Julie Sommer
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Episode Notes
As the Senior VP of Marketing for ConsejoSano, Julie Sommer is helping provide sound advice. The U.S. is melting pot and the healthcare system is difficult to navigate, regardless of where a patient comes from. ConsejoSano works with health plans and payers to provide healthcare information to their members in more than 30 languages and helps them be more empathetic to the cultural nuances from its member communities. It's this holistic approach that creates a meaningful, ongoing relationship to help improve the health of patients all over the country.
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Transcription
Joy Rios: Welcome back for another episode of HIT Like a Girl Podcast! My name is Joy Rios, I am joined today by Shereese Maynard, my co-host, and today's guest is Julie Sommer from Consejosano.
Julie, would you please take a moment to introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your piece of the healthcare/ health IT puzzle?
Julie Sommer: Sure, absolutely. So my name is Julie Sommer and I'm Senior Vice President of Marketing for Consejosana.
I'm really excited to be here today, so thank you for inviting me to be on the podcast. And I've been in the healthcare industry for just over 20 years now.
Joy Rios: Okay, so you must've seen a lot in those 20 years - where did you start and how did you land at Consejosano?
Julie Sommer: So I actually started with a company called Micromedics, and at the time it had been purchased by Thompson Healthcare, and I was really in the clinical decision support world. That was my first entree into healthcare to really understand some of the complexities in our industry and the challenges that clinicians were facing around things such as drug interactions, drug- food interactions, all of those kind-of more the clinical decision support side.
So I had an opportunity to travel all over the country, and meet with nurses, physicians, and pharmacists, in various hospital settings - rural and urban - and I loved it. I had a great appreciation for the daily challenges that they faced in was just interested in how we could help solve some of their challenges.
Joy Rios: So you began as somebody who was a road warrior -
Julie Sommer: - I was a road warrior and that's how I got my start into healthcare. From there, I had the opportunity to work with physician group practices for medical group management association, then I worked for TriZetto, which was very much on the payer side of the world and understanding how care is paid for. And then, working with Lovett Partners to understand sort-of the government side of the world, and how regulatory and policy impacts everyone in the healthcare world.
And then at Consejosano, I just recently joined and we're really focused on health equity and ensuring that members understand how to use their benefits and can engage in their care.
Joy Rios: So I really love what Consejosano does - can you kind of give a brief overview of what you all do over there for our listeners so that they have a good idea.
Julie Sommer: Absolutely! So we work with primarily health plans, and we help engage their members in their care. For instance, with the annual wellness visit, we're really focused on ensuring that Medicaid members, get access and understand how to get their annual wellness visit - because that's where everything stems from, right?
If you go in, that's an opportunity for you to connect with your physician and understand any challenges you might be having or additional care that you might need. So we're really focused on helping them through their journey throughout the year and ensuring that they get the care that they need.
And we do that by tailoring the experience and our communication to them - both culturally and linguistically - to make sure that we're aligned with how they view the world and how they think about care.
Joy Rios: That's the part that I want to tap into because Shereese and I went on this big journey, we're on the east coast, sitting outside having coffee with a woman, who also of course works in healthcare, and had this big question that we were asking ourselves: " If you had unlimited funds, how would you spend them? How would you solve the world's problems specific to healthcare?"
And one of the answers that we had was how do you one, create a library of resources that people need and help them get access to them in a way that is meaningful for them. And then we were like, "Oh, that's exactly what can say Consejosano is doing!"
What you said and what you tapped into is like really, really important - that you get information to the patient in their language, in a way that's culturally meaningful for them.
Like how do you all do that?
Julie Sommer: We have several members on our team that are First Generation Americans here. They come from these cultures, they speak these languages, and we have that because we have those experts on staff, and they really understand the [Medicaid] patients - they can really resonate with them. They understand where they're coming from, they know what their situations are like, and they can really empathize with where they're coming from and how difficult our system is to navigate.
I think it's difficult for anyone in general, but just imagine if English isn't your first language, or if culturally, you think about healthcare differently based on where you come from in another country, because healthcare is so different outside of the US. I think that's where we really take a unique approach because we do understand we have the context to know where these members are coming from and the challenges that they have.
So I think that's really what makes us unique, is that we have team members that have lived this and gone through it themselves.
Shereese Maynard: So that's kind of a question I had for Consejosano - do you guys translate your solutions into all languages or are you limited in what you can offer? And if so, are there plans to expand it?
