Kaitey Morgan, Director of Quality & Standards for NICA, joins us to discuss insurance related challenges facing infusion centers and how to successfully navigate those issues. To learn more about NICA and their advocacy efforts, visit https://infusioncenter.org/.

WeInfuse podcast

Transcript: How to overcome the biggest challenges facing infusion practices with Kaitey Morgan

Dylan McCabe: WeInfused podcast, episode number 27. Welcome to the WeInfuse podcast. My name is Dylan McCabe, and in every episode we give you a behind the scenes look at the infusion center landscape and we give you tips, tools and a roadmap so that you can grow and sustain a successful infusion practice. And in this episode, I’m going to be interviewing Kaitey Morgan. She’s the director of quality and standards with the National Infusion Center Association. And we’re going to be discussing the biggest challenge facing the infusion center landscape today. And we’re not just going to discuss it philosophically. We’re going to talk about real issues in the insurance world that are putting pressure on providers and patients. We’re going to talk about some real scenarios and what the National Center Association is doing about it and how you can get involved. There’s really good stuff in this episode. I think you’re really going to like it. So let’s just dive right in now to my discussion with Kaitey Morgan. All right. As I stated, we have special guest Kaitey Morgan on the show today. So Kaitey thanks for joining us.

Kaitey Morgan: Thanks so much for having me. I’m happy to be here. Virtually.

Dylan McCabe: Absolutely. Virtually anything at the time of the recording of this podcast, we are all dealing with the covid-19 crisis. And so Kaitey’s at home. So if anybody hears dogs or doorbells or anything crazy like that, that’s what’s going on. We’re all working from home.

Kaitey Morgan: That’s right.

Dylan McCabe: Well, Kaitey we were excited to have you on the show. I know you’ve been on before and you are working with the National Infusion Center Association. So I want to just give you a minute to kind of share your background and what your role is at the NICA before we dive into our big topics, like the big challenges facing the internships in our world.

Kaitey Morgan: Sure. So I have been with the NICA as an employee since January. Prior to that, I was involved in different capacities with advisory committees. I was on their board and, you know, previously was just a fan, I guess you’d say. I’ve been a nurse for 12 years, pretty much always an infusion nurse. Initially I did some inpatient oncology which is very infusion focused as well, and then went to outpatient infusion. And most recently, prior to joining the Nicaea, I worked for an infusion management company as their director of clinical operations for their infusion sites across the country, really.

Dylan McCabe: So you’ve got a really neat background as far as going you’ve been an infusion nurse. You’ve been on the business side of it working for an infusion management company. You really bring a neat background to the Nicaea. And since you were a fan you felt that stirring inside of you to be a part of something big that made a difference. Kind of tell our listeners about your role with the NICA now.

Kaitey Morgan: So now I serve as the director of quality and standards. The NICA last year at our first annual meeting launched the first edition of the Standards of Care for an Office Infusion, which is really the first of its kind, the first document out there providing guidance for infusion providers. So that was my first big project with NICA. I did that prior to being an employee just on their advisory committee and I loved it. That’s what I love to do, is look through current literature, come up with evidence based care guidelines. That’s just a big nerd and that’s what I love to do. So that’s what I was hired to do. Now, when covid came just a couple of months into that position we kind of took a turn and focused on helping infusion providers navigate this public health emergency while providing continuity of care for their patients. So that has been a huge project, but it’s been really rewarding. We’ve been able to help infusion centers stay open, find the supplies that they need to be able to keep treating patients, help patients find new infusion centers because their care was disrupted, maybe their current site closed or couldn’t find staffing or supplies, things like that. So it’s really been all hands on deck, it would seem like, to make sure that infusion patients still have access to the care that they need.

Dylan McCabe: That’s great. Yeah. And I had such an incredible job. So you are working on the standards of care before you were a paid full time employee?

Kaitey Morgan: Correct. Yes, that’s kind of how I discovered NICA. The infusion management company I was with was a startup. And so it’s kind of day one. And I sit down at the computer and say, Ok where’s the rule? Show me how to do this right. And I couldn’t really find that, which is surprising. Working in health care, we have standards for everything. There’s always a policy about something. And I couldn’t find what I was looking for and then when we ran into some trouble or challenge, I guess I’ll say with regulations, with the board of pharmacy in the state I’m in. I reached out to find the National Fusion Center Association, and I thought, well these guys must know the answer. So I got off the phone with Brian [inaudible 5:09], the executive director, who’s now my boss, and asked him these questions and said, where are these standards I’m looking for? And he said yeah they don’t exist, but we definitely need them. And he’d been at that point working on, you know, getting the current advisory committee to draft those and go through that process. It’s quite a process and just wasn’t making the headway that he had wanted to see. But he said, hey, if you’re interested maybe you can help. So that was really the beginning of our conversation. And my first advisory committee meeting was down in Texas with that advisory committee group coming up with the first draft of the standards.

