Speaker 1: 0:31

My name is Rajiv Mudumba and I'm the CEO of CoeHealth. What we do is we have an AI-enabled patient-centric care management platform, a pretty holistic platform where we run multiple modules. Some of them include remote patient monitoring, chronic care management, behavioral health intervention, principal care management. Those are a few examples of where people need care away from the doctor, whether they're in their homes or any other facilities, and that's what we provide. So we watch their vitals 24-7, and then we are providing care coaching as and when needed in terms of interventions to help them improve their health. A lot of this is preventive in nature, in order to make sure that you don't really take care of people only after they fall sick. But even if they have fallen sick, what can you do from a preventive standpoint to improve the quality of their life and probably even extend their life? So that's what we do.

Speaker 2: 1:24

Absolutely. I would like to get more into detail about this because this really interested me. So it is like, essentially, a patient portal that the patients would have access to, and then the healthcare providers Is this somewhere where they can? They will be able to check, like all the vitals, like you said, 24-7, so they have access and you said it's remote, so that way they wouldn't technically have to go into the office with a healthcare provider. Talk to me about how this is true. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:51

So you know people go. The traditional medicine that we know is people set up appointments with physicians. You show up, you get diagnosed, you get prescribed, you go back home. That's how medicine is done traditionally. Now what we are trying to do is add on to that so that where people need care while they're at their homes.

Speaker 1: 2:09

So, for instance, if someone has diabetes or hypertension or, let's say, some kind of kidney disease, they have these conditions. Their blood pressure needs to be monitored constantly, their blood sugar needs to be monitored constantly and if it's going beyond thresholds, they need to be alerted. Their physicians need to be alerted. They need care coaches to intervene in order to tell them how to manage their conditions, and that's what we do with the platform. We provide devices as well where they're able to measure their vitals. So, yes, on the one side, physicians have access to the data. On the other side, patients have access to the data, so they can all correlate to what's happening, and then they're able to actually perform their jobs better, as physicians and patients are able to take care of their health better. So there's the portal, like you talked about. There's also mobile applications specifically for patients as well as physicians.

Speaker 2: 2:57

That is amazing. I love that. Can you talk to me about how you started with this idea or why you thought there was like maybe like a niche for this or like a gap that health care providers needed?

Speaker 1: 3:08

So I've kind of been my my own career has been in the health care space for the last 24 plus years, and I've kind of started my career learning what healthcare is all about, what insurance plans are all about, and so on, and then, over a period of time, I kind of graduated into really looking at the system side of it and then have spent time looking at the actual healthcare delivery side of it, where people are getting care where they are when they need it, and what I've seen is there's a huge disparity between what we have created in terms of systems versus what people actually receive. See, when someone is sick, they don't care about all the bells and whistles that technology can provide. All they care about is am I getting the right kind of care and am I getting it now when I need it? That's all people care about, and so they want it to be simple. At the same time, if you look at a physician, they care about how do I maximize my time providing quality care to my patients than sitting and reviewing notes or writing notes or entering it into systems and all of that.

Speaker 1: 4:11

So that's what we're trying to bridge the gap in terms of bringing in the technology to help each of these actors do what they do best. So and you know, the way this came about is actually a couple of my friends started the company way back in 2020 with the same premise of how do we met out care to people where and when they need it in the most simplest form. That's how it started. I kind of joined them. Later, I was actually involved with the company way back going several years ago, with the people that were actually building it, and it just seemed the right thing at the right time, and that's how I got involved.

Speaker 2: 4:47

Wow, and can I also have a background on yourself and like how you got started with all of this, or were you doing something else before?

