The Human Side of Dental Innovation: Provider Enablement, Payment Reform, and Patient Experience with Rebekah Mathews

How can dentistry successfully adopt new technology, move toward value-based payment, and use better data without losing sight of the humans expected to make all of it work?

In this episode of Kinda Different, Dr. Matt Allen talks with oral health policy and systems expert Rebekah Mathews about the human infrastructure required for innovation in dentistry.

Rebekah has spent roughly two decades at the intersection of oral health policy and system improvement, including work in Medicaid, dental benefits, CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, alternative payment models, and medical-dental integration.

Their conversation explores provider enablement, dental payment reform, pay-for-reporting, payer-provider collaboration, patient experience measurement, and a simple idea that connects all of them:

Technology can unlock better data. But people still have to know what to do with it.

What is provider enablement in dentistry?

Provider enablement means giving dental teams the tools, resources, workflows, and support they need to successfully adopt new ways of delivering care.

Technology alone does not create improvement.

A dental practice can have access to AI, new data, better software, or new quality measures and still struggle to change. Teams need to understand the information, know why it matters, incorporate it into existing workflows, and feel confident taking action.

Medicine has invested in this kind of support during major transitions such as electronic health record adoption and the expansion of value-based care. Dentistry has historically had less infrastructure dedicated to helping providers navigate those changes.

Rebekah argues that this “human side of digital transformation” may be one of dentistry's biggest opportunities.

What role should technology play in dental innovation?

Technology should act as an enabler rather than the end goal.

Its value comes from helping organizations:

• Access and structure useful data
• Improve clinical and administrative workflows
• Support better decision making
• Improve quality
• Strengthen financial performance
• Better engage patients

But more data does not automatically produce better care.

Dental organizations also need people who understand the insights and systems that make it easy to turn those insights into action.

What are alternative payment models in dentistry?

Alternative payment models, or APMs, connect at least some portion of reimbursement to something beyond the traditional fee-for-service transaction.

That can include quality, reporting, improvement, outcomes, or other measures of performance.

Importantly, an alternative payment model does not automatically mean providers assume financial risk.

There are simpler ways for payers and providers to begin working together around quality.

One of those is pay-for-reporting.

What is pay-for-reporting in dental care?

Pay-for-reporting is an alternative payment approach in which providers receive reimbursement for consistently supplying agreed-upon data to a payer.

For example, a payer might incentivize practices to report structured information on caries risk.

The immediate objective is not necessarily to reward one practice for outperforming another. It is to establish the data infrastructure and behaviors required for more sophisticated quality programs later.

That makes pay-for-reporting an important potential entry point into dental value-based care.

Instead of immediately asking practices to accept downside risk or meet unfamiliar benchmarks, a payer and provider can first learn to:

• Collect consistent data
• Agree on definitions
• Submit it reliably
• Review the same information
• Develop shared expectations
• Build trust

Over time, that foundation can support more advanced arrangements tied to improvement, outcomes, quality, or financial risk.

Why can shared data improve payer-provider relationships?

Payers and providers often operate from different datasets.

The payer may use information to make network or reimbursement decisions that the provider cannot easily see. Providers may have valuable clinical or patient information that never flows back to the payer.

A shared dataset changes the conversation.

Both sides can look at the same baseline, understand how it was generated, and make decisions from common information.

That can shift the relationship from one centered primarily on contracting and reimbursement toward a partnership focused on improving quality.

It also gives providers an opportunity to participate in shaping future reimbursement models instead of waiting for those models to be imposed on them.

How could patient experience fit into dental alternative payment models?

Patient experience data can become another shared quality signal between dental practices, DSOs, and payers.

An early-stage model might reward participation and reliable reporting.

A future model could recognize improvement over an organization's own baseline.

More advanced arrangements could eventually incorporate benchmarks, outcomes, or other quality measures.

This gradual approach gives providers an opportunity to understand the data and improve before financial incentives become more complex.

What is missing from dental patient experience measurement today?

