Miriam Allred (00:10)
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Home Care Strategy Lab. I'm your host, Miriam Allred. It's great to be back with you in the lab. Today I am joined by Megan Casey, a executive consultant at Momentum Healthcare and Technology Consulting. Megan, welcome to the lab.
Megan Casey (00:25)
Hi. Thanks for having me, Miriam.
Miriam Allred (00:28)
You and I are both here locally. We almost could have been recording this in person. I'd even think about that. We're both right here in Fort Worth, Texas.
Megan Casey (00:34)
Yeah.
Miriam Allred (00:36)
But instead we're cozy at our home offices having this conversation, which is equally great.
Megan Casey (00:40)
Yes, yes, absolutely.
Miriam Allred (00:42)
Let's start with your background. For those that don't know you, tell us a little bit about yourself and your family and your professional background.
Megan Casey (00:50)
Sure. I live right here in Fort Worth, Texas. I am not originally from Texas. I am from small town in upstate New York. very proud to be a Texan now. I never want to live in snow again. This is my 20th year in healthcare. and my 14th year working in the home care space specifically. spent just under nine years at Accent.
And about three and a half years at LiveWell before joining Momentum as an executive consultant. So very happy to be here.
Miriam Allred (01:28)
Talk a little bit about your roles at both Accent and Live Well. what was kind of like your purview operations, recruiting? You know, what were your areas of expertise?
Megan Casey (01:37)
Sure. So at Accent Care, I actually started as a field supervisor. so I did the recruiting of caregivers. I wasn't a field supervisor very long, got promoted. I was an area operations manager for a long time, director of product development. I ended my tenure there as an area vice president over health alert, so the technology systems that Accent Care used. and then at LiveWell, I was the senior vice president.
Overseeing operation strategy, VA relationships, sales, and and and growth, small startup to a pretty large organization in just over three years.
Miriam Allred (02:12)
Yeah. And large footprints for both of those companies, correct? They weren't just kind of single site, you know, locations, accent care and live we'll talk about just kinda like size and footprint.
Megan Casey (02:22)
Sure. So accent care was pretty small when I joined, I guess, relatively to when I left. I think they had 12 to 19 states for their personal care line, but of course they served across the continuum. So home care, hospice, and personal care. Live well was strictly personal care, with some additions of other service lines under different names towards the end of my time there, but across a third total of 32 states that we could provide business in when I left.
Miriam Allred (02:52)
Yeah. So you really like run the gamut of like small operation to enterprise and operation and every single role touch like every area of operation. So your experience is super vast. I think, you know, your recent maybe claim to fame is around like veterans care. I've interviewed some of the previous executives of Live Well on the show, and so people might know kind of that background, but one of your roles as a company claim to fame and even yours personally is like working with veterans. And so I approached you and I said,
There's kind two topics I have in mind. One would be, you know, the administrative side of veteran care and working
Megan Casey (03:27)
Yeah,
Miriam Allred (03:28)
with the the associations and building those relationships and like kind of that side, but then also the actual care side, the service delivery to the veterans and what that looks like and the obstacles that you're up against. And I said, you know, you pick and you you decided we should focus on the service delivery, which I'm really excited about because I don't feel like I have talked about this a whole lot, but who better
Than you to talk about this, having worked with probably thousands of veterans and families. And you and everyone listening to this that works with them knows about like the pride and the stubbornness and the just the uphill battle it can be to deliver that care to them and to get through to them. And so we're gonna talk about that. I I said to you, I want you to share stories and experiences
And so I guess we'll just kind of like open that can of worms of what what is the biggest barrier? You know, there's all sorts of like logistical things around veterans care, eligibility and affordability and all of that stuff. But the bigger barrier is oftentimes the veteran themselves. So explain explain that. Like break that down what you think that means and looks like.
Megan Casey (04:27)
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely. So I guess to explain that side of it and and kind of the stereotypical veteran, I think you need to understand why I love working with veterans and why I immediately said no, Miriam. This is what we have to talk about. my grandfather was a World War II veteran. and
He was not the stereotypical veteran. I never saw him wear the hat. I never saw him walk around in his uniform. In fact, the first time I ever saw his uniform was at his funeral when I was 16 years old. And he didn't really speak about his military service. He didn't get care at the VA. He had a lot of medical issues, but he went to a general hospital. and he wasn't a career
Military person by any means, but he's he served a few years for our country and served in active war. and I guess when we think about a veteran, or at least growing up in small town America like I did, you think of the cute little man at the diner wearing his hat, proud veteran. He's got his pins on, he's wearing a jacket that says veteran, and he's so proud of what he did for the country. And that's not what veterans all look like anymore.
There's
people who aren't proud of what they did, or people that were coerced into military service. They were drafted. or people that had to do things that they aren't proud of during their time in the military and they don't get care at the VA. And female veterans, I a lot of female veterans faced really tough situations, especially in the Vietnam era.
And so when you think of what does a veteran look like today, it's it's not always the ones sitting there holding the flag at the Memorial Day parade. it's people that you would never know. And and I want to make sure that we're advocating for all of them. And so being able to spend time with veterans and the thousands of of veterans' families that I've helped over my career.
I've gotten to know a lot about them and what makes them tick and what makes them stubborn and what makes them say yes and what makes them say no. And there's not a there's not a shortcut. There's not a, this is going to work on every veteran, period, because what works on you won't work on me. We're different people. And I think it's really just about understanding how their military service plays into who they became as an adult. And
how you're you can use that to help them access care.
