The Risky Health Care Business - Marc Mertz, Chief Strategy Officer at Kaweah Health

Marc Mertz, Chief Strategy Officer at Kaweah Health

09/26/23 • 30 min

What he does: Marc is the Chief Strategy Officer at Kaweah Health in Visalia, California. His areas of responsibility include strategic planning, business development, marketing and communications, media relations, physician recruitment and relations, and government affairs.

On risk: "There's really risk in everything that we do. There's even risk of things that we decide not to do. And then there's certainly risk in doing nothing ... Risk comes in a number of different flavors: actuarial insurance, capitation and risk models, compliance and the risk department, patient safety, operational risk, financial risk, facilities, social media, competitive risk. And risk comes in variations: the operating room, organizations and services, payer mix, organizational structure, financial stability and security, and geography and environments ... Where I spend most of my time these days is an area that I hadn't really thought about before, reputational risk ... Working with my team to make sure we don't create unnecessary risk. We're constantly weighing risk and trying to respond to it and mitigate it without actually thinking about risk ahead of any potential risks ... Think around corners and think about different angles and perspectives on issues. Take steps to ensure that we are doing that every time. It's not enough to do it most of the time. We have to do it all the time."

Previous Episode

Erin Hendricks, Dental Practice Administrator

What she does: Erin is a dental practice administrator in Washington, DC. She is the president of the Washington DC/Maryland/Virginia chapter of the American Association of Dental Office Management and is on the Board of Directors of the American Dental Assistants Association.

On risk: "On the clinical side the obvious health risks, not watching someone's health history and understanding there might be contraindications between medications and materials ... Staffing risks can have people that aren't very well trained, the main goal is to make sure that everyone is properly trained and they have the proper information in order to mitigate any kind of risk ... In addition to as a group, being able to make sure that we are keeping all the information safe, it's incumbent upon each individual and their training and understanding their part in also keeping the risk low ... Doing background checks is something that although recommended is really not done that much in dentistry ... there are safeguards to put in place that sometimes dental offices are lax about, or, to be quite honest, aren't trained"

Next Episode

Colin Carr, Chief Executive Officer at CARR

What he does: Colin is the Chief Executive Officer at CARR. During his career Colin has been active in local, regional, and national real estate transactions involving landlords, sellers, tenants, buyers, and investors.

On risk: "When it comes to risk, if you're looking at purchasing there are a number of lenders across the country that are willing to do 100% financing, but that does mean that you're borrowing more. And so you need to make sure that you're not overpaying for the property or that you don't go upside down when the market corrects ... What's the motivation of the landlord to voluntarily reduce their cash flow, their income, and just give you free money? ... Typically, the personal guarantees are going to go directly to only the owners. This plays a major role, people do get tripped up with personal guarantees. Can you get an auto loan without a personal guarantee? The answer is no. Can you get a student loan without a personal guarantee? No. Can you get a mortgage from a reputable lender without a personal guarantee? No. Can you get a credit card? Anytime someone's extending you credit or value you're going to guarantee it ... Protect your interests and to make sure that you're mitigating risk at the highest level."

The Risky Health Care Business - Marc Mertz, Chief Strategy Officer at Kaweah Health

Transcript

Scott Nelson 0:01

Welcome to The Risky Health Care Business Podcast, where we help you prepare for the future by sharing stories, insights, and skills from expert voices in and around the United States health care world with a mission to inform, educate, and help health care organizations and individuals, ranging from one doctor practices to large integrated systems and organizations throughout the dental, medical, and veterinary health care industry with risk, while hopefully having s