The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with Homecare Homebase. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of home health, hospice care, senior housing, skilled nursing, and behavioral health. To see this year’s Future Leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
Maria Warren, the vice president of McBee, has been named a 2023 Future Leader by Home Health Care News.
To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40-years-old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for seniors, and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.
Warren sat down with HHCN to talk about where home health care is going next, her best advice for early-career professionals and much more.
HHCN: What drew you to this industry?
Warren: I always had a passion for health care, and knew I enjoyed helping people. In college, I studied health policy and administration. I was drawn into courses on health care strategy, managed care and long-term care.
I had the opportunity to intern at the Alzheimer’s Association, in their public policy office in Washington, D.C. That really fueled my interest in care in the home and advocacy.
Post-graduation, I had the opportunity to join McBee, and that’s where I took my foundational knowledge to build my career in helping home-based care providers improve their operations, clinical outcomes and bottom lines.
What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in home-based care?
I’d have to say my biggest lesson learned more so came as a surprise.
It was when I attended my first industry conference event. I quickly learned that the industry is a family full of exceptionally knowledgeable and dynamic individuals, many who have spent their entire careers in the industry. Logos and egos always get put to the side. Everyone collaborates and helps each other as part of the greater good, serving a larger mission by putting patients first and making high quality care in the home easier to access and deliver.
If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of home-based care, what would it be?
More interoperability between health care settings to allow for full visibility into the patient’s history, care plans and current condition.
As more and more people look to utilize home health and home care services for themselves, their loved ones, there needs to be a better way to share data, information, results, outcomes – all of those things in real time.
It’s certainly been moving in that direction. And I believe that accelerating this change, and making it easy for providers and patients to adopt technology will allow for a better experience and outcomes.
What do you foresee as being different about the home-based care space looking ahead?
Things are constantly changing and evolving, and providers must be agile in adapting to the evolution of the industry.
We’ve seen the constant shift in payment reform, as well as the changes that COVID brought onto the industry. The home health agencies that have historically been focused on Medicare-only patients can no longer survive. With the continued Medicare reimbursement cuts, and more Medicare beneficiaries enrolling in Medicare Advantage plans, home health providers need to get creative with their business models. They need to look to explore partnerships, and service diversification, to broaden their expertise and revenue streams.
I also foresee more opportunity, scalability and innovation for clinically integrated care models that include cross continuum collaboration, and more Medicare Advantage with value-based or at-risk contracting arrangements. These are complex changes that take time to develop and implement into the day-to-day operations. And that requires constant oversight and refinement, to improve the delivery, outcomes and success of these initiatives. Through all of this, we’ll see greater emphasis on population health and social determinants of health to drive personalized care plans.
In a word, how would you describe the future of home-based care?
Evolving.
If you could give advice to yourself looking back, what would that advice be?
To find a mentor. Whether it be within your company, or within the industry, having a mentor is key to both personal and professional growth. Throughout my career, I’ve had amazing mentors who served as soundboards on ideas, offered advice and shared their personal experiences. They challenged my thinking and approach. Earlier in a career, mentors are truly a gift in helping you navigate career paths and the industry.
To learn more about the Future Leaders program, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
