At the Home Care Innovation Forum, G. Scott Herman, CEO and founder of New Day Healthcare, shared an inspiring story of how his up-start company is transforming care in the home. With a call to "burn the ships," Herman challenged attendees to rethink their approach to home health care delivery in the face of rapidly changing market conditions.
His core message: Be bold. Be smart. Be compassionate.
Herman emphasized the importance of treating patients holistically, not just as isolated incidents or episodes. This patient-centric approach, combined with the innovative use of technology and data, forms the cornerstone of New Day Healthcare's mission – and success.
Herman, a Kansas native, has been in the trenches of care administration for decades. In 1984, he began a nearly 10-year stint as a paramedic and first responder. He’s also been a flight paramedic, an ER and ICU nurse, and a home health and hospice clinician.
Then, he entered into the field of home health care leadership. Now, after decades in the industry, he has helped form and lead some of the nation’s largest and most innovative at-home care companies, including being the formation CEO for home health giant Elara Caring.
His guiding philosophy as a leader after all that on-the-ground experience? "Treat patients like people, not like payers.”
Central to New Day's success is its Carelytics system, a comprehensive data platform that integrates information from multiple sources into a patient’s care plan.
This system analyzes patient journeys, predicts potential health issues, and enables proactive interventions. By leveraging data in this way, New Day has provided more personalized and effective patient care.
Through this innovative approach, Herman’s company has achieved impressive outcomes. They've reduced 30-day all-cause rehospitalization rates from 28% to 7.8%, decreased fall rates from 25% to 7%, and extended the duration of in-home care by 86 days for continuum-based patients.
"Our system populates data feeds from any source,” he said. Then, the company runs that data through its Carelytics platform, where “we can take the data, work with it however we want, change it however we want, all with the motivation of heightening patient care."
Herman detailed New Day's successful remote care model in Texas, which covers the entire state from one location, in Addison, just north of Dallas. This model maintains an average daily census of 1,200 patients with about 800 staff members.
“We recruit, onboard, train, schedule, and serve all of our patients from that one location," he said.
Rejecting the traditional private equity cycle, Herman built New Day Healthcare on a foundation of 8 core principles. These principles prioritize doing what's right, putting patient care first, avoiding short-sighted partnerships, and accepting only reasonable returns, among others.
This value-driven approach has allowed the company to focus on sustainable, long-term success rather than quick profits.
Herman emphasized Medicare Advantage's growing influence in the healthcare landscape. He noted MA’s dramatic increase from 19% of total traditional Medicare-eligible recipients in 2007 to 51% today, describing it as a "freight train" that the industry must address. He said this shift requires innovative approaches and a willingness to adapt to new market realities.
Herman was candid about other challenges New Day has faced, including initial struggles with integrating episodic-based businesses, the complexity of building a comprehensive data warehouse, and the ongoing need for human intervention in scheduling and care coordination.
Despite these hurdles, New Day Healthcare has grown from a $110 million company to projecting $300 million in revenue this year, with 7,000 team members across 33 locations in four states.
"We've been talking about this for 10 years, and now all of a sudden, we're surprised that Medicare Advantage is here,” he said. “So how do you tackle it? Think about it – there are no signs of this slowing down. You have to adapt.”
Despite this reality, New Day’s model achieves an impressive 73% MA fee-for-service business mix, showcasing the potential of centralized, technology-enabled care delivery, Herman said.
He challenged attendees to rethink their approaches, embrace change, and remember why they entered the healthcare field - to care for patients. As the home health care industry faces unprecedented challenges and opportunities, Herman's vision offers a compelling roadmap for organizations willing to "burn the ships" and chart a new course in patient care.