Julie Sommer: So, right now we support about 30 languages, and really what we find is that the majority are centered around the Latin X population. So a lot of Spanish is probably the number one language that we see. And then just depending on the demographics of the population or the community that we're working with, we can expand from there. I would say those 30 languages that we support are probably the most commonly found languages out there.
There are some, you know, differences between cultures - from someone coming from Cuba versus Argentina, right? So there are some nuances in the cultures themselves, but we found that those languages pretty much cover a lot of what we're seeing in the communities.
We do what we call community detailing, where we go out with one of our clients on outreach to their members, you know, really understanding their community, those nuances, and the different types of cultures and languages that are needed to help ensure that we engage their members in an effective manner.
Joy Rios: How many understand community detailing? Like, is that an event? Is it a one-time event? Is it a series of events? Is it something that happens continuously?
Julie Sommer: It's really something that we do on our side.
It's the analysis that we do when we're looking at different communities to understand demographic information like who lives in that area, race, ethnicity, language, information - we call it real data which is really important. Oftentimes we find that our clients don't have this information, so part of what we do is - there's enough information out there to really understand kind of the basics about a community, but once we start engaging with members and really understanding and confirming their information, that's where we can really start to flex some unique insights.
So they [the client] really have a more detailed understanding of who their members are, and what their language preferences are, their communication preferences.
Shereese Maynard: Now in the past couple of years, you guys have been very fortunate in the amount of funds you've been able to raise. Do you find that it was hard to get people on board with the idea, or have you been very successful engaging the physician population or investors?
How do you feel you guys have done there or been able to get that message out ?
Julie Sommer: I think we've done a really great job of getting our message out. I think the pandemic has just shown the need for this type of a service, and really engaging people on a more personalized level in the management of the care - ensuring that we're addressing health disparities and providing health equity.
So, I think that really has resonated with the market and our investors. And so, we're just finding that there's such a need right now in the market for this, and it's such an important mission.
We had really great success and just resonating, and I think just really based on what we're trying to do and creating a journey for these members and helping them engage throughout the year and their health, I think is just really important.
I think that's only become more amplified as a result of what we've seen this last year.
Joy Rios: So are your services available in all 50 states?
Julie Sommer: They are available in all 50 states.
Joy Rios: And then as a patient, how would I interact with you? Like how would I come to find you? Or would you come to find me?
Julie Sommer: So, right now, we're white labeled, which means that if we're hired by a health plan or a payer, it would be us calling on behalf of them because they have the relationship with their members.
So we'll call as an extension of their team and just be part of that.
Right now, the way that a patient would access our services is, is through their health plan.
Shereese Maynard: Your model is really unique in that it does answer the whole language processing question and how people can access healthcare in a real way, meaningful way in their life, culturally speaking.
I've been fascinated by Consejosano’s journey since I learned about it - my question is going forward. How do you keep that edge? Because I'm now seeing other models trying to mirror or copy what you guys are doing and it's a much needed service.
How do you keep the edge? Like, what are you planning to do moving forward to keep Consejo on the lips and mouths of everybody?
Julie Sommer: What we're trying to create is very different. We're trying to create a journey. We're trying to create an ongoing relationship with these members. And really, again, we believe that starts with the annual wellness visit and ensuring that everyone is getting preventive care. Then, as they go through their annual wellness journey or visit, understanding if there's any other condition that comes up, ensuring that they're taking advantage of all the tools and resources that their health plans have available to them as well as additional services that they can get through their, their provider.
That's really where we see ourselves as unique is just providing this very holistic approach, and kind of this year long engagement versus trying to reach out to them one time, hope that they do that one thing, and then not necessarily reaching out to them again.
We want to keep building that relationship and engaging them in their health.
Joy Rios: I love that. I really like what you guys are doing and like how it builds a habit and a routine. It's something that's like, “let's continually think about our health and how we can catch something before…” - just engage with the healthcare system in a way that is sort of on your own terms.
Julie Sommer: -and not so overwhelming.
I think that's a big challenge that we based in the healthcare industry. it's very overwhelming and it's hard to know which care setting you should go to and in what situation, and it's really difficult to know what your benefits cover and how much you're going to pay out of pocket.