Speaker 1: 4:54

Sure, you know I'm from India, I'm an immigrant citizen and you know I was actually into direct marketing when I began my career right out of grad school in India and then I came to the US basically to get a master's, an MBA, in information systems and e-commerce. That was a time when technology was really starting to just blossom back in India and I was one of those guys who graduated from, you know, grad school before technology hit our schools back in India. So it was important for me to get that grounded education. That's how I came here to do that. And then, you know, I just happened to fall into benefits and benefits administration and from there graduated into health care and so on and so forth, and then kind of saw the journey of healthcare with Obamacare kind of becoming law, being able to build insurance marketplaces both for the government and the commercial side, and then one thing led to the other as I kind of moved in my career to get to where I am today.

Speaker 2: 5:49

Very nice. I love that. And now you said you have a background in marketing. I'd like to know if you're maybe implementing anything that you've learned from those times into what you're doing right now and how you're using marketing.

Speaker 1: 5:59

So you know, one of the things that I had learned way back when I went, when I was doing direct marketing, was we were taught a two minute pitch, how to close a sale in two minutes.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Right, we were doing. We were selling books, consumer durables, kitchenware, toys, these kinds of things door to door. So there was a very specific way of pitching someone for a sale and try to close it in two minutes, and I think, whether the sale cycle is long or short, that still holds today. That was one. The second thing that we were taught that I had learned and that I still carry today, is the law of averages, which was basically, if you go and knock, let's say, about 300 doors, you're bound to get 30 yeses. That's what we were taught. So roughly around 10% or so in terms of the success ratio. So you got to get through your nose before you get to your yeses. Right, the moment you step into somebody's office and try to sell, it's not going to be a yes, but you got to be prepared for that. A lot of people are not prepared for that because they don't learn it that way. You know they expect that I walk in and it'll happen. That doesn't happen. So that's something that I learned that I still carry today. And then you know, in terms of sales cycles, when you talk about larger deals government side, that's longer sales cycles versus on the commercial side you know whether it's mid-sized deals or smaller deals. You can really close them pretty quickly and that's what I actually try to teach our salespeople even today. You know how do you go in and make it a two-call sale.

Speaker 1: 7:24

One is education. A lot of people don't know about the things that I'm talking about. Remote patient monitoring in the US kind of really started coming into existence around 2015 or so. It still had about 10 years to catch up. This would be the, you know, next year would be the year when it really would enter mainstream. But the pandemic that we had accelerated it. People started having a need for it and acceptance for it and then it just happened that they accepted it. That accelerated the path. So we are where we are today because of that. And now for a lot of people, even providers included, it's an education thing. You have to teach them and tell them what it is, and once they understand it, the next call is closing the deal.

Speaker 2: 8:06

Absolutely Well thank you. I'd also like to know like just in case some listeners are wondering are you using social media as anything for marketing as well, like Instagram, facebook? Talk to me about that, sure.

Speaker 1: 8:18

We do a lot on LinkedIn and X. You know we do use quite a bit of that. Now you also got to look at where your target customers are. For instance, a lot of people that we deal with are physicians or providers and they don't spend a lot of time on you know, social platforms as such. You know it's a good way to find their information, but not so much as to engage with them. So you know a lot of them are still old school in terms of you got to pick up the phone and talk to them or show up in person or maybe send an email out or a letter out. So we do a lot of that. But you know, like you know, as the new age is evolving there, you know, as the new age is evolving, there's a lot of new physicians, newly minted physicians that kind of are much more savvy with social media. So that's why we do a lot of that. And then definitely you know YouTube videos and Facebook and Instagram all of that too.

Speaker 2: 9:06

Love that. What have been some of the changes that you have noticed so far in your career with any health care providers Like are they all moving more online year? With any healthcare providers Like are they all moving more online? I know, like you said, like some are old school and they like to do things like shaking hands and talking in person.

Speaker 1: 9:21

Sure, if you really look at it right. So you know, baby boomers are retiring. There's a lot of those practices being taken up by the new generation of physicians and doctors. They have a different mindset in terms of how they want to manage and run them Because, you know, there were people that were born before the Internet. There were people that were born at the, you know, when Internet started birthing as well. Then there were people that were born and social media started coming around, and now we talk about Gen AI, you know, and there are a lot of youngsters who are building Gen AI native kind of companies.

