Panelists discuss emerging trends, future of local healthcare

The Chamber of Grand Haven, Spring Lake and Ferrysburg hosted its first ever Forum on Healthcare on Wednesday morning to look at the current state of the local healthcare industry and what the industry is looking towards in the coming years.

The forum focused on the states of several healthcare fields within the local area – primary healthcare, mental healthcare and health insurance.

Speakers John Foss, senior vice president of operations for Trinity Health Grand Haven and Shelby, Sarah Lewakowski, executive director of Mosaic Counseling, and Griffin Cobean, sale manager for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, gave short presentations on their respective fields before joining together for a panel to answer audience questions.

Each speakers brought different perspectives to the table about the current state of their healthcare fields and what the future holds, which are detailed below.

Trinity Health looks to adapt to community needs

As a nation-wide hospital system with a large presence on the Lakeshore, Foss said that Trinity Health knows "a stand-alone community hospital isn't the way to the future."

One of the things Foss said Trinity Health is known for locally is its wound clinics. He explained that Trinity Health is look at expanding the wound clinic to service more patients and also include hyperbaric chambers for hyperbaric wound care.

Another area Trinity Health wants to expand is outpatient surgery.

"I want people to say 'Oh you're getting that (procedure) done, you're going to Grand Haven right?'" Foss said. "We have to figure out what that is. One of those things is going to be GYN surgery and urogynecology surgery, so ... we've onboarded three new GYN surgeons and their doing cases there now."

A large focus for Trinity in the coming year, Foss said, will be to evaluate the focus areas for specializing healthcare services to the Grand Haven community so the majority of care can be done right in Grand Haven.

Every three years, the hospital seeks community input on what the three healthcare needs are through its community health needs assessment. A recent assessment named substance abuse and misuse as a key focus area, which Foss explained lead Trinity to partner with New Vision in the last year to assist 100 patients with a three-day hospital stay and connecting them to treatment programs.

"Of those 100, 73 followed up with their programs," Foss said. "That changes lives. The thing that's different about this is you can't be court ordered (or) signed in against your will, you have to come in and say 'I want to get help, I want to get healthy.' I think that feeds into why 73 percent of our people go in for follow-up care because they've decided they've had enough and they want to get help, and we want to be the ones to help them."

Foss explained that one of the biggest issues Trinity has faced and will likely face in the future is staffing, which has also hindered patients' access to healthcare. Another major issues facing their field, Foss said, is finding ways of "doing more high-quality care for less."

"I think there's a pendulum swing," he said. "Back in the '70s and early '80s, hospitals and providers probably got more of their fair share of reimbursement. That pendulum has swung all the way over to (the opposite) side, and it's got to come back to the middle."

Mental healthcare in high demand

Lewakowski feels that she's had "a front-row seat to the changing landscape of mental health" over her 21 years as Mosaic Counseling's executive director, which has been a magnified topic in recent years.

According to the CDC, one in five Americans experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression in 2023. On a local scale, Lewakowski said that the 2023 Ottawa County Community Needs Assessment found that one in six adults in the county reported poor mental health, with that reporting more prevalent among adults under the age of 55. The assessment also noted that underserved and vulnerable adults in Ottawa County report much higher rates of poor mental health, which Lewakowski explained is the population of county residents Mosaic often serves as they provide services to patients regardless of insurance status.

"We see everyone," Lewakowski said.

Ottawa County teens have also experienced higher rates of poor mental health. Lewakoski shared that according to the county's Youth Assessment Survey, 26.7 percent of teens reported feeling depressed, 14.9 percent seriously thought about committing suicide, 10.7 percent said they made a plan to attempt suicide, and 6.3 percent had attempted suicide.

Lewakowski also noted that the stigma surrounding mental healthcare has been "really, really reduced" among the younger generation.

"When I was in private practice, it was like a form of punishment to a teenager to come in for counseling," she said. "Now, they are actually calling for themselves. We have teenagers calling saying 'I would like therapy' … they want to go in a talk to someone, and we're noticing that too with our kids in school outreach and young adults."

At Mosaic, Lewakowski said their panel of therapists provides counseling for all ages and any presenting issues, regardless of insurance, and with no waitlist to eliminate some of the many barriers people may face when seeking mental healthcare. The center also takes personalized matching very seriously to ensure patients continue seeking help by seeing a therapist they connect with.

"Personalized matching means therapy is going to be much more successful than if … you go see a therapist and you don't feel a rapport twitch them," Lewakoski said. "Normally, a lot of people drop out from counseling after one session, and the next biggest group drops out after the second session. We take personalized matching so seriously at Mosaic that in 2024, our clients see our therapists (for) an average of 12 sessions."

To ensure the success of their model, Lewakoski said Mosaic's panel of therapists has expanded to 260, located across Ottawa, Muskegon and Kent counties, to keep up with the high demand for therapy. Keeping up with high demands has also been a challenge for Mosaic as they work to continue adding therapists to the panel.

Mosaic has also had success reaching county youth through its school outreach program, which Lewakowski said provides free, in-school counseling to remove financial and transportation barriers. The program is currently in 28 schools and Lewakowski said there is a "critical need" to expand their "life-changing and life-saving" services.

Health insurance navigates challenges in lowering costsCobean explained that the past year has been tough in for the health insurance industry as many people have seen their insurances rates go up.

"It's not something we like to do by any means," he said. "A good year for me is when we get to deliver good renewals with my team."

Blue Cross Blue Shield is one of many ways people can get access to healthcare and health insurance. In Ottawa County, Cobean said that Blue Cross members have network access to 100 percent of the area's hospitals and facilities and1,146 professional providers.

In 2024, Cobean said employers are looking at ways to lowering claims costs, starting with the top overall costliest healthcare conditions: cancer, musculoskeletal conditions, cardiovascular, diabetes and mental health. Blue Cross offers solutions to meet these needs, such as partnering with vendors and directing customers to care managers to get the right treatments. The shortage of primary care doctors has been a cause for concern in the health insurance industry, with Cobean explaining that Michigan is on track to be at a minimum 862 physicians short by 2034.

"Primary care is something that we try to promote as much as possible," he said. "We meet with a lot of employers and ... that is something we encourage employers to promote as much as possible – getting the care before all the bad things happen."

Health insurer resentment has also become a major issue following the recent murder of the United Healthcare CEO, especially among the younger generation. Cobean said that he understands the frustration and anger toward the industry, especially with escalating costs both at the doctor's office and the pharmacy.

Cobean explained that Blue Cross is working with providers to "find common ground" on making healthcare more affordable for patients and moving towards a value-based care arrangement to incentivize providers to focus on quality care.