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Guest: Virginia Barnes, Director of Blue Health Initiatives,
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas
Host: Sam Meers, EVP, Practice Lead, Barkley
COVID-19 has demonstrated how ill-prepared we were as a nation for a public health crisis. The lack of an immediate response plan to rapidly ramp up testing, our lack of contact tracing, and the grossly understaffed public health sector all exacerbated the COVID-19 pandemic, making it a larger healthcare and economic issue than it might have been.
Much of healthcare is reactive, focusing on the acute needs of those who are unwell. There’s swelling support for a shift toward value-based healthcare and programs and benefits that focus on preventive care and long-term outcomes. But those investments are at odds with the way the system works. This is why community health initiatives that take on social determinants of health are so important for preventive care and access to healthcare resources.
In this episode of Modern Marketeers, we’ll examine what should have been done, and what needs to be done nationally, regionally and locally to get ahead of COVID-19 and to be better prepared for the next global pandemic.
Have a comment or topic suggestion for a future episode of Modern Marketeers? Please email our producer, Michael Levine, at mlevine@barkleyus.com.