Wellness Reimagined: Phil Hagerman of Forum Health On 5 Things That Should Be Done To Improve and Reform The Health & Wellness Industry

An Interview With Maria Angelova

We also need to empower providers with the tools, opportunities, and capabilities to meet patients in the direction they need to go in. That means empowering providers to make decisions around new technology that insurance companies may not cover or new services seeing tremendous results but are still new.

In our world of constant change, and with life moving faster than ever, topics such as mental health, self-care, and prevention have become popular buzzwords. People are looking to live healthier lives, and there is superb care out there that is being offered. At the same time, there are misconceptions about the meaning of self-care and exercise. Many opt for quick solutions — surgery, pills — to dull the problem without adequately addressing the underlying cause. Meanwhile, many parts of the industry are unregulated and oversaturated. People with years of training are competing with people with weekend training. Many providers are overworked, overwhelmed, and underpaid. The general public is not educated about asking the right questions when selecting a wellness provider. In the face of all this, what can be done to correct the status quo? In this interview series, we are seeking to hear from a variety of leaders in the health and wellness industries who agree that the wellness industry is in need of an overhaul and offer suggestions about what can be done moving forward. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Phil Hagerman.

Phil Hagerman is the CEO of Forum Health LLC, founded in 2019 to build a nationwide network of integrative and functional medical practices. He also founded SkyPoint Ventures in 2013 and remains its CEO. Prior to these endeavors, Hagerman co-founded Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy in 1975. Under his leadership, Diplomat witnessed remarkable growth, scaling from $25 million in revenue in 2005 to over $4 billion in 2015, becoming the nation’s largest independent specialty pharmacy. With 27 years at the helm as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Diplomat, he boasts a wealth of experience and extensive healthcare industry knowledge.

Thank you so much for doing this interview. It is an honor. Our readers would love to learn more about you and your personal background. Can you please share your personal backstory? What has brought you to this point in your life?

I started out always wanting to work with my father who was a pharmacist. I believed pharmacy was an exciting profession where I could take care of people, impact healthcare and work with different patients. I earned a degree in pharmacy and started a small corner drugstore with my father in 1975. The business grew to a point where it became the largest drugstore in Michigan, and by 1991, when I took over as CEO, it was generating a couple million dollars in revenue, which was a huge number at the time.

Fast forward ten years, the store averaged a 20% growth, and by 2000, it earned $10 million in revenue. The drugstore offered all of the unique services patients and physicians needed for local healthcare that traditional drugstores didn’t provide.

Fast forward again to 2005, when the store’s revenue grew from $10 million to $25 million due to it acting as a specialty pharmacy and taking care of people with serious, complex illnesses. There was more done around patient management, advocacy for getting patients on the correct prescription, and ensuring they stay on the right prescription.

So all of my early career was really centered around patient advocacy and managing patients with chronic illnesses. And I will tell you, I think that set me up perfectly to be the CEO of Forum Health. We have this unique opportunity to be a part of a major change in healthcare and work closely with providers who take care of some of the most complex patients in the U.S.

What is your “why” behind the work that you do? What fuels you?

The “why” for me is the constant desire to make a difference. I always believed I had a keen vision of forecasting the future of healthcare, and could see where the opportunities lie. For me, the “why” is to create services that take care of those who often fall through the cracks due to the failings of conventional medicine. If we do that well, I believe we can serve patients more effectively, be an agent of change in healthcare, and also build a strong business we can be proud to stand behind. So it’s dual stream — the desire and goal of taking care of patients in need and the opportunity to build something sustainable that has the opportunity to perpetuate in the future.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting new projects you are working on now?

Some of the most exciting projects for me right now are following the trends in advanced technology. There’s so much information coming out about new lab testing. There are multiple labs available now that will accurately tell your cellular age and others that dig deep into the microbiome of your gut and offer information we never knew before.

There’s new cardiac screening equipment that for the very first time is much more predictive of your potential to have a heart attack. There’s also new technology coming out around weight loss. So much is happening today with the advent of technology and the merge of AI into healthcare that I’m most excited about where medicine is going. My goal is to position Forum Health in the perfect sweet spot with new technology. When patients ask for new services, Forum Health will be in the right place to deliver on both.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I agree with the idea that mistakes can be your favorite teachers. I’m not sure they’re always the funniest mistakes. Sometimes they’re the most painful or poignant. I think at Forum Health, the biggest mistake was believing that if we understood one Forum Health clinic or one integrative functional medicine provider, we understood most of them.

We have come to realize we’re dealing with one of the most unique and creative medical providers in the country, if not the world. We believe integrative and functional medicine providers are excited and willing to put the art back in medicine. Medicine used to be a combination of science and art to find the right way to treat a patient. A lot of that has been lost, but in integrative and functional medicine, that art form still exists. And so one of my biggest mistakes was not understanding the uniqueness of each “artist” and now making sure we give those artists their own canvas to draw the future. Patients are their canvas.