Speaker 1: 9:59

So it's all you know when you were around and what was around you that's going to influence how you're going to behave as you move forward. So that's what we are seeing with whether it's patients or whether it's providers. Patients, a lot of them are aged. You know, a lot of them are 65 plus or 75 plus, and there's certain ways you can reach them. You know, if I text a 75 year old, I don't expect them to read it or respond back, versus if I call them and if I am lucky to get them on the phone, then it's a different thing Versus if I send them a letter, there might be a better response to what's in the letter, so on and so forth. So you got to look at the age dynamics in order to do that. But you know there's a lot of new age doctors who are embracing technology very, very quickly. They understand it, they like it. They also see that their influence kind of expands using all of these tools that are made available to them.

Speaker 2: 10:54

Absolutely. And can I ask you what are your clients mostly looking for when they're coming to you for their services in order to make their jobs more efficient? Sure.

Speaker 1: 11:07

You know, a lot of them don't really care about the technology. What happens behind the scenes they care about what can it help them in their job versus how can it help their patients. These are the only two things they're looking at. So if it's a physician, you know like before coming into this I was talking to a physician who talked about seeing 30 patients every hour. Okay, that's, that's two minutes a patient is what they're giving right Now for someone who's that busy. If you say that you got to talk to the patient and then you got to make sure that you summarize that you know the interaction you got to, you know you got to write it and then you got to load it into your electronic health record system, that takes quite a bit of time and that's the honest truth. But there are tools out there that actually record the call while it's going on, summarize it and give it to you in a text format. By the time you know your call is done. Your job is to just glance through it, approve it and then it loads itself into the EHR. So that's where we are today from a technology standpoint and when we talk about this aspect of it, that if you were to spend about 15 to 30 minutes in doing all these actions, versus now you're able to do it in probably less than 30 seconds. You know that's what they care about, right? And then, as far as the members are concerned, you know a lot of the physicians that we talk to, and even the members, for that matter. You know when we talk about devices, right? So, for instance, one of our programs talks about measuring vitals every other day. So in a 30-day period you've got to have at least 16 vitals that are recorded back into the system, which basically means that the people need to make sure that they're checking their vitals every day. Some people don't right that they're checking their vitals every day, some people don't right. So then we have thresholds in terms of saying, okay, if you see consistently three days where somebody hasn't checked their vitals, it's time to get on the phone or however you want to reach them, text them, call them, whatever it is for the care coach to find out what's going on and to get them back on track, right? Those are the things that we do with our products and systems. Now.

Speaker 1: 13:08

The patients love it because they're being nuts. Some of them feel frustrated because if you keep getting that call again. You don't want that, but then you keep telling the person that you got to improve your habits, it's your health right. So that's what we do. And then on the provider side, they like it because you're making sure that that patient is taken care of and they don't come back to you for the same reason for which you've diagnosed them or they don't end up in an ER facility or the hospital as a result of not taking care of their health.

Speaker 1: 13:38

Because you know 20% of the patients that we have in the US, you know they are the ones generating 80% of the costs. Generating 80% of the costs. So if healthcare expenses are growing, we're going from right around 4.5 trillion in terms of what is spent in this country for healthcare. But you know, in the two years we should be at about 6 trillion. That's a lot of money going in, right, but then if that money is spent for the right reasons, it makes sense. But if 20% of the people that is, you know, out of all the 330 odd million people that we have in this country, 20% are creating that 80% plus cost and those 20% are the ones that need that intervention in order to contain those costs, so that's what we're working on.

Speaker 2: 14:22

Oh, my goodness, that is like so much to think about. Like, especially for healthcare providers, who are so busy and they're looking how can they use their time the most efficiently and can help their clients. That's incredible what technology has been able to accomplish nowadays, Absolutely Right. I would like to ask are you the only one on your team or do you have a team? How do you work behind?

