Andrew Mills With CareTrack

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Andrew Mills. He is with Caretrack. Welcome, Andrew.

Andrew Mills: [00:00:43] Thanks, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, I’m so excited to learn about what you’re up to. Tell us about Caretrack. How are you serving folks?

Andrew Mills: [00:00:50] Cartrack is a health care company that concentrates on chronic illness treatment and prevention. We’re a company that started eight years ago in the Atlanta metro area, where tech enabled service. That’s technology, and we have a team of nurses that support chronically ill patients remotely to help them better stay on their care plan and stay healthy, and then identify for their physicians information about their health sooner than the physician would otherwise find out about it. So we follow patients between office visits is essentially what we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] So what was the genesis of the idea? How did this come about?

Andrew Mills: [00:01:32] Well, I worked for an electronic health record technology company in the Atlanta area, Greenway Health, and I recognized the opportunity to start a specific application to help patients with chronic illnesses. And it was centered around a government program that Medicare and CMS started for chronic illness treatment and prevention. So we started it in 2015 to support physicians, and we’ve been hard at it ever since.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:06] Now there’s quite a few chronic illnesses. How do you choose which one to kind of do you specialize in any one or is it kind of it doesn’t matter as long as it’s chronic. Then we have a system that can be put into place.

Andrew Mills: [00:02:19] Yeah. So that’s a great question. So we support 47 chronic illness treatment and prevention guidelines. The customers that we serve or the physicians practices. And we concentrate on primary care. So general family internal medicine medical practices. And they are really the quarterback of the health care system. And they have to deal with all types of chronic illness treatment. And so we really support that for those physicians. And we have the technology that’s able to build out treatment guidelines for those patients according to any disease that they have.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:01] And so then they can give their patients like a way more robust solution rather than anything they as individuals could do themselves.

Andrew Mills: [00:03:09] Yes, that’s right. We really have a physician shortage, especially in primary care. And the number of chronically ill patients are continuing to increase across our country and as the country ages. So a physician can’t be with a patient all the time. So we’re really their eyes and ears in between the office visit when they’re seeing the patient. So we help patients understand what they need to do to stay healthy per the plan of care that their physician has put together. And then we find out about information sooner than the physician would otherwise find out about it.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:50] Now, so does your solution include obviously, human beings that are interacting with the patients, but does it also, um, leverage technology because there’s a lot of devices now that provide a lot of information? 24 seven is that part of the solution as well?

Andrew Mills: [00:04:06] Yes it is. So we have technology that we deploy to patients. So we will send patients vital kits that include uh depending on their disease, uh, set uh glucometer weight scales, blood pressure devices, among others. Um, and they’re pre-configured. So when the patient receives it, they simply put the device on. And then it transmits information back to our team of nurses that is available to receive that information. And then if there’s anything outside of the norm, we transfer that information or notify their physician in real time. Um, and then we can see trends for those patients that, um. Can be reported back to their physician and the physician’s team.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:59] Now, is this something that the patients are embracing, or is this something they’re hesitant to stay compliant with a program like this? Because a lot of times people intellectually know, you know, even without your help, hey, it’s a good idea to keep track of certain things, but to actually do that over a period of time, the human being falls off for whatever reason. But by having a human like your team involved in technology, involved in kind of a way more frequently interacting, does that keep compliance at a higher level than if they were on their own?

Andrew Mills: [00:05:32] Uh, yeah, at a much higher level. So there’s a bit of art and science in the way that care track interacts with patients around patient motivation and keeping patients engaged with their care plan. Uh, once patients realize that they have somebody that is there looking out for them that is available 24 hours, seven days a week as care track is, uh, they find that really valuable because we interact with patients, uh, to make sure that they understand what the care plan is. And over time, they, they’ve come to really rely on a service that we provide, uh, mainly for ease of use, but also they really see the value in, uh, keeping better care of themselves.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:23] Now, can you share a story? Obviously don’t name the individual, but a situation where you were able to maybe intervene, uh, proactively rather than if they waited a month, three months, six months between office visits?

