Running Through Walls: Thinking Long Term is the Greatest Gift

In a recent Venrock podcast, Aledade Founder and CEO Farzad Mostashari spoke about how to heighten the efficiency and effectiveness of patient care, specifically preventative care. He discusses how Aledade is working to help patients when average primary care practices can’t and the new launch of Aledade Care Solutions. He also shares his perspective on the strongest way to create a value-based care incentive structure.

He starts the interview by discussing Aledade’s view of value-based care, which he defines as helping primary care practices make money by preventing strokes. He says that “reducing hospitalizations, reducing ER visits, reducing suffering is how we make money and I love that business model.” This value-based care approach is how Aledade sets itself apart from other startups.

He mentions arriving at a realization that instead of creating risky new startups to help patients, he could use Aledade as a strong base to build from, which eventually led to the patient-centric care provided by Aledade Care Solutions. Led by CEO Mandy Cohen, Aledade Care Solutions assembles solutions to provide patient-centered care that many primary care facilities couldn’t otherwise access.

Mostashari then talks about Aledade’s recent focus on Medicare Advantage, saying that it makes sense for the company because it allows for increased revenue following correct and complete documentation of diagnoses. He says that the company was able to scale very efficiently with traditional Medicare patients, but that there are also many Medicare Advantage patients that they were previously unable to reach. He sees this as an opportunity to help more patients in a quickly growing program.

He says Aledade differentiates itself from other Medicare Advantage options through scale. The company already has very many practices under traditional Medicare, in which they can now also access the Medicare Advantage patients. Scalability is his first goal with Aledade projects; the company may not be the most efficient on patient-to-patient savings but it makes up for it with the sheer number of patients it can cover.

He also shares his advice for new founders, telling them that the most important thing they can do is think long term. He notes that having a longer time horizon than competitors gives a company a notable advantage for longevity. He says that in his experience, “if you want to create a lot of value, you gotta have a long time horizon.”

Listen to the full podcast here.