Most patient experience measurement still captures individual moments.

A patient completes a survey after an appointment. The organization learns something useful about that encounter.

But healthcare relationships happen over years.

Rebekah argues that the next opportunity is to understand patient experience longitudinally, following how people's perceptions and needs change across their care journey and different stages of life.

That can help individual practices understand why patients stay, leave, return, or recommend them.

At a broader population level, longitudinal experience data could also help dental organizations and payers understand how the system itself can improve.

What makes patients stay with a dental practice?

Marketing, convenience, online reviews, location, or referrals may help a patient choose a practice for the first time.

But human connection plays a major role in what happens after that first visit.

As Rebekah puts it during the conversation, the things that get someone through the door may be different from the things that keep them there.

That is why patient experience should be treated as an ongoing relationship signal rather than simply a post-visit satisfaction score.

Key takeaways

1. Dental innovation is a human challenge as much as a technology challenge.
2. Provider enablement can help practices translate new technology and data into sustainable changes in care delivery.
3. Pay-for-reporting provides a relatively low-risk entry point into dental alternative payment models.
4. Shared data can create a common language between payers and providers and provide the foundation for increasingly sophisticated quality incentives.
5. Patient experience measurement needs to evolve from individual snapshots toward a longitudinal understanding of the patient relationship.
6. Technology may help patients find and access care, but the human experience often determines whether they stay.

About Rebekah Mathews

Rebekah Mathews has spent approximately 20 years working at the intersection of oral health policy and system improvement.

Her experience includes government relations, Medicaid, dental benefits administration, work with CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, alternative payment models, medical-dental integration, and consulting focused on making healthcare systems simpler and more effective.

Connect with Rebekah on LinkedIn to continue the conversation about alternative payment models, oral health policy, provider enablement, and system improvement.

About Kinda Different

Kinda Different is a dental podcast hosted by Dr. Matt Allen, CEO and co-founder of DifferentKind.

Each episode explores innovation in oral healthcare, introduces people changing the industry, and asks how we can work together to make dental care more human.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is provider enablement in dentistry?

Provider enablement is the process of equipping dental teams with the tools, resources, data, workflows, and change-management support needed to successfully adopt new ways of delivering care.

What is an alternative payment model in dentistry?

An alternative payment model connects some portion of dental reimbursement to measures beyond individual procedures, such as reporting, quality, improvement, or outcomes.

Does value-based dental care require providers to take financial risk?

No. Alternative payment models can begin without downside financial risk. Pay-for-reporting is one example in which providers can receive additional reimbursement simply for supplying agreed-upon quality or clinical data.

What is pay-for-reporting?

Pay-for-reporting compensates providers for submitting structured information to a payer according to agreed-upon standards. It can help establish the data infrastructure and payer-provider collaboration required for more advanced quality-based reimbursement later.

Why is patient experience important to dental payers?

Patient experience data provides information about care that traditional claims data cannot fully show. It can help payers and providers understand access, communication, trust, treatment decisions, and the broader patient journey.

What is longitudinal patient experience measurement?

Longitudinal measurement examines patient experience over multiple interactions and over time, rather than treating every dental appointment as an isolated event.

