Healthview Home Health Services Avoids ‘Dangerous Growth,’ Battles Managed Care – Home Health Care News

Healthview Home Health Services: A Report on Sustainable Growth and Social Impact

Healthview Home Health Services has demonstrated significant growth, securing a position on the Inc. 5000 list. The company’s strategy prioritizes a sustainable and healthy pace of expansion, with a projected doubling in size by the end of 2025. This report analyzes Healthview’s operational model, focusing on its alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in the areas of employee welfare, technological innovation, and health equity.

Strategic Approach to Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8)

Healthview’s growth is fundamentally driven by its commitment to creating a positive and supportive work environment, which directly contributes to SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). The company recognizes that staff retention and satisfaction are prerequisites for sustainable expansion in the competitive Southern California healthcare market.

Key Pillars of Employee Experience

• Culture as a Differentiator: Leadership focuses on meeting employees’ individual needs and understanding their professional growth aspirations.
• Leadership Development: The company is committed to building leaders from within, identifying talent and potential beyond conventional qualifications. This is exemplified by promoting individuals from roles such as a night runner to an executive director position.
• Long-Term Stability: As a privately held company with no plans to sell, Healthview offers job security, fostering a sense of stability and trust among its staff.
• Accessible Leadership: Senior management, including the CEO, maintains high availability to the entire team, promoting a transparent and supportive culture.

Innovation and Infrastructure for Quality Healthcare (SDG 9 & SDG 3)

Healthview has fully embraced technological innovation as a means to enhance healthcare delivery, aligning with SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) and supporting the objectives of SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being).

Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The company leverages AI to streamline operations and empower its clinical staff. The primary goals of this integration are:

1. Reduce Administrative Burden: AI automates mundane tasks such as charting, significantly reducing the time clinicians spend on paperwork.
2. Enhance Patient Care: By freeing up clinicians’ time, AI allows for more direct, high-quality patient interaction, improving the human component of care.
3. Promote AI Fluency: Healthview provides paid enterprise AI subscriptions to all full-time employees, ensuring the entire workforce is fluent in leveraging this technology to amplify their work and improve outcomes.

Advancing Health Equity and Reducing Inequalities (SDG 3 & SDG 10)

A core component of Healthview’s mission is its service to vulnerable and marginalized populations, directly addressing SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and reinforcing its commitment to SDG 3.

Service to Vulnerable Communities

• Recuperative Care Partnerships: Healthview owns, manages, and works with recuperative care facilities, described as skilled homeless shelters, to provide integrated housing and healthcare services.
• Focus on Unhoused Populations: The company provides skilled home health and hospice care to individuals in assisted living facilities and shelters, ensuring access to care for those who would otherwise be homeless.
• Purpose-Driven Workforce: Healthview actively recruits purpose-driven nurses and clinicians dedicated to serving this challenging patient demographic, contributing to the overall community goal of addressing homelessness.

Addressing Systemic Industry Challenges

Healthview identifies managed care plans as a significant financial challenge. The reimbursement rates offered by these plans are often insufficient, creating a scenario where providers may lose money on patients. This systemic issue poses a threat to the financial viability of home health providers and can limit patient access to necessary care, undermining the universal health coverage goals of SDG 3. The company advocates for systemic changes to ensure fair compensation and maintain the integrity of home-based care.

Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

1. SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being: The entire article is centered on Healthview Home Health Services, a company providing home health and hospice care. It discusses patient care, the role of clinicians, and the challenges in providing healthcare services, which directly relates to ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being.
2. SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth: The article heavily emphasizes the company’s focus on creating a positive “employee experience” to attract and retain staff. It discusses job security, leadership development, manageable growth, and the creation of a supportive work culture, all of which are central to promoting sustained, inclusive economic growth and decent work for all.
3. SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure: The CEO, Steven Gonzalez, highlights the significant role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their operations. The company’s push for all employees to be “fluent in AI” and its use to automate tasks and improve efficiency represents a clear focus on technological upgrading and innovation within the healthcare industry.
4. SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities: The article explicitly states that Healthview serves vulnerable populations that other providers often neglect. By working with recuperative care (skilled homeless shelters) and providing services to the unhoused, the company is actively working to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare.
5. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities: Healthview’s work extends beyond healthcare to address social determinants of health. The article mentions that the company provides housing for unhoused individuals through assisted living facilities and recuperative care, directly contributing to making cities and human settlements inclusive and safe. The CEO notes a goal to “contribute to the cities’ overall success of helping [people in] the streets.”

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• Target 3.8: Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.
  • The article connects to this by discussing the provision of home health and hospice care. The challenges mentioned with “managed care” and low payment rates highlight the financial barriers to providing universal access to these essential services.
• Target 8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.
  • This is addressed through the company’s focus on creating a “good employee experience,” retaining staff, providing job security (“in three years, they’re not going to sell”), and fostering a supportive culture to ensure decent work.
• Target 8.8: Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment.
  • The company’s strategy of growing at a “healthy pace without burning out people and overworking people” and relieving “charting stress” directly contributes to a safe and secure working environment.
• Target 9.5: Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending.
  • Healthview’s investment in AI, providing “paid enterprise subscriptions for every full-time person,” and using technology to “relieve a lot of mundane work” demonstrates a commitment to upgrading technological capabilities within its sector.
• Target 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.
  • This is directly supported by the company’s mission to “take care of a population that, unfortunately, a lot of providers don’t want to take,” specifically mentioning their work with the unhoused population.
• Target 11.1: By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.
  • The article states that Healthview works with “recuperative care, which we also own and manage, which is essentially a skilled homeless shelter” and “assisted living [facilities] that provide housing for people who are unhoused,” directly contributing to this target.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Company Growth Rate: The article mentions that Healthview made the “Inc. 5000 list” and plans to “double again in size” this year. This serves as an indicator of economic growth (relevant to SDG 8).
• Employee Retention: While not giving a specific number, the strong emphasis on creating an environment that “attracts and retains staff” implies that employee retention rate is a key performance indicator for the company (relevant to SDG 8).
• Internal Promotion and Leadership Development: The example of the executive director who was previously a “night runner” implies that the number of internal promotions is a measure of their success in building leaders (relevant to SDG 8).
• Adoption of Technology: The fact that “every full-time person” has a paid enterprise subscription to AI tools is a direct indicator of technology integration. A secondary indicator is the reduction in administrative time, as “chart time is quicker” (relevant to SDG 9).
• Number of Vulnerable Patients Served: The mention of a “large managed medical hospice population” and their work with recuperative care for the homeless implies that the number of patients from these specific, hard-to-serve populations is a key metric for the company (relevant to SDG 10 and SDG 3).
• Number of People Housed: The statement that “We provide housing, and then also skilled home health or hospice” for the unhoused suggests that the number of individuals placed in housing through their programs is a measurable outcome (relevant to SDG 11).

4. Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: homehealthcarenews.com