Health Tech: Stephen Vaccaro On How HHAeXchange’s Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness

An Interview With Luke Kervin

Focus on your end-user. Facilitate dynamic conversations with your customers, solicit their feedback on your product or services often, form user groups, etc. Your end-users can advise on which features are most needed, thus overall helping to further improve product innovation.

In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephen Vaccaro, President at HHAeXchange.

Stephen Vaccaro serves as President at HHAeXchange, where he leads the market strategy and national expansion of HHAeXchange’s State, Payer, Provider, and Fiscal Intermediary portfolios. With over 30 years of leadership experience in the healthcare industry, Stephen has spent time on both the payer and provider sides of the market. He has a proven track record of success in executive leadership, sales, service delivery, strategic planning, project management, P&L management, product development, and acquisition integration.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?

I grew up in Queens, New York. Even as a kid, I have always enjoyed math, which led me to major in applied math in college, with a minor in business. I began my career working as an actuary, which I soon realized was not the right career path for me. From there, I moved to a role at Health Management Systems (HMS) where I spent more than 20 years learning first-hand the importance of having a safety net for people receiving Medicaid services. It was in that role that I really developed a passion for healthcare and technology — how certain tools can be used to help individuals and organizations be more efficient, reduce burnout and admin time, and so forth. Interestingly, during my time at HMS, I also had the opportunity to work with Greg Strobel, HHAeXchange’s CEO. So today, it’s fun to be on another journey with him, really focusing on our mission of providing better outcomes for individuals.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

The evolution of homecare as a result of COVID-19 has been nothing short of interesting. The pandemic truly created a catalyst for individuals to reimagine their future when it comes to receiving care, and now, up to $265 billion worth of care services for Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries could shift to the home by 2025. To meet this growth and demand, premiere homecare management software is critical, and at HHAeXchange, we’re committed to delivering better homecare by helping payers and providers achieve operational efficiency, increase compliance, and improve patient outcomes.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’ve been blessed to have several great mentors throughout my career, but perhaps the individual that stands out the most to me is Elena Moiseenko, who served as VP during my time at HMS. She had a huge impact on the development of my own leadership skills, guiding me in what it takes to successfully lead an organization.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I believe in hard work, so perhaps one of my favorite quotes is “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance…sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. Passion. I enjoy working in healthcare because the work is purposeful and we are able to make a real difference in the lives of many individuals, from patients and providers to communities at large. I use this passion for motivation every day, especially as it relates to customer experiences.
2. Self-Motivation. As mentioned above, hard work is very important to me and I believe it’s truly critical to success. Therefore, I like to lead by example in this manner.
3. Empathy. I care deeply about my team at HHAeXchange and value all of our employees personally and professionally. One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to guide individuals in their careers, whether through mentorship programs or other growth opportunities.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive impact on our wellness. To begin, which particular problems are you aiming to solve?

Data shows that more and more individuals prefer to age in place / at home. In order to do so, technology is needed to ensure quality care is still provided and received. One solution that has become mainstream in this space is electronic visit verification software (EVV). While EVV has been around for more than two decades, with the passing of the 21st Century CURES Act, Medicaid homecare providers are now required to implement EVV. As a result, visits must be electronically verified for the type, date, and location of service performed, the individual receiving the service, the caregiver or aide performing the service, and the time service begins and ends.

While HHAeXchange provides an innovative EVV solution, we take this a step further by offering a holistic platform for providers and payers — from manual billing and payroll processes to scheduling and referrals tools — to allow for easy coordination and communication between payers and providers to improve patient care across the entire homecare ecosystem.

How do you think your technology can address this?

Homecare providers play an important role in managing and improving factors that impact health beyond medical care. There is a growing realization of the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH) on outcomes, and at HHAeXchange, we provide technology that allows caregivers to track SDOH changes in real-time. For example, if it has snowed, caregivers can note if there is ice on the walkway at a patient’s home, which could result in a slip or fall if not identified and flagged. Being able to track home environment factors like this allows us all to ensure people are safe within their homes.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

I had never paid close attention to the need for home care until it touched my own life. My mom has dementia and is unable to be alone, so she has a companion that comes to her house to visit with her and help her with some everyday tasks. Throughout my journey with my mother, I’ve witnessed firsthand the impact that delivering care in the home can bring, as it takes so much of the hassle and stress out of having to commute back and forth to doctor’s appointments or hospital visits.

How do you think this might change the world?

Within HHAeXchange, we have so many teammates who have family members receiving care in the home, which makes us even more passionate about the work we are doing. Because our lives have been personally touched and we see what a critical role homecare plays in the broader health and well-being of our loved ones, we are determined to keep innovating to ensure our technology offerings are meeting the needs of individuals worldwide.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

No drawbacks to the technology, but a major industry challenge right now is the impact of The Great Resignation on the homecare industry. In a recent survey of homecare providers, 79% of providers reported that the caregiver shortage was one of the top three threats to their business growth. And retaining caregivers has been just as challenging as hiring them — the median caregiver turnover rate in 2021 was 64%.

As a result, innovative technology solutions have never been more important to improving existing processes in a way that makes caregivers’ lives easier, while also improving the lives of those for which they care. For instance, replacing manual billing and payroll processes with a platform that connects payers and providers in real-time can streamline and accelerate the process of scheduling the right caregivers for participants. Furthermore, using next-generation EVV software that notes additional information with each visit — such as a plan of care tasks and duties, or the schedule and authorization for the services performed — makes it easier for caregivers to keep patients’ plans of care more organized.

All in all, technology is absolutely critical right now to streamlining processes and workflows and helping to decrease repetitive and time-consuming administrative tasks.

Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)

1. Focus on your end-user. Facilitate dynamic conversations with your customers, solicit their feedback on your product or services often, form user groups, etc. Your end-users can advise on which features are most needed, thus overall helping to further improve product innovation.
2. Think about the ease of use of the technology. For any tech company, you must not just deliver the right tools for the job, but deliver tools that are also intuitive and user-friendly. If your technology is clunky or complex, it will actually make people’s jobs much more difficult.
3. Disrupt the current workflow. Speaking of product innovation, it’s important to always seek to disrupt the status quo and to continually revolutionize products and solutions to drive greater change.
4. Invest in talent. Recruiting and retaining tech talent is extremely competitive, but these individuals are critical to your business and to your customers. Think outside the box when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent.
5. Work with partners. Companies can not — and should not — try to be everything. Look at ways you can integrate with like-minded partners. For example, HHAeXchange’s Partner Connect program provides a one-stop-shop where customers can learn more about and connect with industry-leading solutions that integrate with our agency management solution, thus further enhancing agency operations and improving caregiver satisfaction.

If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?

I’d want them to remember that it’s important to find work that you are passionate about and that’s purpose-filled. Look for companies that are doing social good and helping society in a positive way. In doing so, you’ll find your work is more fulfilling.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I love baseball, so probably a famous player. But in the business sense, I’d say Elon Musk. He’s a great innovator, and I’d love the opportunity to pick his brain about how he brings technology to market to disrupt the current status quo, what he looks for when bringing new opportunities to the forefront, and so forth.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

For the latest company updates, readers can follow us online via our website, as well as on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. I also invite you all to connect with me directly on LinkedIn.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.