Full Episode Transcript

Welcome back to a very, very special edition of Kinda Different, a dental podcast where we talk about innovation, we connect with some of the best leaders in oral health care, and we talk about how we can make dental care more human. And today's episode is super special because if you're listening to this, this last week was the National Association of Dental Plans Converge meeting, a big meeting in the payer space, where all the dental payers get together and get to chat and meet with DSOs to negotiate rates and do lots of stuff. So super fun.
And I think today's guest is going to absolutely have some great insights into how we think about this payer world, how we can continue to innovate in this payer world, because I think that feels challenging sometimes. And so I'm super pumped to have her. Before I introduce her, I am Dr. Matt Allen, the CEO and co-founder of DifferentKind, and your host for Kinda Different.
And I'm thrilled to welcome a friend and expert in all things. How do we think about payment world differently? And just someone I really look up to when it comes to how she thinks about the world, the consulting that she does, et cetera.
Rebecca Mathews, thank you so much for joining us today.
Great. Thanks, Matt, and thanks for the opportunity to join. I'm excited to chat.
So yes, my name is Rebecca Mathews. I have spent about 20 years now at the intersection of Oral Health Policy and System Improvement. And my goal in my work is to make health care simpler for everyone and to really improve how we can leverage scarce resources, public resources, and support of that.
So, I'm very interested in government and policy, and I first started working in that space when I was in graduate school. I was studying public administration, really had always had a lifelong interest in politics, and was able to focus more on government structure, the policy process, and I then moved into working in state government relations. So, my experience there really helped me to deepen my understanding of systems and the policy process, and also to delve more into Medicaid funding.
So, it was a great experience for me to learn more about regulated industries, about public programming, and also to work in business development. That gave me the opportunity then to move in house with a client that I had been working with for a while, which was DentaQuest. They became the third Cardio Administrator to the Medicaid program for dental services here in South Carolina, where I live.
So that was when my interest and my career path really intersected with oral health. And so, I had a great experience, spent a number of years at DentaQuest, worked then with CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, and now, as mentioned, I'm doing some consulting. And, you know, I think all along, I really still have the same why and drive for what I want to do in, you know, working in the oral health space with making health care simpler.
So more people can really be healthy through access to oral health services, and that we can really make those public resources work harder in support of that.
Love it. Well, certainly, I think your goal and our goal of making health care more human, right? It's hard to have a really complex system that no one understands and have it feel very human.
So making it simpler, making it more human are certainly things that I think we can sack hands on. So let's dive into innovation a little bit and kind of think about, you know, hey, this is a big dental ecosystem with lots of different players. What's one area of this big system that you think could most benefit from change?
Yeah, I see a need in the human side of digital transformation. So right now, the speed of change is just unreal, you know, and in thinking of payers and providers, the financial pressures, the pace of policy changes, technology advancements, be it AI, digital transformation, all of that is converging. And it brings definitely opportunities and challenges.
And also, it's just a big cognitive load for all of us as we, you know, deal with this daily. So I want to focus on, you know, the opportunities in this time, in, you know, technical advancement. You know, it really can be a great equalizer for practices, large and small, in getting more administrative efficiencies, having the support in clinical decision making, and also in improving, you know, ways to engage with their patients.
So very exciting things that we can seize there. And as I noted, I think there's the change is happening at such a fast pace. And we are, you know, fortunate to have leaders at the national level, like the American Dental Association, the National Association of Dental Plans, the Oral Health Interoperability Alliance as examples, who are really working hard to represent our segment, and then to, you know, make sure that we have understanding of what's happening, especially on the policy and regulatory side, and then also highlighting for the industry what compliance needs, are they are for security or for regulatory adherence.
So that all is fantastic. And, you know, to me, coming back down to, you know, my day to day or anyone else's day to day work, with stressing the human side, unlocking all of this data and the convergence of so many different data sources is a great opportunity. However, it only goes so far as a human can, you know, carry it.