I think those are critical things that we want to help address - we want to decrease the friction. We want to decrease all the silos and healthcare and really help these members understand how to get the care that they need when they need it and just really reduce that friction that they're all facing and that we all face.
Joy Rios: I mean, you know, benefits can change on an annual basis. They do change on an annual basis, so even if you understand one year, it might be totally different than next.
Julie Sommer: Exactly. And new programs come out; new incentives come out on a regulatory basis on a state level basis. I mean, there's so many moving pieces and parts that I think it's too overwhelming for an individual to understand.
So if we can help kind of bridge the communication gap between the health plan and the member or them and their providers, I think that is a great service that we can provide to help ensure that they're taking advantage of all their benefits.
Shereese Maynard: So, Medicaid is a program that you guys deal with and the beneficiaries there, do you find that the Medicaid regulations are starting to be more intuitive to the way your clients live?
So like, let's say something that's coded for like the place of service, are they now able to adapt to more remote or are they stuck still going to have to make that visit?
Julie Sommer: You know, I can't speak to every state. I know it varies by state and there are different rules, but I really think that tele-health is here to stay.
And I think that's something, again, I feel like that's where we're us. We need more, um, education around what warrants a telehealth visit versus what warrants in-person. And I don't know, you know, from a regulatory perspective and what's covered and not covered. I think. That's, you know, a more complex issue that I am not well versed in, but I think just helping someone understand, you know, when a telehealth visit is recommended or covered, versus when they have to go in person for different things is a good starting place.
And I only think we'll see that grow just because there were so, so much success in having those tele-health visits over the course of last year that, um, we do see that continuing to grow.
Joy Rios: I would like to know a little bit more about you, Julie. And I like to just know as, I, I really think thinking about if somebody wanted your job, like, if you just like, love the work that you do. How like one, did you know what you wanted to do when you were a kid? Like, and are you doing that? And two, if somebody were to say like, I want to do what she does, you know, would you have advice for them on it started or they could get where you are?
Julie Sommer: Sure. Absolutely. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I knew I was, I leaned more on the creative side of things and, um, I liked, I, I lean towards that. And, um, when I graduated from college, I had a business degree, so pretty general. And I started out in accounting actually, and quickly realized that I didn't, that accounting was not for me.
And stumbled into an opportunity, um, to get into the marketing world. And I loved it. I loved the healthcare industry and, um, just, I took every advantage I could, I took some risks. So I got out of my comfort zone on a regular basis. And that would be my biggest piece of advice to anyone is that if you find something you love, just continue to learn and push yourself, get out of your comfort zone and.
It's the best way to learn hands-on experience and just taking on new projects and initiatives, and really stretching yourself and learning from the challenges, the opportunities, um, that you have through those experiences. Um, I've been very fortunate that I've had some really great mentors throughout my career, and they've really helped me.
Think about ways to continue to grow and push myself. Um, I've been very fortunate in the organizations that I've worked in, that they've also been supportive in helping me, um, take on more responsibility and, and really being more involved in the strategy of the business. And I love that, you know, for me, it's just, I love being involved in the strategy and figuring out how marketing can help support and drive, um, the goals of the organization forward.
Joy Rios: One thing that has definitely been showing up for me lately is the getting out of your comfort zone or doing hard things. And it's like, instead of actually being afraid of doing hard things or resisting them, that like actually leaning into them that even though the discomfort at the time can be pretty overwhelming.
When you get to the other side of it one year, you typically really proud of yourself until you can't have helped, but learn something. And it's just like a real great opportunity for growth, whether it is in, in work or even in personal life. You know, we literally like hiked to the top of some tough mountains this summer.
And we were like, man, that was tough. Did we make them out decision and going up this like really steep hill or mountain? And you know, the views from the top are beautiful.
Julie Sommer: They are. it's a great analogy. And I think it's so true and, um, it can be very uncomfortable at first. Um, and I do find in general that if you take the initiative and you try.
Um, you'll be amazed at how many people are there to support you. Because they recognize that, you know, you're trying and you're taking the initiative. And when I have learned though, if you're going to fail, fail fast, learn from it and come back with solutions, um, and, and remedies for how to improve and continue to move forward.
And I think that's been very helpful for me in my career too, is if I take on a challenge and it's not going the way I anticipated, the sooner that I can. The more proactive I can be the better. Um, and again, it helps you learn and grow and, and, um, just continue to, um, take on crusher.
