CEO, Steve Guenthner and VP Stephen Kinsey Discuss Senior Affordable Healthcare On iHeart’s “What’s Going On And Insight” Podcast
You can listen to the full interview with CEO, Steve Guenthner and VP of Government Advocacy and Community Engagement, Stephen Kinsey Interviewed On iHeart Philadelphia Community Podcast “What’s Going On And Insight” Regarding Affordable Healthcare for Seniors at iHeart Podcasts. Below is a fill transcript of the interview.
Loraine Ballard: When it comes to healthcare seniors are often put in a position of not having enough. Not having the support that they need in order to live long and healthy life. So, it’s my pleasure to be joined by two individuals who are going to tell us more about what the issues are and what they are doing to uplift seniors when it comes to underserved communities. We are joined by Steve Guenthner, he is CEO of CareRing Health and Patriot Home Care. Stephen Kinsey, he is Vice President of Government Advocacy and Community Engagement for Patriot and CareRing Health. So I am so delighted to have you both here and let me start, Stephen Kinsey by the way, for our audience, here is someone who I’ve had a great relationship with over the years and he has always been a tremendous support for the community and so many different ways as a state representative and now has moved onto this new position but I’m going start with you, Steve Gunther, and talk about what are some of the challenges that exist for seniors in underserved communities when it comes to getting really good and quality care.
Steve Guenthner: Thank you Lorraine for having us on today. We started CareRing Health just a little bit over two years ago in response to the need for healthcare services to be brought to underserved patient populations, particularly the dually-eligible, those patients who are qualified for Medicare coverage and Medicaid coverage who have chronic illnesses who really want to stay in their homes, if they have the support systems and the help to do that. They really don’t want to wind up in a nursing home and they certainly don’t want to wind up in a hospital, if they can avoid that. So, independence and dignity are critical for this population. There are many, many programs under federally sponsored and state-sponsored healthcare programs to help these folks and then there’s a whole range of other social programs to address any number of social determinants of health. The challenge is that you could be a PhD and it would still be an imposing set of regulations and rules to understand and so we forms this company with some other partners – investment and operating partners – to try to help address this social ne. We acquired Patriot Home Care which has been in the Philadelphia market for a long time about two years ago and have been building our network of services around Patriot Home Care and we brought Steve on. I got the opportunity to know Stephen, to meet him and know him, working on a number of regulatory issues in Harrisburg and frankly I was just so taken with his commitment to his community, to the neighborhood that he grew up in, into the people that he wants to serve and there’s very significant overlap here.
Loraine Ballard: And Stephen Kinsey, as someone who has been a longtime advocate for access to healthcare of all kinds for underserved communities, I wonder if you can address some of the specific issues. Now, Steve Guenthner talked about, I think a lot of seniors do prefer to stay at home if they can. I mean that that’s a really big step to move into a senior care home or assisted living. I think most seniors would prefer to stay at home. What are some of the barriers that exist and what are some of the things that you are doing as an organization to address those barriers?
Stephen Kinsey: Well, Loranine I again want to thank you for allowing us to be here. It is great to see you as well. You know I served 12 years as a state legislator and throughout the course of the 12 years you get put on a variety of committees there. Well, the one the committee was constant for me was the human service committee. I also served on the health committee. I eventually became chairman of the human service committee and throughout the 12 years that I served as a legislator health was really probably one of the number one priorities. You know we always talk about funding and the different areas, so healthcare was one of the number one priorities that we as state legislators seem to be attempting to address year after year after year. And so, I had the opportunity not only as a legislature, but as a chairman of the human service committee to visit a variety of facilities and homes in regards to just seeing how people were living their lives. And I agree with Steve, one of the things that we found out as a committee was that folks, especially as they were ageing, they chose to stay at home. And you know some of the challenges that are seniors and even with folks with disability, what they were facing was the lack of resources. I mean we had some folks who were deciding between do I pay for medication or pay for food. You know I don’t want to get kicked out of my home so do I just nix the food, nix the medication and just make sure that the money is going into a home that I can stay in and hopefully age in. And so, there was a variety of legislation that we tried over the past some 12 years with different governors that we had to interface with. I can say that we made some progress, but the reality is that we have not made enough progress. You know looking at a personal situation even with my mother who passed away five years ago, the story was that my mother wanted to stay at home. You know at the unfortunate time, we were dealing with Covid as well as some other health issues, but I just know from personal experience, home is where the heart is and so you know for me to join an organization, a company that is focused on trying to honor the wishes of our seniors and those folks who prefer to be at home, it’s just continuation for me of the advocacy work and focusing on what folks truly desire. Not just in Philadelphia but all across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Sixty-seven counties and I can’t tell you no one county that were fold said to me, oh man take me to a nursing home or take me to another place, I want to get out of my house. No, they want to stay at home and so I’m very fortunate to be here with CareRing and Patriot to try to honor those wishes for folks.
Loraine Ballard: Well Steve Guenthner I know that there are also other factors that come into play certainly when we’re talking about diverse communities where language might be an issue, or transportation might be an issue. I wonder if you can tell us a little bit about how you address those issues.