And so we need individually to be comfortable, confident, and know what to do with all of the data insights available to us. So unlocking data is terrific, fantastic. We need to make sure it's meaningful, it's structured, and that we can have ways to take action from it.
Yeah, that's super interesting. When you think it's like, what's that area that could most benefit from change? And it's like, well, everyone obviously goes to AI or whatever, and you're saying like, no, it's actually like, it's us, right?
Sometimes it's the inhibitor there. It's us that need to be more cognizant of those things. I think sometimes we almost take that for granted, because one of the things that we hear a lot is, well, sure, just use these AI tools and it'll make available more time for your front desk or for your clinician or whoever it is in your practice to actually be with a patient.
But that actually takes effort and work and energy and focus, and those things doesn't happen naturally often. So I love that you bring it back to like, no, how do we? There's all this great stuff that's happening, but how do we then harness that in a really effective way?
I think that's a powerful insight.
Yeah. It's interesting to me. I mean, there's so many conversations we can have about how the oral health ecosystem dentistry has been separate from the broader health care industry in so many ways.
Going back to the support for humans in navigating change, that's a place where I do feel like we have not had the benefit that the health system has had in what's called provider enablement. Provider enablement is really just a way to improve care delivery by equipping clinical teams with the tools, the resources, and strategies to apply new supports and how they're providing care and how they navigate the changes in their workflows and how they do things in support of a broader change. So that simply just a way to help anyone apply and stick with changes in real life.
It's not a term I hear daily in the dental space, but it is something that's been a mainstay in medicine going back 15 to 20 years, thinking about the Meaningful Use Initiative where electronic health record, a rollout occurred, there was funding in that to support practices in the infrastructure development, but also the changes, the human changes to support transitioning to electronic health records. Same thing with the earlier value-based care models as they rolled out. Health systems and care practices in medicine were given supports so they could navigate those transitions and how they use data, how their workflows needed to change, how they're looking at payment and quality improvement efforts in their practices.
So it's just a real, I think, an interesting place where you think about change management and what's available to us. We haven't had that as a mainstay. And the dental ecosystem.
And I'm not saying that, you know, we need to, payers need to go out or providers need to go out and hire coaches. I mean, I think it's a great thing if they have the ability to have that support in change management. But it's just not been a common element for us.
So, you know, that's my point. I really have feel like that's a limiting factor.
Yeah. Well, it's super interesting. I don't know if you saw this other day or like recently.
But there's, you know, obviously, I live in Colorado. There's a DSO here that brought in a CEO from Cleveland Clinic. So, you know, from the health care side, right?
And they created a Chief Experience Officer role. They created like a quality improvement and like provide your like, you know, clinician kind of like wellness role, you know. So they created some of these roles or implementing some tools to really support that.
So I do think what you're saying is right. You know, obviously, you're very smart and, you know, can tell us a lot of like, it's not common. And I think, you know, the smart, forward, progressive thinking DSOs, especially in the dental world, are going to recognize that that actually, you know, keeps people longer, helps you be more productive, helps you be more efficient in all of your roles.
So I think it's interesting to see something like that happen and say, oh, yeah, like maybe dentistry is starting to learn.
Mm-hmm, yes, agree.
Yeah, okay, cool. I think one of the interesting things that we think about often here is, I think just kind of this relates to your question or to your answer on the last question around innovation, pushing things forward, you know, getting better, right, quality improvement in general. I think we often default to thinking that that's technology, but I think what I hear you saying in some ways too is that's very human.
What do you think technology's role in innovation is? Is it, you know, is it, hey, we've got to, like, do we have to think about the human at the center and then build around that? Do we think technology is at the center?
Like, how do you think about technology's role in innovation?
Yeah, I see technology as a partner. It really, you know, serves a function. And going back to that term, provider enablement, is an enabler to, you know, unlock data so organizations can improve their workflows.
They can improve quality and also improve financial performance. So I see that as a really, you know, important way to look at how we leverage technology going forward. And I wanted to, you know, kind of carrying on that conversation of enablement at scale.
