MetroPlus Health’s new CEO outlines
plan to help combat breast cancer
Dr. Tayla Schwartz, president and CEO of MetroPlus Health Plan, is a pediatrician by training. Photo by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
When it comes to helping
breast cancer survivors,
MetroPlus Health
Plan is dedicated to ensuring
that all of them receive
the full care they deserve.
“As an insurer we somewhat
go against the current,” said
Dr. Tayla Schwartz, president
and CEO of MetroPlus Health
Plan, which covers over half a
million New Yorkers. “We want
to focus on vulnerable populations
that need health care, the
populations that need support.
We don’t shy away from them,
we proactively try to bring them
into MetroPlus . . . because we
know that we can provide them
with comprehensive support
here, true hands on what we
call 360 support with whatever
they need.”
In order to ensure that
members are staying up to date
with yearly exams, MetroPlus
Health constantly checks member
data to determine who are
the women who qualify for or
need breast cancer screenings.
Once the company determines
that a member should see a provider,
they use all means of communication,
phone calls, texts,
e-mails, letters to get in touch.
In order to best communicate
with a diverse membership,
the health plan tries to contact
members in the language that
they speak and boasts a multilingual
staff along with easy
access to language lines.
If for some reason a member
is unable to get in touch with
her physician, a MetroPlus
Health employee can call a
provider and schedule and appointment
for her. To encourage
members to prioritize their
health, MetroPlus incentivizes
women to schedule a yearly
mammogram by offering reward
points which can be used
to purchase items from the
company’s rewards catalogue.
In order to not just have the responsibility
placed on the member,
MetroPlus also financially
incentivizes doctors to make
sure that their patients are up
to date on their early exams.
MetroPlus Health understands
that it is not always
easy for members to make to a
doctor’s appointment and will
bring health care to the community
by holding public
events where women
can be screened on the
spot. In 2018, there
were 37, 403 mammograms
performed
on MetroPlus Health
members. The health
plan currently has
1,600 members undergoing
treatment for
breast cancer, a
number that
has stayed
stable over
the last
five years.
D u r i n g
member data
analysis and out
in communities, MetroPlus
Health takes special care to
encourage higher risk demographics,
especially African
American women, to undergo
breast cancer screenings. According
to the Center for Disease
Control, black women are
40 percent more likely to die
of breast cancer than white
women.
“It’s very clear that
any time you want
to make a dent in
a health issue,
there isn’t one
approach that
works,” said
S c hwa r t z .
“You have to attack
it from multiple
angles.”
A Doctor’s Passion
M e t r o P l u s
Health Plan is
not your typical
health insurance
program
and that is in
part because of the
passion and care of Dr.
Tayla Schwartz, president and
CEO of MetroPlus Health Plan,
a pediatrician by training.
Dr. Schwartz has known
that she wanted to be a physician
since “the time she could
speak” and brings her need to
care for other into every position
she holds.
“We are tremendously lucky
to be who we are,” said Dr.
Schwartz.
After serving in the military
in her native Israel, Dr.
Schwartz studied at the Sackler
School of Medicine and came
to New York for a residency
in Pediatrics at Maimonides
Medical Center in Brooklyn.
Schwartz worked as a pediatrician
at the Children’s
National Medical Center in
Washington D.C. and simultaneously
conducted basic research
at the National Institute
of Health.
Two years after her fellowship,
Schwartz began working
for a healthcare consulting firm
where she was first able to view
healthcare “through a different
lens” and subsequently became
more interested in the business
side of healthcare. Schwartz
has been president and CEO of
MetroPlus Health Plan since
2006.
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