Addressing healthcare issues in LGBTQ+ community
Grand Rounds Health and Doctor On Demand recently acquired Included Health in an effort to better serve the LGBTQ+ community. Owen Tripp, CEO of Grand Rounds Health & Doctor On Demand and Colin Quinn, Co-founder and CEO of Included Health, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss.
Video Transcript
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- It is Pride month. We want to talk now about the health care challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community. We're joined now by Owen Tripp, CEO of Grand Rounds Health and Dr. On Demand, and Colin Quinn, co-founder and CEO of included help, the first comprehensive health care platform for the LGBTQ+ community.
Thank you both for joining us today. Owen I do want to start with you. Curious to know if we can just do a little bit of ground setting, context setting, for us here. What are some of the biggest health care challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community, and how can tech really help alleviate some of those challenges?
OWEN TRIPP: Yeah, so this is a community that over half of them report having experienced some form of discrimination when seeking care. This can be gender misidentification. It can be lack of culturally competent care. It can be very specific clinical concerns like how to seek fertility treatment or how to seek gender affirming surgeries and other forms of treatment.
But in general, when we consider this opportunity with Included Health, what we saw was an incredible company that was reaching a group of the population that was opting out of care, that was just saying, we're not going to get care. And for American business, many of whom rank health care costs at the very top of their priority, increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion also is a top priority, this is a no-brainer for us.
- Unity embraced your efforts. And also, I'm curious about health insurance companies, because I'm wondering if the LGBTQ+ community is having a hard time even getting the health coverage they need to use services like yours?
COLIN QUINN: Yeah, absolutely. Our community is absolutely embracing this, recognizing that they finally have an opportunity to have a solution that caters to our unique needs. Being able to find affirming and clinically competent providers that meet our needs, and are dedicated and understanding how to create a safe, welcoming, and trusting environment. There's a lot of improvements we need to be making within our health care system from an insurance coverage standpoint.
And additionally, lots of employers, especially looking at last year, 2020, it was really a cultural awakening with DE&I efforts becoming a top three priority across employers health plans and within the entire health care industry. So we're starting to see a lot of investment made in these areas.
- Colin, I want to ask you a question as well. Just off the back of what Alexis was talking about with the health insurance issues, I think often about the health care costs and how they are so much higher for members in the LGBTQ+ community for a myriad of reasons. How do we go about addressing that so that health care is affordable and can be paid for by whomever needs it?
COLIN QUINN: Yeah, absolutely. I'd say it's a couple of things. So one on the access side, fixing that problem as Owen alluded to, a high percentage of our community has been discriminated against. And as a result, is postponing or avoiding their care. And as a result, we do not have those relationships with primary care doctors. And as a result, our needs go unmanaged over time until we have an acute health episode at which point we have to go to the hospital. And it's much more costly means of care.
So what Included Health does is pull that care forward into the preventative care setting to alleviate those hospitalizations. But of course then the second point is just looking at the cost of care for our community. Things like prep coverage, things like HRT, gender affirming surgery, fertility, family planning and building, ensuring that traditional health care coverage covers those things. Traditionally looking at fertility coverage and starting a family for most health plans it requires the diagnosis of infertility. And within our community, that often is not our problem. It's not that we're infertile. So our community has to go seek out other means of care, maybe out-of-network providers and bear those higher means of cost to be able to access our care.
- Owen what are you finding from the corporate community? We're now seeing this bigger push to prioritize diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. But are you finding that companies are open to expanding that to a basic right, which is health care?
OWEN TRIPP: You're absolutely right. 2020 was a big wake up year for the corporate community. And they feel a need for action, and action that's translating and investments in health care, that's translating investment in other diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
We look at the companies that we service today like Salesforce, and Walmart, JP Morgan, Amazon, Target, et cetera. And what we hear from all of those companies is we are really serious about this. We want to make sure that every member of our community feels like they have belonging inside of this community. And that the benefits that we offer represent our ideals and values as a company.
And this is good business. Because as Colin said, when people avoid care, any form of care, oftentimes you're putting off that ticking time bomb and it becomes a more expensive issue. So as a matter of managing health care costs and driving a talent environment that's really attractive for these communities, it's the highest priority for American business.
- I'm going to ask you this last question here Colin. I think at least when I think about the health care industry I can't think of too many more industries where intersections with the federal government and its regulations are so clearly prevalent. I'm curious to know, because private companies can only do so much, private insurance companies can only do so much. What do you think needs to happen at least on a federal level in terms of addressing health care coverage and costs, especially as we come out of this pandemic and some of those discrepancies as Owen was just mentioning, were really laid bare. What does the federal government really need to do going forward to really help address some of the health care issues facing this community particularly?
COLIN QUINN: That's a great question. I would say first and foremost is looking at the access problem that a lot of our community has. So identifying those areas of opportunity to open access.
One that we have uncovered through the pandemic is virtual care. Quite a few members within our community are seeking out virtual care options. And that's one of the many reasons that this deal makes a lot of sense of us being acquired by Grand Rounds and Dr. On Demand looking at their large virtual care network, focused on primary care and behavioral health, recognizing that those are two very big needs for our community. And then also I would say the other point is just looking at policy. Ensuring that we have ample coverage for our trans community and do not require so many hoops for them to go through in order to be able to have gender affirming surgery and go through the procedures that they absolutely need to have.
- All right, Owen Tripp, CEO of Grand Rounds Health and Doctor On Demand. And Colin Quinn, co-founder and CEO of Included Health. Thank you both for joining us today.