Yes, definitely there are organizations who have more capacity to have, you know, kind of infrastructure in supporting change management within, in calibration too, within how a business or, you know, peer delivery system is operating. But I think there are ways too that we can look at everyone in, you know, our delivery system having some exposure or having some opportunities for supporting enablement efforts. So I wanted to, you know, talk a little bit about where I see that happening in provider-payer partnerships right now.
And in the last 10 years, I've spent time in value-based care and have developed a few alternative payment models to test. And so that's been a great experience. And, you know, the purpose of an alternative payment model is to really ensure that reimbursement has a tie to quality.
It doesn't imply financial risk, but, you know, it does give a provider the opportunity to look at, to benefit from performance-based reimbursement. And a number of dental plans have, in recent years, been using alternative payment designs more. And which is fantastic because I think, you know, we're seeing, we've been talking about it for value-based care, talking about, you know, different payment arrangements for a while.
We're seeing more activity and more sharing happen in the last couple of years, which is terrific. Everyone can benefit from that. And the thing that I think is really interesting as we think about data and, you know, enabling change is a more simple type of alternative payment arrangement, which is called pay-for-reporting.
So, pay-for-reporting means that you're really just, you're earning reimbursement for the submission of data. And so, you know, it can be more, I think, there can be more specific specificity that a payer sets in terms of what the requirements are to, you know, receive the reimbursement, but it's really, you know, they're, the objective is to increase the data that is being provided. And the payer may make requirements that, you know, look at the timeliness of data or maybe the accuracy of what's being provided by the practice.
So the point, you know, there is that this is a, you know, still in a fee-for-service reimbursement arrangement, a way that a component of that reimbursement can serve as a way to help the practice and the payer get in a routine of how data needs are satisfied, how data is structured, the expectations that the payer has for what they want to see, when they want to see it, and it creates a communication channel between the two. So I think that, you know, just to maybe illustrate with some examples of how paper reporting has been used in a couple of different settings. And there are several payers who have used this arrangement.
And one of the main places I've seen it used is to grow the reporting of carers' risk status. And so, you know, going back to, I think, you know, the practice level, yes, practices track risk status across their patient panel, but has that, that information has not always been reported to carriers. And, you know, we, we, in what, the last 15 years, do have the new CDT code set that allow the submission of the code.
But it's still a place where, you know, we, that baseline information is not something that payers have had across time. And so, you know, this is, has been, pay for reporting has been a way to encourage the submission, regular submission of risk status by the practice to a payer. And it doesn't mean that, you know, you're maybe just using the CDT code to report low, moderate, or high risk of caries.
Your, you know, that it may be that the payer's looking for a little bit more insight around the patient from you. And so it's, that's been, I think, a really beneficial way to, that payers can work with providers to say, help me track over time the, you know, what you're finding in terms of the risk level of your panel. And also, you know, to longitudinally see how that changes.
So that's, that's an example of where a number of different plans, like I mentioned, have used pay for reporting. CareQuest Institute, the organization also leveraged pay for reporting as a way to help to establish referral relationships, those sort of referrals between medical and dental partners in a medical-dental integration project. So just there are a couple of quick examples of maybe some more, you know, common ways to use this way, this effort to collect structured data.
Totally. Well, and certainly I would be remiss if we didn't, you know, mention that, right, like we're working with some payers on how we do that around patient experience, right? And I think that one of the things that we see here that I think is really interesting, a couple of things that, like, come to mind is, as you mentioned this, right, is, number one, I think it brings people to the table together around a common set of data instead of it being like, oh, well, the payer might have some data and they're using that somehow to set fees that the provider doesn't understand or doesn't have access to or doesn't get in a timely fashion or the provider is collecting data and maybe not sharing, you know, everything back with the payer because they're a little bit scared or, you know, whatever it might be, right?
It's like, cool, like, we're looking at the same set of data. We can have a shared conversation. We can have a partnership around that.
I also think, too, then it sets the table. It's the entry, you know, it's like the zero entry to the pool. Like, submit the data.
Great. That's awesome. How could we think about the future worlds where maybe you're getting reimbursed on your improvement over your own baseline data, right?