With conventional medicine, you come in for a certain ailment and your provider tells you what to do. This model of medicine is built on an algorithm that insurance companies have determined with processes and PT codes — and all of it takes a tremendous amount of the art out of medicine.

Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. From where you stand, why are you passionate about the topic of Reimagining The Health and Wellness industries? Can you explain what you mean with a story or an example?

The biggest thing I’m excited about with our opportunity to reimagine healthcare is to move medicine to a place where integrative and functional medicine is the standard of healthcare.

The idea of integrative and functional medicine is still not completely accepted in many circles. Even in oncology, where you need to get the entire body working together (mind, body, spirit, and immune system), oftentimes oncologists are only given the resources to look down the lane of traditional oncology care. We need to have the world start looking at the multiple lanes of the body as an interactive whole, and we must get everything working together, especially in oncology. So many new products are boosters for the immune system. Integrated functional medicine boosts the immune system from every direction. The healthcare system must offer these kinds of capabilities to oncologists for the most effective care. For me, the most important thing is to continue to open the mind of traditional medicine, to recognize that when we manage the entire body, we can improve care at every level.

When I talk about Reimagining the Wellness industry, I am talking about reimagining it from the perspective of the providers as well as from the perspective of the recipients and patients. Can you share a few reasons why the status quo is not working for both providers and patients?

There’s a saying about the gravitational pull of the status quo. It’s very hard to break away from the current, the common, the normal, and the ordinary. Integrative and functional medicine — and our providers — are none of those things. They are not common, normal, or ordinary. They are creative thinkers that want to move the paradigm forward which requires breaking away from the status quo. This is easier to do if they have the new tools that are coming to market.

So for me, right now, the excitement is being a part of the leadership of a creative band of providers who desire to move into the next generation of healthcare. It’s also having the resources at Forum Health to bring the services, technology, and lab testing so our providers and patients can get there. Many times a provider by themselves has the desire to move into a new direction, but they don’t possess the skills, experience or resources. Forum Health doubles down on their skills, resources and the backbone behind them to help move into directions they can’t achieve on their own.

And from a patient perspective, I believe moving away from the status quo is even more important because the status quo today is that your insurance company dictates to your doctor what is and isn’t covered. And historically, patients would accept that as the end-all. That is no longer the case. Today’s patients are unwilling to accept their insurance company writing their medical protocols anymore and will do whatever it takes to break away from the gravitational pull and status quo. They will get their own labs and do research like they have never done before. We have never had patients more knowledgeable about disease states than they are today. They are starting to and more willing to challenge their healthcare providers.

So we’ve got this opportunity today where new technology is merging at the same time patients are becoming more intentional about their future. And Forum Health sits at the crossroads with the ability to help both sides.

Why do you think there is a good opportunity now to improve and reform the health and wellness industry?

I think there is an opportunity right now because the appetite across the nation for better healthcare has never been higher. We’ve seen some pretty significant changes take place in the last five years. COVID, first of all, accelerated telehealth and virtual healthcare by five to ten years. People recognize they can get healthcare services from anywhere in the nation without always being in person with a doctor. This opens the door for more services.

Secondly, people recognize through disease states, like COVID, that if they don’t take care of their immune system and strengthen their overall core health, they are at a much higher risk for death, serious illness, and consequences. So I think in the last five years people have come to realize they must take better care of and be more in charge of their health which has created a more interested patient population for Forum Health. Patients now recognize they have to attune to their bodies, take nutraceuticals, manage their weight, and work on their muscle mass. We’ve now reached a point where people are more willing to make the necessary lifestyle adjustments and get lab testing that will show them more than their traditional doctors have ever shown them in the past.

Can you please share your “5 Things That Should Be Done To Improve and Reform The Health & Wellness Industry”?

1- We need to continue empowering patients and providing them with the tools, knowledge, resources, and choices to be the director of their own healthcare journey. We need to continue inspiring patients to be more engaged in “well care” as their first choice instead of “sick care”. And if we put “well care” ahead of “sick care” and move people farther down the healthcare paradigm, we can keep people healthy before they need to spend money on “sick care”. If “well care” comes first, “sick care” should be less.

2 — We also need to empower providers with the tools, opportunities, and capabilities to meet patients in the direction they need to go in. That means empowering providers to make decisions around new technology that insurance companies may not cover or new services seeing tremendous results but are still new.

3 — If we continue to treat the body as a set of separate systems like traditional healthcare does, we will never maximize the value integrative and functional medicine can bring to a patient. One of the most important things we can do as an integrative and functional medicine leadership organization is to get people to recognize that their gut has to talk to the brain and the immune system has to talk to the cardiac system. The systems of the body, if well-tuned, are better at communicating with each other, which raises the entire bar of health across the whole spectrum of challenges that people see today.

