Capital Health Plan (CHP) has had only two chief executive officers since it was created in the early 1980s. Sabin Bass took over as CEO on August 1st. He previously served as CHP Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Bass took the top job after long-time President and CEO John Hogan retired.
“I'd be remiss if I didn't tip my hat to John and his leadership for four decades here,” Bass says. “He's set a very strong foundation and a very strong tone and direction. I've been working with John for two decades now, and we're here to build on that legacy of the company.”
Bass now leads a company that provides health insurance for over 135,000 members in nine Big Bend counties. We chatted after his first two weeks in the new role. Click LISTEN to hear more of the conversation.
WFSU: How has healthcare changed since you started in the industry? What are the things that stand out to you?
SABIN BASS: I got into this industry in 1990. If you think about where we were in 1990, there really wasn't even an internet at that point in time. The business was much more manual. Simple example - providers, physicians, hospitals submitted claims on paper through the U.S. mail. Today, almost 100% of our claims come in electronically.
The marketplace has changed tremendously as well. The Medicare Modernization Act of 2006 ushered in Medicare Advantage, and we're fortunate enough to have 23,000 members here covered in our various Medicare Advantage products.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ushered in all of the regulations around small groups and the individual marketplace, so tremendous changes just in the structure of the marketplace itself. HIPAA medical privacy didn't exist. Now it exists and dictates a lot of what we can and cannot share.
WFSU: It seems to be harder to find a doctor these days. Can you offer any observations about that?
SABIN BASS: It is hard to find doctors. In fact, I had a meeting (earlier this month). We were discussing the availability of physicians in our community and how can we help.
We've invested with the FSU School of Medicine in the name of our previous chief medical officer who was unfortunately murdered, Nancy Van Vessem. We've contributed about $10 million in an endowed scholarship for internal medicine physicians in our community. They don't have to work for CHP. They don't have to have any relationship with CHP, but we think that's very important.
We're actively recruiting for positions to meet that need. But you can read the national news, and shortages of physicians, shortages of nurses - the healthcare industry is not immune to those economic forces. We are squarely focused on making sure that we have in our community a sufficient number of doctors.
We're in nine counties. We recently expanded into Madison and Taylor County.
WFSU: Those are some rural counties. We talk sometimes about healthcare deserts. What have you dealt with in that regard?
SABIN BASS: There are difficulties in the rural nature of some of these counties in terms of provider networks. Sometimes there aren't sufficient providers in the various specialties. So how do we work with other partners to bring that care out to those rural communities? Those are certainly challenges for us because Tallahassee has kind of been the center. But, you know, if you live in Steinhatchee in Taylor County, assuming that someone wants to drive to Tallahassee for their care is a bad assumption.
(Rural areas) are unattractive for a lot of carriers. But that kind of fits within our mission. Then we really are trying to reach out to the folks that are uninsured. We really want to bring people into an insured status because we think that's better care for them.
WFSU: What do you think sets CHP apart from other providers? It's been very popular since it came on the scene here decades ago. What makes CHP better?
SABIN BASS: I think a few things set us apart and make us unique. I think maybe first and foremost, because it does run through everything that we do, is we're local. You know, healthcare is very much a local business. We see our members in the grocery store; we see them at our kids’ school play. So that level of accountability, I think, is an important tenet of who we are and I think what sets us apart.
I think the other piece is our commitment to quality and the quality of care. We spend a tremendous amount of energy on quality indicators… We've been very fortunate given our commitment to that quality of care to be rated among some of the highest plans… We are routinely receiving five-star ratings from our members because of their satisfaction with the health plan.
HMOs historically have a negative connotation to them, and I would say we are not what you would say is your stereotypical HMO. We do not get in the way of a doctor and a patient with what has historically been called hassle factors. We want you to have the right care in the right place at the right time, and we really do focus on that.
