issues, including, you know, access to care and equity and public health. How do you integrate that and the whole ethical considerations that go into that and do your leadership approach in your organizational strategy? How do you make them believe, you know, you know, it's the right thing on the outside, but what does that look like internally? Well, you know, we practice that inside the company.

You know, so we've got a very robust DE &I program with many different types of groups. And so we strongly encourage participation in our DE &I groups. And we have wonderful participation, programs, activities, events. There's also an annual summit coming up at our corporate headquarters in St. Louis in a couple of weeks. I'll be going there.

And it's going to bring in DE and I folks from all over the organization to share best practices, programs, and experiences so people really do feel that connection to the company so that we are practicing what we preach. If we don't do that internally for our own employees, they're not going to be as good at expressing those values into the communities that they serve. So you got to practice what you preach.

my goodness. And such an amazing way. So when you think about innovation and scaling, because again, that, that certainly is the buzzword, you know, are you an innovator? Are you innovating? So innovation and scaling are crucial to, you know, really staying competitive in the sector. How has sunshine health incorporated innovation and scaling into your strategy? Yeah. So I think, one of the things that we, I can talk about here really in terms of scaling our messages.

are the partnerships we've had with organizations that have a much broader reach within the community than we do. So examples of that are our partnerships with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Miami Dolphins, the Urban League, the Orange Bowl Committee. So these organizations that are very well known by the public, they help us get our message.

And so we use their platforms in order to send messages about healthcare, taking care of yourself, taking timeouts for behavioral health issues. And that has been very impactful in the communities that we serve. I love that so much because you are partnering yet again.

but with the ability of, you know, outreaching to so many to share in your messaging. So, I mean, again, great approach now, and we're using technology. So this is going to be a great way to segue into a technology conversation. So technology increasingly shaping, you know, the healthcare delivery system. It just is. How have you leveraged technology and innovation to improve patient outcomes and organizational growth at the same time?

Well, I'd say it's a lot of data -driven information, not only for ourselves to identify potential acute care episodes before they happen, so identifying people with chronic conditions that if they go unmanaged, we know that they will wind up in an acute care setting and we want to prevent that. And so it's getting data into our own hands, but also getting data out.

into the hands of our provider community. We can't do all this outreach by ourselves. We need the assistance of the provider community. They are incentivized. We give them as much information as we can as quickly as possible. So if there is an acute care episode, somebody does end up having to go to the ER, we quickly wrap our arms around them from a social services standpoint.

from a clinical standpoint, making sure that their needs are addressed. And we partner with our providers in order to engage that member to make sure that they aren't readmitted, to make sure that they know that there are other alternatives other than, you know, going to the emergency room or possibly calling 911. So we definitely want to make sure that we get to those folks before.

that episode happens and technology data and there's a lot that goes into that. We have a tremendous amount of analytical resources and we push that out into the hands of our provider community. I love it. So data informed decision making, but making it real time and getting it out there. So I know the listeners are probably thinking, you know, like, man, such a rich depth.

just of understanding what it is that you do, why you do it, the why is so apparent with you. But I know there had to have been a pivotal moment in your own leadership journey. And can you share that best piece of advice that you've received? And I know listeners will want to know as well, did you have mentors along the way and how did that play or didn't play in your growth and development? No doubt. I mean, I think I have a lot of mentors.

I don't think you get anywhere in this world, in any company, without people helping you along the way. So, you know, if there's anything that I can say to the audience with respect to that is you're never gonna get anywhere by yourself. No. You need help. And I think it's really important that every interaction you have as you go through your journey is that you make sure that you make that impression on folks.

You never know who's gonna be that person that's gonna identify you as a person with potential. And then ultimately connect you with an opportunity that you would have never found had you not had that person looking out for you. That's how I got into Sunshine Health. I was doing mergers and acquisitions, doing corporate development for Centene Corporation.

And I met the help plan CEO at our Texas subsidiary and I interacted with him enough and he kind of looked at my skill set and saw some potential in me and walked up to me one day and said, you know what? I think you could be the CFO of the help plan. And I think that you would be a very good fit there. And ultimately that's what got me thinking about the potential to come to Florida. I had been involved in several acquisitions.

in Florida and so I knew the regulatory environment and the people that were there. So I had a really good head start. I had no idea that that was something that I could do. In fact, you know, I call these things off the resume opportunities, which they're opportunities that I would have if I would have come out of Centene and just submitted my resume for.

the CFO job at Sunshine Health in 2010, I would have never been considered. That wasn't on my resume. You know, HR folks are programmed to look and see if the job that they're recruiting for is on your resume. And so that's where mentors come in. They remove those barriers so that you get a shot at looking at those off resume opportunities. And I'm eternally grateful.

for the guy who recommended me for that because it really set me on a path that led me to numerous other opportunities within Centene and it started with that one interaction that I have with him. So definitely make sure you meet and gain those mentors.

Yeah, I love that you shared that story and just how you should always be prepared for opportunity. You never know where it's going to come from. So Nate, what's been that best piece of advice though you got along the way that you said, you know what, I'll remember it forever. You know, I'd say, take risks. Yeah. Take risks. Calculated risks, but risks. Step outside of your comfort zone. Yes.

And that has really benefited me. And for me, that's moving my family about a thousand miles away from home twice now. And that's a big risk that you take moving, uprooting your family and your children away from their extended family and the setting that's familiar to them. But I think that that's...

what has provided me with additional opportunities. If I didn't take that risk, if my family didn't take that risk, I couldn't see, really realize my total potential without doing that.

I love it. And this conversation has been so great. And I hate that I only have one question, but what I will say remaining is that the virtual door will always be open to come back and have more conversations with our workforce insight audience. So that question, and I know grab your smartphones, your stickies and all of that from your perspective, you know, you're a recognized leader in the industry, not only in the state of Florida, but throughout the nation. What are the key ingredients that I'm asking for maybe?

Just pretend you're just talking to me. Your secret sauce for being an impactful leader in the healthcare sector. You know, people want to feel like you're in the trenches with them. Yes. You know, a lot of leaders just kind of direct. They tell people what to do. Well, I'm a decision maker. I just tell people what to do. You got to be there with them. People want to feel like you're there picking up the hard work, carrying the load.

and not just that leader that kind of sits in that ivory tower. So I think it's incredibly important for leaders to present themselves as people of the people. And I'm just like everybody else that works at Sunshine Health. I'm just working as hard as I can for my family and for the benefit of the members that we serve. And that's really infectious within the organization. So,

If people see that, that you're picking up the hard work and doing it with them and that you feel the challenges and the struggles that they have and that you're advocating for them, they will work so much harder for you. And then of course, in turn, become wonderful leaders themselves. And that's just, to me, that's kind of intuitive, but I know it's not intuitive for a lot of leaders. It's really important.

It speaks so much to who you are and I can tell you it exudes, it just comes through the screen as we're talking now and having this conversation. You know, it's not just for this interview. This is how you live. This is how every day looks. And so I want to thank you again for being an amazing leader and contributor to the workforce insights conversation and podcast.

I want to thank the listeners for tuning in and making sure that they're not only liking it, but they're marking it as one of their favorites and subscribing and sharing it with the world because this is a message that we want the world to know about. Again, thank you for tuning in. We look forward to joining you joining us for the next episode of Workforce Insights powered by Envision More Consulting Group.

Thanks for tuning in to the Workforce Insight podcast powered by Envision More Consulting Group, where we bring your bold visions to life. Remember to subscribe, share, and stay tuned for more insights on navigating the world of workforce and leadership. Until the next time, be bold, be great, and let's innovate.