Joy Rios: I actually really liked the concept of like embracing failure instead of being really afraid of it.
There's I think a father daughter. Meme somewhere where like, basically just the story being told that the father is asking him his daughter every day. Like, what did you fail at today? Because essentially, even just from a young age of getting used to the idea of not being good at something means that you're trying.
And that inherently getting better at it. So it's like the more that you try things, of course the more you're going to fail, but eventually you'll figure it out. And I think one of the more ideal situations you can be in, in that scenario is to have a support system. So it sounds like you've also, you know, had an opportunity for growth, but then also had a support network to help you.
If things went terribly wrong to make sure you're not really messing things up too bad.
Julie Sommer: Exactly. And I would say in healthcare, the one observation I've made over the years is that, um, it's really about networking and having the support group and everything because as I've, you know, I've gotten promotions and I've moved up in my career.
Um, just observing how others have been successful and you know, how they engage with leaders in their, in the organization and find, seek out mentors within those organizations and, um, kind of leverage, you know, just leverage. The those skills and knowledge that people have. It's, it's really difficult and awkward sometimes to go up to someone and say, Hey, I really admire you.
And, um, I want to learn from you. Would you mind mentoring? It's, uh, it's kind of a hard conversation to have, especially when there's not a formal mentoring program in place at an organization, but I've just, I've seen people do it and be very successful. And then I tried it myself and. At first, it was kind of uncomfortable because it's not something that's, that's natural for me anyway.
And, um, but I will tell you that that's how you build your support system in your network is by going out and talking to people that have the experiences that you want and learning from them and understanding how they got to where they were. And that's really how I've tried to. To grow in my own career is by finding those people that I admire and, um, that have been successful in, in learning how they got there and what they did.
So I think that's very important.
Shereese Maynard: So let's lighten things up a bit and I'm going to ask you, what's one thing you do every day that helps you maintain your focus in your job.
Julie Sommer: For me every day. Um, I think it's really important. Healthcare is ever changing as you both know. And I think it's so important to stay meltable about everything that's changing, how things are being impacted.
So every day I try to take a little bit of time just to read about what's happening in the industry and, um, just make sure that I'm I'm okay. Um, coming to work with kind of the latest perspective on what's happening and how it's impacting the industry as a whole, our business. It also keeps me, um, really engaged in what's happening and knowledgeable out there.
So that as rules change, you know, on a federal. Level or a state level, um, that I'm aware of what they are and how they might impact our business. Especially in the marketing world, you have to keep a pulse on your market. You have to understand their challenges, what keeps them up at night, how you can solve those challenges.
And so I think that's a really important component is just to continuously educate yourself on what's happening.
Joy Rios: All right. So you're definitely smart. We get it. What do you do? What do you do to stay balanced? What do you do when you're not working?
Julie Sommer: I love hiking, skiing, traveling and exploring with my family. On a daily basis, obviously you can't do all those things. So, um, definitely working out is, is a very important piece of my daily ritual.
But yeah, when in my free time, my family and I are always out, um, exploring at least getting outside and enjoying the mountains and scenery around here.
Joy Rios: Where's your home base,
Julie Sommer: Colorado.
Shereese Maynard: I was about to say, what are your favorite places to ski?
Julie Sommer: or us? We love Steamboat. So Steamboat is awesome. Good snow.
Joy Rios: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with us and where you are in the healthcare ecosystem. It's been nice getting to know you.
If somebody wants to follow your work or connect with you or your organization, what is the best way for them to do so?
Julie Sommer: There's two ways: first, if you go to Consejosana.com - that's our website and our information is available out there.
I'm also on LinkedIn. So I'd be happy to engage with anyone through LinkedIn as well.
Joy Rios: Wonderful. Well, thank you, Julie. It was nice to get to know you today.
Julie Sommer: Yeah, very nice! Thank you for having me on the show. I really appreciate it.
Joy Rios: What piece of advice do you have for women, Julie? If any
Julie Sommer: One piece of advice is just to continue to support each other and help each other grow in your own careers.
I see men do this very well in the healthcare industry and help each other - rise to the top in their careers - and I just really want to see more women leaders in our industry.
I think there's a lesson that can be learned here in making sure that we support each other and help each other grow and I'd love to see more women sitting on boards and on leadership teams in the industry.
Joy Rios: You're definitely speaking my language. I appreciate that feedback.
Julie Sommer: Thank you