Versus some, you know, standard throughout the network or something like that. And maybe that does come down the line, but it does feel like, you know, it's not, hey, let's throw you into the deep end of some crazy value based care arrangement where all of a sudden you have, you know, downside risk and, you know, whatever. Like providers are never going to agree to that, you know, like outright, but this feels like a really nice way to say, hey, we do want to incentivize quality.
And here's a way where we can start to do that and meaningfully start, you know, start down that path. And to me, again, I think the smart providers, the smart DSOs, the smart people in the dental world are saying, look, this is coming. We should get at the front of the line and be able to have feedback and be able to have a say in what those conversations look like and shape the future of it, instead of saying, let's go hide, pretend it's not existing.
And then all of a sudden in a few years, when these things do become a reality, it's like you're behind the eight ball, right? So to me, those are a couple of things that I see as it relates to, you know, what you're talking about.
Yeah, I agree entirely, Matt. I think it's a, you know, it's a foundational step and, you know, kind of a conditioning exercise too, to make sure, like, we're at the practice level, they're able, they have processes, they build out mechanisms to support. This is the data that is important to our provider, or excuse me, our payer partner.
And then, you know, we can build on that from time over time. I do think too, again, I think I said this earlier, having common terminology and ways to communicate, that's an important element of it too. We're looking at the same baseline.
You know, we understand each other's mechanism to get arrive at this data set. And so, as you mentioned, as in a relationship, you may start looking at more opportunities to increase, incentivize, and move into more complex alternative payment models that are looking at quality of care, are looking at outcomes, or even to introducing maybe a risk-bearing situation. You're building from that foundation of common information and also building into a trusting situation together.
100%. Love it. We are deep in the weeds here, which I love.
But I'm going to pull us back for a moment. That's one of the best parts about the structure of this, right? We talk about humanity so much, and just learning about the people that we get to interact, we can talk about APMs all day long.
But people have met you, you've been working on projects with people. But I love for them to get to know a little bit more about you and who you are and what makes you tick and whatever. So yeah, tell me, this is just a question that we like to ask in general when I'm out with friends or whatever, right?
One of those would you rather type of question. But if you could only listen to music or read books for the rest of your life, what would you do?
Yeah. Well, I'm going to say, anyone who knows me knows that I would love to talk about APMs all day long.
So it's good.
I appreciate the chance to talk a little bit about other things. I'm going to go with a mashup response, Matt.
Okay.
I'd want to be able to listen to music as long as I could also listen to podcasts. So I love keeping up with current events in politics and the industry. And so this is, I think, a way if I could listen to podcasts and music, I could have my cake in music too.
There you go. I like it. Tell me about some of your, like, you know, kind of musical interests, like what makes, you know, what makes you ticker?
And then give me, like, one album or something that you've been like, wow, this has really been floating my boat recently. And then maybe one podcast too.
Okay. So I, my musical taste is all over the place. And I think I'm, I'm at the point in life where I can veer more into the nostalgia mode.
Love it.
Especially when a lot of my favorite bands are, you know, kind of on their, what, third or fourth tour, trying to, trying to keep, you know, keep, keep everything going. So I, I'm struggling to identify a favorite album. If we're focused on contemporary, I would say maybe, you know, more recent albums by Tame Impala and Beck are, you know, I know they've had some, both have had some recent releases.
And so that's where I would say, you know, again, carrying forth the music across a few decades and artists that are still active that, that keeps, keeps me engaged. A podcast that I like, I really enjoy, again, industry type stuff. And so I know you and others, there are a number of different dental ecosystem podcasts out there.
I tend to reach weekly for a podcast that's based on South Carolina politics and government activity. Might be a snooze fest for others, but that's my, that's my favorite that, that I tune in for twice a week.
Nice. What's it called?
It's called the South Carolina Lead.
Okay.
Cool.
So if you're in South Carolina, go check it out, right? And yeah, maybe it will float your boat. Probably, yeah, not, you know, probably impacting my life as much as it is yours.
So I love it. You've given a gift to all South Carolinians today. So there you go.
And yeah, Beck did just come out with an album, I think last week, which is great. And, you know, obviously he's been doing it since the days of Loser. So, you know, gotta respect that and always love some Kevin Parker and how he thinks about the world and what he's interested in.
