Accelerating Access to Specialty Care: A Conversation with Nick Razzi of Summus Global

In the complex world of healthcare, navigating specialty care can be a daunting task for employees and their families. From finding the right provider to understanding treatment options and managing costs, the ambiguity surrounding specialty care often leads to increased complexity, higher expenses, and suboptimal outcomes. 

That's why, in the latest episode of the "Healthcare on the Rocks" podcast, David Pittman and Jennifer Jones sat down with Nick Razzi, Chief Revenue Officer at Summus Global, to discuss how virtual health solutions can transform the specialty care experience.
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Below, you’ll find highlights and takeaways from their conversation. Ready to listen to the full episode? Click here.

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The Power of Virtual Specialty Care

Summus Global is a leading virtual health company that connects employees and their families with the world's leading medical expertise across any healthcare question, concern, or diagnosis. As Nick explained, the company is driven by two simple premises:

• Speed of access to high-quality medical expertise will help drive better medical decision-making and fundamentally change health outcomes
• The most trusted party in healthcare is the doctor, and Summus promises to put the highest quality doctors at the center of every interaction, large or small

‍By removing barriers to top specialists and providing clinical guidance and advocacy, Summus aims to address three significant issues in specialty care: education, access, and affordability. 

"By accelerating access, we're able to help mitigate costs around high-cost claims and risk associated with employees making uninformed decisions out in the marketplace," Nick said. "And then provide simplicity in what we all know to be a really complex healthcare ecosystem."

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Bridging the Gap Between Virtual and In-Person Care

One of the key advantages of Summus' virtual health solution is its ability to connect employees with the best-in-class medical expertise within hours or days, rather than waiting months for an in-person appointment. 

However, Summus recognizes that some cases may still require in-person care.

In those instances, Summus works closely with the employee's health plan to provide personalized provider referrals to high-quality, in-network doctors in their local area. This seamless integration ensures that employees receive the right care at the right time, whether virtual or in-person.

"We connect directly with their health plan," Nick explained. "So we sit on top of that health plan to help guide and direct care back into that plan. And that's the most important piece."

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Physician-Driven Approach

What sets Summus apart is its commitment to placing doctors at the heart of every interaction. With over 5,100 experts across the top 50 academic medical centers in the country, Summus has become the leading doctor's choice for virtual specialty care.

"The physicians that are on our platform absolutely love it," Nick said. "We make it easy for them. We group together information and ways they'd like to see it, so it makes it easy for them to connect with that member."

By aligning incentives and providing a user-friendly platform, Summus attracts top-tier specialists who are passionate about connecting with patients and guiding them through complex care pathways.

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Driving Utilization and Engagement

As the demand for virtual care continues to grow, Summus has seen a steady upward trend in utilization and engagement across its client base. According to Nick, this is driven by a combination of factors, including increased comfort with virtual care and positive word-of-mouth from delighted employees.

"When they have the experience where they're just absolutely delighted, they tell their coworkers, and they tell their family members," Nick explained. "So it creates this kind of flywheel effect that starts to really increase engagement and utilization."

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The Future of Virtual Specialty Care

Looking ahead, Summus is focused on developing condition-specific pathways that provide end-to-end support for top-cost drivers in healthcare, such as oncology, metabolic disease, and musculoskeletal conditions. By leveraging its virtual centers of excellence and expertise, Summus aims to deliver comprehensive, personalized care for employees facing complex health challenges.

"We think that we can build out those pathways across really top cost drivers and healthcare," Nick said. "So if you take a look at the types of oncology doctors that we have on our platform, we have a really tight oncology pathway."

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Want to dive deeper into the world of virtual specialty care and how it's transforming employee healthcare?

• Click here to check out the full podcast episode for even more valuable insights from Nick Razzi
• You can listen to this engaging discussion and subscribe for future thought-provoking episodes at springbuk.com/podcast