Eric Gilliam
Imagine a health care system in which everyone has their very own health care team. Someone to advocate for them with employers and doctors, someone to navigate all the red tape—to coordinate hospital visits, manage prescriptions, and assist patients throughout and after recovery. This is the vision that drove Eric Gilliam through over two decades of managing hospitals and health systems and leading them as president and COO. One that he refused to let go of as he witnessed the medical community’s tireless work to guide patients through the labyrinth of care in an overburdened system, and watched patients fall through the cracks despite their best efforts.
In 2019, after a long, extraordinary career, Eric could have retired comfortably; instead, he was more determined than ever to find a solution to the gaps in health care. And he delivered, founding a company that has turned the dream into reality for more than four dozen physicians and health care providers, private employers, and thousands of patients in just three short years—and he’s just getting started.
This is Visium HealthLink, a comprehensive population health company that partners with health care providers and employers to improve the overall health and care coordination for patients and employees with chronic conditions. Each client has a personal health advocate who utilizes Visium HealthLink’s technology to provide care management, remote patient monitoring, transition care management, annual wellness visits, and advanced care planning. It’s all covered by Medicare and most insurance companies.
Visium HealthLink serves physicians, hospitals, and ACO’s with programs that allow organizations to easily adopt a model of advancing wellness and delivering value-based care, while improving the patient experience and earning new, recurring revenue. Currently serving Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia, Visium will soon expand throughout the country. And, with his multidisciplinary team of nurses, social workers, dieticians, certified medical assistants, cardiologists, endocrinologists, pain management specialists, and primary care doctors, Eric has accomplished his goal and unraveled the problem he so passionately set out to resolve.
We spoke with Eric to learn more about Visium HealthLink, the services they provide, and how they are improving the quality of life for thousands of patients nationwide.
Eric, what compelled you to start Visium HealthLink?
Throughout my career, I recognized that patients really needed additional support and the expertise of someone well versed in the health care industry to help them navigate their care. There are so many gaps that can occur, and patients are often caught in the middle. We connect all the moving pieces of the health care systems to close these gaps and get them the health care they need when they need it.
How are Visium’s services and programs benefiting physicians and hospitals?
They’re improving the quality of care, the patient engagement, and financial performance of the practice or the hospital. Because we work directly with the patient to handle the health care coordination and management, doctors and hospitals can focus specifically on patient care, and it frees them up to treat more people, which, in turn, increase their revenue. It’s a win-win for medical professionals and patients. As we saw during COVID, oftentimes, the demand for care is so significant that patients wait weeks, months, to see their doctors. We give doctors updates every month until that appointment so that they’re current on the patient’s health, allowing higher quality of care and a deeper patient-doctor relationship.
Your remote monitoring service is a gamechanger that not only allows for immediate interventions, but gives peace of mind to patients and caregivers. Tell us how it works.
Many people are living with chronic conditions—hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure, asthma, COPD, obesity, and a host of others. With our remote monitors, patients can track their blood pressure, glucose levels, airflow, and other critical readings from home. That information comes to us in real time, and we can work with their provider and make quick interventions. We have nurses on call 24/7. If an abnormal reading comes in at midnight, we call the patient to see if everything’s okay. It’s giving patients and families huge peace of mind knowing that they’re being watched over.
Can individuals enroll in your program?
Absolutely. A person can tell their doctor that they want to use Visium’s care management program, and the physician can either send a referral directly to us and we’ll get it all set up for them, or they can implement the program in their practice. People can also call us directly, and we’ll have them up and running typically within a week. We take care of everything.
Let’s end where it all began. What do you enjoy most about your work, Eric, or what drives you?
What drives me is seeing the results that we’re able to deliver through this program and seeing the improved health and outcomes for the patients. Every patient or family member I talk to, they’re just so grateful for what we’re doing. They are the people that continue to motivate and inspire me.
Eric is a board-certified patient advocate and holds a master’s in business administration and health administration.
Contact:
Eric Gilliam
Owner & CEO
Visium HealthLink, LLC
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