Steve Guenthner: Yeah, I think the phrase we use is culturally relevant and culturally appropriate responses and so today we’re in six states. We have about 5,700 employees. We have 20 different service locations and about 5,000 patients ranging anywhere from central Virginia up through the District of Columbia, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, all the way over to Youngstown, Ohio, and each community is a local neighborhood. It has a local flavor to it. Even in Philadelphia, when Steve and I are talking and I’ll be talking about an issue in West Philly or South Philly and he’ll say no no, I’m not from Philadelphia, I’m from North Philadelphia. So, people want to be cared for by people like them and people from their community. People want to be understood. And so, one of our key tenants to our business is to have service locations as close to where people live as we can. When we first bought Patriot it really had one very large monolithic sort of agency and we’ve established what we call neighborhood health hubs in West Philly and Upper Darby, in South Philly, in Wilmington as part of the metropolitan area, Allegheny Avenue and we are in the process of working out in Northeast Philly location, so we can get our employees closer to the communities. And we can hire people from those neighborhoods to care for people, preferably people who grew up in those neighborhoods caring for people in those neighborhoods and really trying to make people comfortable because there’s a thing that happens when you when you become aged and disabled, you have impairments. Those impairments whether they are cognitive or physical, they cause your world to shrink and you feel very vulnerable. And so, a big part of what we do in our service offering is we help people simply feel better, feel more comfortable about the kind of folks that are coming into their homes, the kinds of people caring for them. English is the primary language in America and certainly Philadelphia as Spanish is a secondary language, and it goes on from there. We have a large presence within the Hispanic community, and we have a pretty significant amount of Eastern European folks in our organization that are Ukrainian and we have some folks from a variety of other countries and languages. These melting pot communities which Philadelphia certainly is, they present you with opportunities but challenges to address that. You really just have to get on the ground and do what Steve was talking about getting in your car and going to people’s homes and sit and listen to what they’re asking for and what their challenges are in work to address those challenges.
Loraine Ballard: My second to last question that goes to Stephen Kinsey and that is how is how is your organization collaborating with local community leaders and organizations to improve health outcomes for underserved seniors?
Stephen Kinsey: Thanks for that question and let me tell you, it is really a continuum of work that has already been established in community. Prior to coming here, it wasn’t just me working with our congressman, working with city council, working with state senators, so we already had an organization to speak, an outfit, that was focusing on gun violence, health outcomes and so forth and so on. So now, being here with CareRing Health is just a continue of the work that we’ve already started and I can tell you Lorraine you know prior to leaving Harrisburg and talking with colleagues prior to leaving, I am very clear, I can’t talk about legislation but we can talk about the health and the care of the folks of the communities in which they serve in which we also serve so there’s a continuation of collaboration, in fact we have an open house is going take place in two weeks and we’re working with the elected leaders there in the West Philadelphia area. We’re doing something here in Germantown working with the local leaders in Germantown, so it’s just a continuation of work with folks who really care about individuals in the communities and bringing some additional resources together, bringing some additional educational sessions together and just talking to the folks again not twisting your arms. I’m not saying to vote this way, vote that way and the thing that they are saying to us is that healthcare is an issue. So CareRing is saying well let us educate you on the services that we provide. And the great thing I really have to say that I love about Steve Guenthner is that this was not an arm twisting. Steve just cared about me and I saw it when I was a legislator, he just cared about people and it wasn’t that CareRing has or Patriot has to serve everybody but he’s like let’s just educate folks let them choose where to go and you have to appreciate and respect that and that’s what we’re doing. We are just educating folks and if they choose to join us because of the great service we provide, that’s great. If they choose to go someplace else, that’s great too as long as they make the choices and as long as their educated to understand so they can make the best choice for them and their family members.
Loraine Ballard: That’s great. You’re meeting people where they are. Steve Guenthner, if people want more information about Patriot Home Care and also about CareRing Health, how do they find out more?
Steve Guenthner: So, you’ll find in a couple of different spots on the internet, CareRingHealth.com. The trick is that there is an “e” in CareRingHealth.com. And then PatriotHomeCare.org are too quick and easy places to go. We do have a phone number it’s 877-535-5550. If you get confused about that, step out on Broad Street and watch one of our buses go by. We try to keep those well wrapped so that people understand the bus shelters and billboards and that kind of stuff just so folks know how access us. Thank you for that question.
Loraine Ballard: Fantastic and Stephen Kinsey, I’m giving you the last word. What’s your final message to our listeners.
Stephen Kinsey: This is what I say to folks. Healthcare is important. I don’t care how much money you have. I don’t care how much knowledge you have but just make sure that you take care of yourself and take care of your loved ones. As a legislator we found out that we can’t legislate every single aspect of a person’s life. We should not be doing that but one of things that we should be doing is educating folks so they can make the best decisions – what’s best for them and their loved ones. And for me to join CareRing is like one of those matches made in heaven. It’s like dating a girlfriend and you fell in love. CareRing offers those types of services and support and again, I don’t twist anybody’s arm, I just simply share the information and hopefully the folks throughout Pennsylvania will make the best choice for them. I just think that you know for me this was a good choice, really the best choice for me, and I think that the service that we provide our second to none.
Loraine Ballard: Stephen Kinsey, we want to thank you for everything that you’ve done in the past and everything that you’ll do in the future. They are certainly lucky to have you. Stephen Kinsey, he’s vice president of government advocacy and community engagement for CareRing Health and Patriot Home Care. And Steve Guenthner, CEO of CareRing Health and Patriot Home Care which is certainly expanding its footprint in the Philadelphia area and reaching out to the community. Thank you so much for joining us.
Stephen Kinsey: Thank you very much, Lorraine. Thanks for having us.