4 -To get our patients and insurance companies to recognize the need to dig deeper for the root cause with lab testing and screenings. This is the only way to truly understand what’s happening with a patient and to make sustainable changes as opposed to bandaids that just mask symptoms.

5 — It’s about educating conventionally-trained providers and patients about the tremendous impact of today’s environmental toxicities and challenges in addition to the emotional toxins from trauma, anxiety, and depression. If we don’t understand that the environment and our situations have an effect on our health at almost every cellular level, we’re not going to get where we need to go.

Our integrative and functional medicine providers believe that even the emotional stress we go through with anxiety and depression affects us at a cellular level.

From the recipient and patient side of the industry, can you please share a few ways that patients and recipients should reimagine what the wellness and healthcare industry should provide?

I want to start with providers being given better and more effective tools like new technology, lab screenings, cardiac monitoring, and mental and emotional health monitoring to drive patients toward wellness.

Patients need to listen to their providers and read about these next-generation technologies to better understand the potential positive impact it can have on their health. Where do they want to go in life? Is it improved health, longevity, vitality or athletic performance? It’s critical to identify the tools and opportunities coming to the market today and cross over with those advancements so patients can reap the benefits. New technology is only helpful if it’s implemented correctly. If we aren’t implementing new tasks, tests, exams, and opportunities, we’re not going to take advantage of the value they bring.

One of the things we recognize in integrative and functional medicine as new technology enters the market, is creating space for providers to create custom plans for each patient using this new technology. If a provider has five minutes with a patient, they’re never going to be able to dig deep enough to understand which of the new testing and screening tools are going to be most impactful for that individual. It’s going to become cookie-cutter healthcare or remain as such. If we can create a new paradigm where patients have more time to directly connect with their providers and their providers have more opportunities to create customized care plans, that’s when we can use the technology coming to market to move the needle on health.

What do you think are the biggest roadblocks to reforming the industry? What can be done to address those hurdles?

I believe the biggest roadblock to the industry is remaining at the status quo. It has continued to be and is even more so an insurance-based world. And as healthcare becomes increasingly more expensive, insurance companies become more restrictive, taking away creative opportunities from providers. So what we have to do in today’s world is to understand the individual needs of the patients and create health plans that are efficient, economical, highly beneficial, and customized.

I also believe another roadblock is patient mindset and education. You often hear people say “If it’s not covered by insurance, I’m not going to do it”. That’s the opportunity to educate people on integrative and functional medicine, and then they will start to demand more. That can change the healthcare industry.

One of the important changes that needs to happen is for patients to become more engaged and be willing to demand more for themselves, their health and that of their loved ones.

I’m very passionate about the topic of proactive versus reactive self-care and healthcare. What do you think can be done to shift the industries towards a proactive healthcare approach? How can we shift the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike?

I believe new technology sets the stage for proactive health. Again, we have more tests that get down to a cellular level. We have more ways to identify whether a patient’s cellular age is better or worse than their chronological age. And if it’s better, that’s great — let’s keep building on it. But if it’s worse, let’s work at the cellular level to improve that patient’s health. I think that’s one of the areas where the use of new technology can help bring a patient’s health to the next level.

I believe healthcare is not only reactive today, but it’s becoming increasingly more reactive. As healthcare costs rise and insurance companies place more constraints, it becomes more reactive and less and less proactive. With the coming technology and patients’ access to information at their fingertips, it’s our role to make them experts in their health journey and become their partner in creating a health plan specific to their needs.

Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?

Be a small entrepreneur. Meaning look at each of the steps around us every day and find a way to move the needle in a way to break the status quo.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them.

Back in the day, it was Steve Jobs because he was so driven to find excellence and refused to accept anything less. But for me now, it may be a surprise to say, but it’s Taylor Swift.

We have all seen her at these luxurious 30-person suites at football games. But what is Taylor Swift doing when everyone is getting ready to leave? According to an article in Inc.com, she’s tidying up. She’s wiping down surfaces and disposing of things. Instead of letting others clean up after her and her friends, she’s right there, lending a hand. While someone might be responsible for cleaning up the suite, it’s not someone else’s duty to clean up after her. Taylor Swift takes it upon herself to clean up after her own mess. She is setting a remarkable example of emotional intelligence by recognizing her job is to take care of her mess. She hasn’t let her fame change her humanness. It seems to me that no matter how famous or how successful she has become, she hasn’t lost her human side. I love that.

She certainly has become one of the world’s most iconic figures but has kept a foot grounded in reality. She has soared to a level of stardom that few ever will, yet she always looks like she has one foot rooted in the reality of our human world. She never seems to lose track of the human element of the world.

I appreciate your time and valuable contribution. One last question: how can people reach or follow you?

You can stay updated by following my LinkedIn page or you can find a Forum provider in your area here.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.

About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.