Andrew Mills: [00:06:38] Yeah. So it happens pretty regularly. Uh, uh, so a patient, in fact, a patient, uh, just the other day, uh, we’re taking, uh, blood pressure readings, um, over the overnight. So it’d be outside of regular office hours or business hours that. The reading of blood pressure was elevated. Um, the patient became short of breath, but we we notified we were notified of the abnormal reading, and our nurse reached out in the middle of the night to this patient. Uh, was able to reassure that patient, get them, get them reassured so they relaxed, continue to take readings until we realized that it was an abnormal reading, but it wasn’t life threatening. So we were able to to keep that patient, uh, safe and secure at their own home. We avoided what would typically be an emergency room visit because the patient was concerned, and we had them scheduled in the first thing the next day to see their physician to address the issue that had arisen. And that’s a pretty regular occurrence. So, uh, avoidance of unnecessary emergency room visits or hospitalizations is our goal. And as patients, uh, do the things that they need to do to keep care of themselves, we avoid unnecessary cost. And and the human tragedy of of escalated acute medical events.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:19] Now, is there any kind of unintended consequence from so many people nowadays having some sort of a device on their body, whether, you know, it’s their, uh, Apple Watch or a Fitbit or, or whoop, you know, where they’re capturing all this data, you know, way more data than a normal person can process and really even understand. Um, is there kind of any unintended consequence from a person being that intimate with this, um, when it comes to their health or like, can they really take action on any of the data that they’re collecting?

Andrew Mills: [00:08:59] Well, that is one of the advantages of using a company like Cartrack that has the technology to consume that level of information. So as you mentioned, as we’re. Able to gather this quantity of information, especially health care information. It’s it’s hard to we’ve, uh, sift through the mountain of information that comes in. That’s where our technology steps in to be able to identify trends, abnormalities, um, and be able to put that information in context and also react to it in real time so that it’s actually meaningful. Because if you gather information and you don’t do anything with it, you’re just, uh, compiling data. But making that data actionable is the real key. And where Caretrax steps in is we have a team of nurses that can take that information and apply standardized medical treatment and guidelines to respond to that information in real time. So that’s where medical practices, and particularly physicians find us really valuable, because we have the capacity and the economies of scale to get to that level of of manage that level of data and then put it in context and respond to it. Um, just because you’re gathering the information is is only one piece of the solution, uh, to make that information, uh, actionable.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:40] Right. And, and discerning between signal and noise. That’s what I don’t think a layperson really is up to the challenge of that. You know, seeing one, uh, you know, it could be an anomaly. You know, one, uh, signal that’s high or low or whatever that’s out of the norm. It might be nothing, but it could be something. And to have a team like yours kind of that can analyze and and discern that, I think is, I mean, that’s game changing for a person.

Andrew Mills: [00:11:10] Yeah. It has a significant impact. And we’re concentrated on Medicare, Medicare Advantage, uh, patients typically. So they’re typically older, um, on the age spectrum. But we have some funny stories of a grandkid putting a blood pressure cuff on a cat, for example. And, but but we have the capacity and the ability to respond to those abnormalities and confirm the validity of them. Uh, and that’s one of the advantages of, of our process. So those we can determine the, the validity of those abnormalities and, uh, identify them and respond to them accordingly.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:58] Now, is your ideal client, uh, this independent, um, medical practice, is it, uh, medical practices that are more maybe in remote areas that aren’t, you know, where there’s not a lot of them and then they don’t see their patients as frequently as if there were a lot of, uh, medical practitioners in a certain area, like where, you know, where is the priority of growth for your firm.

Andrew Mills: [00:12:23] Sure. So while patients in remote areas have their own, uh, particular concerns with access to care, uh, for example, there there are some counties in Alabama, for example, that don’t have a primary care physician available for patients. Uh, what we find is that an, uh, primary care physician, where they’re operating within a large medical facility or operating as an independent practice, the day to day duties, responsibilities, how they operate to treat patients is very similar. So the problem that we solve is allowing those physicians to stay in touch, uh, and with those patients that they want to keep an eye on. And so we make it very easy for physician where they work for, uh, a hospital or a larger network or even an independent medical practice to deploy our services to support their patients, you know, between office visits. So, like I said, we’re really the eyes and ears to bring, uh, clinical information that’s been curated and validated back to the physician to make it actionable. So we’re out of office care team that acts as an extension of a medical practice and that medical practice. It really doesn’t matter to us whether they’re an independent physician’s practice or working for a large medical group. However, we we found that, um, most of our practices right now are independent physician practices. Um, and that just has to do with, uh, those practices typically can make decisions. Is faster from a buying standpoint. So that’s really where we’ve been focused. But we’re starting to move into larger networks of, uh, larger physician networks and, and uh, health system sales.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:25] So if somebody wanted to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, where should they go?

Andrew Mills: [00:14:31] They should go to cartrack. Com. Uh, and we, uh, we’re on Twitter and, uh, LinkedIn and Facebook, but Cartrack. Com can, you can get a breakdown of our services and get in touch with us for further information.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:49] Well, Andrew, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Andrew Mills: [00:14:55] Thanks, Lee, I appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks for what you do.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:57] All right. This Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.