Brian Lobley Chief Executive Officer of tango | CEO's You Should Know

Brian Lobley Chief Executive Officer of tango | CEO's You Should Know

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everyone, This is Steve Dollis on and welcome to
this week's edition of CEOs. You should know I am
thrilled to be joined by Brian Lobly, the chief executive
officer of Tango.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Brian, thanks for being here, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
We're thrilled to jump in to learn more about Tango
as well as your personal journey right looking forward to it,
so let's kick it off. I know you spent more
than two decades in healthcare, leading major organizations like Independence
Blue Cross before joining Tango. What initially drew you to
the healthcare industry?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Honestly, I backed into it. So after school moved to
d C. So I'm a Philly guy, moved down to
DC do it consulting. I was an engineer, so kind
of my graduating class in the early two thousands, everybody
went into consulting. So I started working actually with the
federal government on a financial services project that was quite boring,
and I wanted to move back to Philly. So I

(00:47):
moved back and got a job as an analyst at
Independence Blue Cross, And honestly, to be totally transparent, I
could have done that anywhere. It wasn't like I picked healthcare.
I joined e commerce, so at the time, think about
early two thousands, like you could do all kinds of
cool stuff and financial services. You could check your you know,
take a picture of your check. It would be money
be ready the next day. Healthcare nothing. You can do

(01:09):
anything online. So it's really cool to have this challenge
of like modernizing healthcare and bringing kind of health care
into the Internet age for lack of a better term,
but really that like five six years I could have
really done that anywhere. It was just like process re
engineering stuff. And then about five or six years in,
we were going through a merger that ultimately failed, and
we were, you know, heading on a path to go left.

(01:31):
Merger failed, and it was like where we're going to
go right? And I was part of a team that
actually was kind of charting that new path. So ultimately
I became our chief strategy officer, pretty young, pretty kind
of fortunate to be in the right place at the
right time, and then fell in love with healthcare from
their own out and you know, twenty five years later,
still doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Have you seen it really evolve over time like the
start to where you are now?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, you know, people use the word like transformation all
the time, and I really think this is an industry
that has gone through it probably in the middle of
kind of where we're going to be ultimately, and still
you know, AI is obviously like the next kind of evolution.
But you know, when I started, you know, it was
always a cost issue, right, kind of a big part

(02:13):
of the GDP, But now it's over twenty five percent
of the GDP. It's personal for everyone. There's an affordability crisis.
And I think what I've noticed most, especially maybe in
the last five to six years, there's been a lot
more focus on the experience of healthcare versus maybe just
the cost problem. So it's almost exciting to see a
little bit of a shift even in like the public

(02:36):
perception of saying, hey, like patients matter, patients first, it
was really transactional like twenty years ago.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
It's a good shift.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, it's a great shift.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, absolutely. I know, transitioning from a large enterprise corporation
like Independence Health Group to more of an innovative driven
company like Tango how to be a big shift, right.
What inspired that move and what did you learn from
leading both of those organizations.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Honestly, I was looking for something where kind of every
day the impact mattered. So at independence. The great thing
about it is scale matters and health insurance in Philly, right,
we had a very very large impact, and we could
work with really big customers like Comcast, Urban Outfitters. We
always say Philly's biggest small town in America, right, so
a lot of small businesses. So that was great. But

(03:20):
really every day, every hour, almost there was a different issue, right,
and kind of bringing it to completion took a lot
of time. Loved it, had an amazing time, but I
think the transition for me was more about how can
I make an impact and kind of look back over
every week and say, okay, we actually like made an
impact on a patient. We can like translate it down
to that level. So that was great, And then I

(03:42):
think on the side of the business I'm in now,
it allows me to kind of more intermediate between payers
and providers as opposed to kind of being on that
insurance side where you're only focused on like that almost
battle with the hospitals and doctors. Now it's like, hey,
how do we come together about the patient? So it's
been incredibly rewarding, fun exciting, and now with like a

(04:03):
smaller team, it's like I get to work with everybody
versus that's awesome seeing people in an elevator.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah. Absolutely. I know you mentioned the town a few times, Philly, right,
So Philly seems to have played a big role in
shaping who you are as an individual, as a leader,
everything from your work ethics to your values. How has
that hometown really influenced your leadership style over the years.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, I even moved back right because I was like,
I gotta go home to Philly. Yeah, it's played a
big part, right. I think the stories that you hear,
especially on the sports side, you know, it's kind of
that passion. But like I always go back to the grit, right,
and it's about you know, working hard and not being outworked.
So both my parents worked for the city. My mom
was a crossing guard, my dad was a Philly cop.
You know, I learned that you're going to be around

(04:45):
smarter people, but you should never get out worked. And
I think that's like the Philly kind of mindset. Yeah,
it's the mindset. So it's something I've taken with me
in you know, personal and professional endeavors, right, Like don't
be outworked, right, that is something where I think if
you keep that at like the heart, you're going to
be successful over time. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
I know that we talked about how you've led different teams, right,
everything from operations to technology to strategy. How do you
foster that culture of innovation but still maintain that operational
excellence within the organization.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, we have a mantra here, So I have an
opportunity where I talk to every new person who joins Tango.
So we do a new hire orientation like every third Monday,
So anybody that's joined the organization, I get to an
opportunity to talk to them. And I kind of live
in an airport right now, so I have like this
background music almost. But what I love is that kind
of notion of if you see something, say something. So