So interest in both interesting folks for sure, which I, you know, just as a total aside, my son is 11, right? And it's like, he's starting to get into, you know, and I love hip hop too, but he's like starting to get more into hip hop. It's like, I want to listen to Drake.
And I'm like, I mean, I just don't think Drake is that great because I just don't think he's a very thoughtful person. You know, like there's plenty of hip hop artists out there who are very thoughtful, who are really putting for some effort and energy here. And so my personal opinion and my, you know, my opinion on Drake is not of that.
So I tend to gravitate towards the artist I get to think to.
No, I'm not surprised that you're not trying to curate your son's musical takes. And I think I would do the same.
Yeah, for sure. It's a formation experience, right? We gotta, you can like the beat, but then we gotta be like, who's the person actually making this music and, you know, what's behind it, right?
So I love it. Okay, we we're going, we're like really, really going here, which I love, but we're gonna try to try to land the plane here pretty quickly. Let's think about making dental care more human.
Obviously, like we care a lot about patient experience. When you think about patient experience in general, what's one thing that you think is important but overlooked, aka what is that opportunity as it relates to patient experience?
Yeah, and I'll preface it with this. We're getting there. Like we're, you know, we still have some room to grow.
I think the thing I see is right now we're measuring patient experience episodically, you know, just like at a moment in time, instead of really being able to look at it over time. And so that's where I know, you know, we'll be able to move more in the longitudinal collection of insights and of patient experience across their care journeys in time. I think, you know, when I think about that, I'll kind of branch out a little bit more into, you know, my thought from the business angle.
I live in one of the fastest growing areas of the country, and I can't tell you, you know, within 15 miles of my house, how many health systems are, you know, growing, expanding, grocery stores popping up. And there's a number of new dental practices that are opening. And so, you know, being in this industry, I am curious what, you know, distinguishes the new practice for a patient who's looking for a dental home.
Is it the proximity maybe to the kids school? Is it advertising reviews that, you know, that someone's found about the practices? Office?
Is it maybe someone in their network that who has referred them? You know, so thinking there, is it the business strategy of marketing or is it the human connection? You know, kind of what helps to drive conversion of a patient to, you know, a new practice?
So, that's one thing that, you know, kind of is I think about the journey. It's what gets you in the door. Then too, I do feel like it's definitely the human side that keeps you there.
And so, you know, that's where I think for me, being able to look at patient experience over time, and also see, you know, just understand more about how that can relate to where you are at life stages. And it will be fascinating for us as we think about, you know, individual level data, and then also kind of the aggregate of population level data. What are some of those insights we can use there to look at patient experience and in the practice setting, you know, continue to work on improving it, but also think at the population level, like how can we, you know, take this information to think about how that could help us make the system better?
Yeah, for sure. And I think we can look to Medical there because I think Medical has done a relatively good job, you know, throughout the course of time to say, great, like, yeah, we're going to use this data, you know, at an incentive level for hospitals, right? A portion of your dollars are going to be tied to, you know, how your patient experience looks, but also then you see hospitals that are really smart, like using that in marketing, right?
To be able to say, hey, look, like we're going to show this on our own website and, you know, we're going to move away from something like Google reviews, right, that essentially anyone can come up with and, you know, oftentimes isn't the best, right? So I think we see hospitals doing that. So to me, again, I think we have some spots where we can look to and say, oh, cool, like we can do that better, right?
Okay, well, we can keep going all day, you know, obviously, and NADP is, you know, is on our minds and, you know, probably deep within our hearts right now, so a lot there. If you want to actually talk with Rebecca more about this, I'm sure she's probably willing to chat with you, Rebecca. If people want to get in touch with you and talk about APMs all day, give us a number to, or not a number, but, you know, tell us, tell us where to go.
Help us figure out how to get in touch with you.
Yeah, APMs or anything else related to oral health policy. And so, yeah, it definitely, I think, you know, through LinkedIn is probably the easiest way to reach out.
Perfect. Cool. Well, Rebecca, I appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for joining this very special edition of Kinda Different, focused on all things payer as we come down from the high of NADP. So really appreciate you taking the time.
And yeah, look forward to continuing to innovate in this space together alongside you. You're a great leader here. We appreciate you.