Outsourcing Care Management for Medicare Patients

Hey, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you'd like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to MissionMatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right. So today I have Krista Smulda on the line, and she's chief brand and product officer over at CareTalk Health. Krista, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Adam. All right, Krista. So we got a lot to talk about today. So we're going to talk about outsourcing care management for Medicare patients. We're going to get into what you're doing over at Care Talk Health. But just to get us kicked off, we'll start this episode with what we like to call our Mission Matters Minute. So Krista, at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives and experts. That's our mission. Krista, what mission matters to you? Adam. Other than being a wonderful mother and, and producing children that are contributing members of society, a mission that matters to me is to really assure that what I'm doing, what we are doing over at CareTalk Health and building right now will be something that in the next five to 10 years becomes a common practice in health care. We're not in it just, you know, to ride on a fad or anything like that. You know, when ideas is. And so what we're doing is real. It solves a problem in the health care system, which we'll talk about later. So for me, it's making sure that all the time and energy I'm putting in right now in creating solutions that solve problems are not just something that sticks around temporarily, that they actually become the norm. And ultimately, Help the elderly population get the care and the attention that they deserve. So that was the mission that really matters to me. Amazing. Love bringing mission based individuals on the line to share why they do what they do, how they're doing, and really what we can all learn from that so that we learn and grow together. So great having you on. Just to kind of start at the beginning here, like when did you first get involved with healthcare? Like how did all of that, how did all that happen? It was the grace of God that got me into healthcare. I spent. I spent 15 years in the telecommunications industry. I was actually on Comcast for all of that time. I was managing their outsourced call centers, then spent another five years doing the same thing for a large company. And, you know, I just got burnt out. I wanted to do something that would be more creative that would allow me to lead a little more, you know, a large organization, Comcast, you're just, you're just kind of small there. And so I felt like it was time to leave. And I literally quit my job one day and I leaned on my network of people that I had, you know, built through the years. A lot of very intelligent entrepreneurs. There was a man named Donnie Gross, who I worked with at a previous life. And he's the kind of person that if he calls you take the call. Called me four years ago and he said, Hey, I have a business idea. I've always respected you. I think you're very intelligent. Meet me in Delaware. And I want to present an opportunity or a business I want to start. And so I got in my car and I drove. And we had a great conversation and he introduced me into health care to actually start business that I'm in right now and I'm grateful to have been given the opportunity to, to learn a new business, but more importantly, to make a difference, you know, which goes back to the, the original mission. Now, I know you've been in this business a bit, but if I can stay in those early days, just just a little bit longer, I'm curious as to other than obviously the business side of the opportunity, but a lot of times when an entrepreneur see something when you're creating a business or something else, there's a problem that you're looking to solve. Ideally, right? If you're looking at there's a or a niche or a community you're looking to help as you were kind of tooling up and learning your knowledge on the health care side of things. It may be some of the opportunity areas. Did anything surprise you? Yeah. Yes. What surprised me was, well, first of all, I did more reading in the last four years than I did in the 16 years of schooling. It's heavy. It's heavy learning a new, a new profession. I love that, that you did that, by the way. Thank you. And I'm like, is this really happening? Right? Like, are these people really going to be in trouble? You know, in 2030, 90 million. people that are over 65 and right now there's 66 million. And by the way, at the same time, what's happening is there's a physician shortage, right? I think at the end of the year will be 64, 000 that are just kind of leaving. That'll be 86, 000 short in 2036. And so you go, okay, now I understand what the U. S. health care crisis really is. Not just like a headline that's like quick, a quick blurb or something on Instagram. It's real. Yes.

Mission Matters Innovation with Adam Torres