(05:41):
I think that's like critically important when you're trying to
foster any kind of change, right, certainly from an innovation standpoint,
but also even from operational excellence. So I kind of
preach to everybody that if you see something, say something, right,
you're going to have your job. But like every job
is like an input and an output, So pay attention
to like what you're getting in and pay attention to
what you're given out and then look for opportunities across people,

(06:02):
process and technology to improve that. I think that really,
I think that kind of permeates through the organization if
you keep saying it, and certainly if it comes maybe
from the CEO, I think people embrace that. So it's
been a fun time that, like, you know, anybody can
innovate across the organization, but like make sure you know
the trains are moving still.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, it's a great mono. Yeah, speak of innovation. I
know Tango's home first model represents that shift from the
traditional care to really that tech enabled at home care.
How do you encourage the team to think of opportunities
like that and can continue to innovate within the healthcare space.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. I think, you know, maybe
there's a perspective that's hard to innovate in healthcare because
there's so many regulatory challenges and things like that. And
I think when you have something like what we do,
which is home first, you can kind of start with
the perception of that's where like when people are sick, Like,
if you wake up sick, where do you want to be?
We're not kind of staying better in your own head, right,
so like we can lead with that. And I think

(06:57):
if you if you start kind of with that model
to say our preference is how quick can we get
someone home? It allows you to kind of innovate in
a little bit more of a I want to say
constrained win and that sounds negative, but you've already set
the guardrails, so now you kind of know to color
within the lines, and it makes it a little bit
easier for everyone to say, Okay, if I lead home first,
if I think about how do I get someone home

(07:18):
and keep them home? Like that becomes again kind of
a standard bearer for us.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
It's great, Amutam. I know you spoke earlier about really
loving the new role because of the mission and being
able to give back right, and that mission and purpose
has always been really i know, front and center of
your leadership style. How does that translate into the day
to day operations at Tango and really translate into the
long term strategy that you see first?

Speaker 2 (07:44):
I believe you know, mission and purpose is culture, right,
so I think you have to kind of continually to
do a connected purpose for your employees. So we start
every meeting, whether it's a board meeting, a town hall meeting,
even when I do my kind of CEO meet and
greets with the member story, So make sure you understand
what we're doing every day, connect to a member, connect
to purpose. That leads to culture, right. I think when

(08:06):
you have those two things and people kind of understand that,
like every part of the organization's making a difference and
it's making a difference in a patient's life.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
I think it's that it's very easy to kind of
be aligned from a culture standpoint and continue to kind
of reinvent or improve the business model.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, it's probably very motivational for them to know what
they're ultimately working to exactly.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
You kind of see grandma or grandpa kind of getting
better from your services. It's rewarding.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
That's awesome. There's been a growing demand for home based care.
Where do you see the greatest opportunities for Tango to
really make an impact over the next few years.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
So like there's a silver tsunami, right, So, like all
kind of baby boomers are becoming Medicare eligible and the
kind of the demographics are changing, and I think as
that begins to change, you know, we kind of kind
of meet the moment here and meeting the moment is
making sure more people can get home care access. There
are certain states, like even here in New York. You
go to upstate New York, there is like just a
complete gap in home health.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
There's just not enough providers here. So our model is
to say, hey, we want to reward providers for what
we'll call like the total cost of care. So if
they're keeping you out of a hospital readmission or out
of the emergency room, like that's a big savings ultimately
to the insurer. So we actually reward the providers back
with that. So kind of our hope is really we
can kind of enable better access, and we lead with that.

(09:19):
So we try to get a patient scene within forty
eight or seventy two hours post discharge. If you get
home and a nurse shows up at your house within
those two or three days, you are like thirty percent
less likely to show back up in the hospital or
show back up in the emergency room during that episode.
So that's what we're trying to do, and we can't
do it like across fifty states. So we're taking these
like really big impactful states. We call it Land and
expand and really try to be multipayer multi provider in

(09:42):
those states like Texas and Pennsylvania, Arizona, others like that.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
That's great, and like you said, it's mutually beneficial. It's
for the patient to be home, but also for the hospitals.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Absolutely because they want to free up the bed.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, absolutely, I know that. Also, value based care has
been a passion of yours, making it more affordable and
making sure that truceay access lives within that value based ecosystem.
How has Tango really been contributing to that vision.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
We have a value based only mindset, right, So when
we approach an insurance company, because that's who our ultimate
customer is, it is all about making sure it's value
based and getting that we call stakeholder alignment. So again,
if you're a home health agency and you're showing up
twelve thirteen, fourteen times within thirty or sixty days someone discharged,

