Nari Heshmati, MD, has been named by Fort Myers, Fla.-based Lee Health's Physician Group as chief physician executive.
Dr. Heshmati joined Becker's to discuss his new role and the challenges he's anticipating.
Editor's note: This interview was edited lightly for clarity and length.
Question: What are you most looking forward to in this role?
Dr. Nari Heshmati: It's a huge role. There's 1,100 clinicians offering a combination of primary care, specialty care. I'm excited about the opportunity. This is a major system that serves as a safety net for Southwest Florida but, on top of that, has very advanced specialty services that they provide. I'm excited to continue to work to integrate those services and expand them out. I'm still learning everything because I just got here. But, I mean, it's a very well-run large system, and there's so many opportunities for growth. I'm looking forward to diving into that.
Q: What specific growth opportunities are you excited about?
NH: We can continue to expand the scope and breadth of specialty services out here. A large part of my role at Optum was overseeing specialty and surgery lines, so I'm excited to expand that. There's large parts here in Florida where there continues to be the ability to grow in the value-based sphere. That's a completely different model of care than fee-for-service, so there area lot of questions surrounding how we make them compatible. In my mind, what that means is designing the perfect care model and then making sure the payment models fit. Those are two areas where there's going to be a huge amount of opportunity. I'm amazed by what I've seen, but there's so much I still have to see.
Q: Are there any challenges you're anticipating?
NH: I think the challenge is that we're going to see here are the challenges we're facing in healthcare. Just because I've moved from one coast to the other doesn't mean it's going to be any easier for physicians. We have a physician shortage. That's there. It doesn't mean the economics of healthcare are necessarily changing. We've got to figure out how to provide high-value care in a more cost sustainable manner.
It's funny because whenever groups of physicians come together, we look at the parallels that every system is facing. It's insane. It's the exact same challenge over and over again. That's something different than if you looked 10 or 15 years ago. Then, we had unique things within our regions. But now there are a lot of headwinds facing the healthcare sector. And I think those are gonna be things that we're going to have to figure out because I want to expand and provide even more specialty care. I've got to be able to hire those specialists to begin with. The economies have to work out if I want to have these ASCs added. When you take a look at it, the cost of running a medical practice has gone up like 20-30%, and that's conservative. Some AMA data puts us closer to 45-46%. When you account for inflation, those numbers just don't add up.
I am looking forward to the fact that Lee has been in this community for a very, very long time. It's a very well trusted brand in the community. It's nice to roll into a situation that's well set-up to begin with.
I'm excited to be here, back in Florida. Whether on the West Coast or the East Coast, with my previous role at Optum or now, the one thing I'm always optimistic about is the dedication to patient care. Healthcare has so many people focused and dedicated to delivering patient care, and that's reassuring. No matter where I go, I see that focus, and that's where I'm placing my hope for the future. We have a lot of smart, dedicated people working on figuring out how to improve patient care.