Speaker 1: 14:42

I do have a team, so we kind of distributed between India and here in the US. We have an office in Bangalore in India, so there what we do is all of our technology team is there, the ones that are building the product, enhancing the product, implementing it and all. And we do have a presence here where some of the executives are here there's some executives out there as well and all the care coaching aspect of it. You know, whether it's RNs, registered nurses, cnas, lpns, social workers, these are the care coaches, the team that we have that interact with the patients on a daily basis, and that's all stationed here in the US. So that's how we're doing it.

Speaker 2: 15:20

Very nice. Where do you see yourself and your business in the next five years Like do you hope to expand and reach more people?

Speaker 1: 15:27

Absolutely so. We are in a growth cusp right now, so we're continuing to grow. You know we're out there with a lot of physicians nationally. We want to continue to expand on that. We are also with what you call accountable care organizations and federally qualified health centers, who are all focused on providing care, but with the idea of what you call value-based care. And value-based care is how do you treat a person as an individual and provide them the care that they need in a wholesome fashion, not for a specific issue, but as a person and then make sure that their health is being taken care of and that they're not coming back into a doctor's office for the same reason that they have been seen over the last couple of weeks or months.

Speaker 1: 16:12

So there are measures that the government is tracking. You know CMS Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services is tracking in terms of saying you know, if you take care of a patient as a provider, how do you make sure that they don't come back to you for the same reason? This is how you make sure of that't come back to you for the same reason. This is how you make sure of that. So that's what we're doing, and they incentivize providers to be able to do that. They penalize providers where they're not able to do that. So there's a lot going on in health care as we move towards value-based care. There's a lot of focus also on not just managing sickness, but how do we manage people when they're well, so that you know everything can be prevented Preventive care versus sick care. So that's how we do it today.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Okay, love that when you're not doing all of this stuff and like managing and taking care of healthcare providers and their clients. What do you like to do to unwind, Because mental health is important not only for people, but for yourself? How do you like to do to unwind, Because mental health is important not only for people, but for yourself? How do you like to make sure that you are at your best capacity for your clients?

Speaker 1: 17:13

So the couple of things I do. You know, my passion has been writing. I write and publish quite a bit. And then the other thing is I started a podcast Plan B Success is the name of it and I started way back in 2019 when I was between jobs, by the way and I kind of got introduced to podcasting. I did not know it was there, I learned what it is and then I thought, you know, there were a lot of 20-somethings doing it at the time and I'm like, okay, if they can do it, I can do it better. That's right, and that's how I started it, and the focus was primarily on personal growth and professional growth for whoever, wherever they are in their career, whether it's students, entrepreneurs, career professionals, whoever it is. So I started that I was.

Speaker 1: 17:56

I used to do about three episodes a week. One was an interview and then every alternate day I would do a solo episode and put it out there. And it was pretty addictive, wow, you know, once you start doing it and then kind of expanded it from a podcasting medium to YouTube and so on and so forth. I can still continue it today, but that's one way of unwinding, you know. It lets me continue to learn, and not specifically healthcare focused stuff, but you know other things as well. And then what's interesting is this was during the pandemic too afterwards right. So it was a way of meeting new people, you know, without really meeting them. So it was all e-meets, it was all over video, but then there was so much to learn from other people and their experiences, so it was great for the listeners, it was great for me interacting with people and then was able to meet a lot of different people in different areas over a period of time.

Speaker 2: 18:51

Yeah, and I know this might be kind of silly, but it sounds like you are somebody who definitely likes to learn and do things on their own, like starting your own podcast. Some people have trouble with that and they don't even know where to start. And did you just?

Speaker 1: 19:09

look up stuff on YouTube and figure things out on your own. Yeah, so that it's interesting, right? So there were a lot of people who are teaching it at the time and I wanted to do it on my own. You know, I said, ok, let me do my research.