(10:27):
we having a really impactful moment. It's like episodic, right.
So during those thirty or sixty days, we're making sure
you get all the compensation for all the great work
that you've done. So we share those savings back where
a lot of traditional models are just fee for service, right,
it's like a I was just call it like a
credit card, right, you show up swipe, that's a service.
Next day show up swipe, that's a service. Well, we've

(10:47):
put this whole kind of value based model kind of
across it and it's been very very well adopted to date,
so hopefully to continue to expand that.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
That's awesome. If someone's tuning in that's in a leadership
role and they want to make that shift FETA service
to more value based care, how would you recommend that
they do that? And how what are the barriers that
exist and how can they kind of overcome some of
those to make a meaningful change.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
I think you have to start in something kind of
bite size, like I say, episodes. Right, So if you
look at like global health, I'm going to keep you
healthy throughout the whole year. Well, there's a lot of
people that hands play in that, right, your primary care doc,
maybe a special if to something pops, certainly the surgeon
if you have to go in. So I like kind
of breaking it down into more bite sized pieces. So
what is something that's like truly impactful and rewarding and

(11:32):
you can actually point to your impact on it? So
if you can get to that where you're saying, hey,
there's not five six people splitting the dollar, there's like two. Right,
then your incentives are aligned. So I think it always
starts with in aligned incentives, and I mean it's easier
said than done, but there's certain places and I think
it's really making an impact the payoffs. It's very big.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's awesome. I know that we talked about this a
little bit earlier that the healthcare industry sometimes can be complex,
and I know that it faces constant pressures from regulators,
changes to workforce challenges. What have been some of those
toughest leadership lessons that you've learned while navigating all the
dynamics of the healthcare space.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
I think it's very easy to go kind of go
in your silo and say, hey, I'm working my specific problem.
I will tell you, I think healthcare is the ultimate
team sport, right Like, you've got to figure out all
the different stakeholders. And you can't say, as an insurance
company you're going to sell the cost crisis. As a
hospital system you're going to solve impatient. You got to
look at it holistically and say, how do we all
come together and get around the table, and you know,

(12:30):
some ways leave the egos at the door, right, Like
you know, insurance people think, oh, you're managing risk just
like life insurance auto insurance. Well it's not right if
we use health insurance. It's highly personal, right, Like you're
having an issue. So I think kind of bringing that
back into like this team sport or teamwork dynamic is
really important and bringing everybody to the table versus maybe

(12:50):
giving someone a solution.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
It's awesome for emerging healthcare leaders that are trying to
do it all right, balance, mission, innovation, impact. What advice
would you get that based on your own experience.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Work with great people, right, teams matter, you know, So
I kind of consider myself a culture warrior. So like
when I hire people or you know, maybe bring people
into a different organization, it's like start to a culture first.
Like you gotta like the person you're walking across table.
From the end of the day. Probably in our work career,
we're spending more time, you know, in that you know,
twenty to sixty year old with your work colleagues, you

(13:24):
or your family, so like embrace that family mentality and say,
like I like the person across table with me, and
I want to like you know, get in the you know,
in the in the pit with them together.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah. So good people matter absolutely. So what's next? What's
next for Tango? Any exciting developments or expansions on the horizon.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah. So we started this year in January in four
states Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico. We had about five
hundred thousand Medicare advantage lives this state. This year alone,
we've added Pennsylvania, Texas, Oregon, and Ohio, so we had
a three hundred thousand members and then in first quarter
we're adding three more states Michigan, Tennessee, and more lives
in Oregon and we'll add another eight to nine hundred

(14:01):
thousand members. So we'll go from five hundred thousand to
one point six million by the end of the first quarter.
So grats, Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Excited to see the expansion. So we've covered a lot.
But if there's one thing you want our listeners to
take away about the mission of the organization, what would
that be.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
That home first is the way to do post acute care, right,
So always think about kind of yourself. Make it personal,
like where do you want to recover, Like we talked
about easy earlier, Like you're sick, chick noodle soup at
home like that makes you better, right, So that's kind
of our mentality is prioritize the home first and we
want to get you there as quick and at the
right time. So that's the Tango mission. It's awesome.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Lastly, if there's one call to action, if anyone that's
tuning in wants to learn more about Tango, what should
they do?

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Definitely, home health matters and there is again a just
gap in both the reimbursement and the number of nurses
that are going into this field. So I would say,
kind of support the industry sure, and kind of realize
that this type of nursing and care at home is
really really important, So support the reimbursement changes and support
a model like Tango. Awesome, And if they wanted to

(15:05):
learn more about Tango in particular, what should they do?
Do you check out our website Tango care dot com,
connecting with me on LinkedIn, and look forward to more
partnership the people.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Awesome. Well, Brian, thank you so much for sharing your
journey learning more about the healthcare industry overall, and especially
all the amazing work you're doing with Tango. We're excited
to see you guys continue to expand and grow and
see what's on the horizon.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Thank you so much. Appreciate the time today.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
We appreciate it, and I we appreciate everyone tuning in
this week. Tune in next week for next week's edition
of CEOs. You Should Know