Speaker 1: 19:17

There was a lot of Google stuff, you know, Googling to figure out what it was about, and you know what were the free softwares out there. How do you record, how do you edit? I spent hours on it, you know, basically trying to get good at it, and I think it's the same thing, right? I still remember the very first time I did an assignment on Word. You know, when MS Word was new, I spent four hours doing the assignment and then I shut it down without saving it. Then I spent about two hours rewriting it, so the time was lesser, yeah, but you know that was my very first Word document, so I still remember that.

Speaker 2: 19:53

I bet you never did that again.

Speaker 1: 19:54

You save them all the time. Never again you save them all the time. But that's how you learn, right. So podcasting, too, was like that. I you know, initially, when I used to edit, I would spend hours editing a 30 minute bit, right. Then you get the hang of it and then you move on, and then at a point in time, I started hiring somebody to do some of that stuff.

Speaker 2: 20:20

I love that. No, I love how, like you're so into like what's next and what's changing, and you're going with you, because a lot of important things that I love a lot of business owners maybe don't realize is being able to adapt to change and learning new things. So I feel like you're definitely somebody who's like okay, well, this is a new obstacle, guess what? I'm going to learn it? I'm going to use that to help my my skills and to help my life and business. So I think that's incredible and I like that you shared that with us.

Speaker 1: 20:43

Absolutely. Where can people check out your podcast? It's a. It's called plan B success. Plan B dot life is the website you know. They can check it out there. It's also on YouTube at plan B success, and then all the social media stuff.

Speaker 2: 20:53

Beautiful. And now is there anything that I have not touched on, for your podcast that you would, or your podcast or for your business that you would like to share with our listeners, whether it's about yourself, your business, anything else, maybe, for potential clients that you-.

Speaker 1: 21:07

Absolutely so. If you know, if you're a physician, no matter who you're seeing, whether it's a you're a general physician or a specialist yeah, you're a general physician or a specialist? Yeah, you know, everybody has chronic conditions. You know like today I was talking to a nephrologist and he's concerned about his patients and the ability for them to manage their blood pressure. That could mean whether they live for two years versus they extend their life by more years, right? So it is very, very highly impactful. So definitely check out cooeehealthcom that's our website C-O-O-E-Y-H-E-A-L-T-Hcom.

Speaker 1: 21:41

The reason for Cooee is basically a call to attention. That's how we came up with the name. So the idea is to hey, it's time you take care of your health. So, and we do it. We do it for physicians. It's end-to-end services.

Speaker 1: 21:55

If you're a physician, then you don't have to do anything. All you have to do is provide us access to your patient data and we pick it up from there. We find out who's eligible, who will benefit from it, we reach out, we send the devices, we manage their health, we build, we collect and then we share revenues with the physician. So for them, it's like passive income coming in while their members are being taken care of. And then, of course, whether it's payers or others who want to use our services, we're happy to do that. We're also working with, like I said, value-based care programs. You know where they can do it, where they can use it, and if it's patients listening to this, they could tell their doctor about these programs and you know it definitely will benefit them. No cost to the physician, no cost to the patient.

Speaker 2: 22:40

Absolutely. Thank you so much. All right, so I'm going to ask my last question. It's one that I like to ask all of our listeners who come on the podcast. It's do you have a saying or a quote, or maybe a mantra that has inspired you in your life, and would you mind sharing what that quote is? Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 22:57

You know, one of the things I talk about is always is attention. I think attention is the new currency. That's what I talk about. You know you gotta keep listening, you gotta keep looking at what's changing and what's happening in the world. The change is so rapid nowadays that by the time you learn something, there's something new already out there. So learn something, there's something new already out there. So you have to pay attention. You've got to always be learning and absorbing and that's how you will move ahead with the times. It's important to move ahead with the times.

Speaker 2: 23:23

You heard it here first y'all. Well, thank you so much, rajeev, for coming on to the podcast today and spending time and sharing your knowledge and about your amazing products that you have. I appreciate it so much.

Speaker 1: 23:33

Thank you, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2: 23:35

Absolutely.