Dylan McCabe: Did not know that. So note to listeners, if you want to land an awesome job, knock it out of the park with a big project on the side without getting paid. And next thing they’ll ask you to join the team.

Kaitey Morgan: Exactly, yeah.

Dylan McCabe: That is so cool. So for people listening to this, that may not know. I mean, even for providers, but especially to people who are thinking about getting into the infusion center space, why is that important? I know we’ve covered it a little bit in the past, but why are standards of care this big project that you guys took on? Why is it important? And what’s in it for me? What does it matter for me if I’m an infusion center operator?

Kaitey Morgan: Sure. So the mission of the National Infusion Center Association is to provide access to patients for infusion therapy treatments. But we don’t want patients to just have access to any infusion therapy treatment that needs to be high quality, you know, safe care without standards. There’s no benchmark, there’s no yardstick to measure up to for patients to know that they can trust. They’re going to get the best care and the same standard of care wherever they are, if they’re in a hospital outpatient fusion center, if they’re in the two chair infusion suite in their rheumatologists office, if they’re at a big freestanding infusion center the standard of care is the standard of care. And patients need to be able to have the same expectations of safety wherever they are. And without those standards, there’s nothing to point to when something, there’s an unfortunate outcome. Something happens, a patient is injured or something like that. You need to be able to point to this document that’s, you know, evidence based. There’s literature to support the practices. And we say this is the right way to do it. This is not the right way to do it. This met the standard. This didn’t. It just really sets the thought level playing field for everyone.

Dylan McCabe: It’s so good. And I’ve been in so many infusion centers around the U.S. and seen so many different scenarios where it looked like they’re taking great care of the patients and the nurses are happy and everything is clean and organized. And you can tell that the team that’s serving the patients there just really has everything, all their ducks in a row and have great, great processes. And then I’ve seen it to where it looks like the you know, the patients chairs are like it’s like I think it like cattle being herded in these tight quarters. All these chairs are smooshed together and there’s a refrigerator right there. And then there’s a sink. And I remember one time I saw oatmeal in the bowl and the leftovers. I mean, it’s just like it’s so good to have standards of care and have to have somebody to say this is what it should look like and it should be really good. So it’s just awesome that you guys took that on. And I’ll definitely mention the website. I know a lot of our listeners are familiar with NICA, but we can mention the website at the end. Make sure people know how to get in touch with you guys. But it’s just great. So that got you heavily involved with NAKE and then and then leading into that. I’m sure you’ve just been inundated with what the hot topics are now. It’s a constantly evolving landscape. So what are the big challenges facing the infusion center today in 2020?

Kaitey Morgan: It’s interesting before sort of being on the outside of NICA, I knew a lot about what they did as far as resource development creating materials for patients and for providers. I knew a lot of that side of it, but a huge part of the work that they do is advocacy, especially legislative advocacy, but also health policy advocacy. There are always I mean, always, always, except for maybe at the peak of this covid crisis when all the legislative committees and no one’s in session. So maybe the pressure’s off a little bit. But there are always threats to the infusion industry these medications, particularly biologics, are amazing therapies. They’re really effective for the patients that need them. But they’re really expensive to reduce. They’re made from non human cells; it’s quite fascinating and quite expensive. So insurance companies are always looking for ways to, you know, control their costs, which you understand makes sense. But they look at this class of specialty medications and they look for savings opportunities. They usually do it through what they are referred to as utilization management strategies. Some of them make sense and some of them really just end up creating access barriers for patients. So that is a lot of what the NICA team does is identifies those challenges and then works to address them. So whether that’s letter writing campaigns, petitions, things like that to push back against these payer policies that make it hard for patients to get the care that they need and hard for their providers to provide that care.

Dylan McCabe: So for managers of infusion centers or people listening to this podcast, what’s a big piece of advice you would have for them as far as this big challenge of how payers are manipulating the landscape and what it means to the patient and what it also means to the owner of the infusion center, the operator of the infusion center? What’s a big piece of advice you would have for them?

Kaitey Morgan: My big piece of advice and my big ask would be for them to get involved, get involved with NICA. We’re working on an advocacy action toolkit to make it really easy to get involved. We know how busy, I know firsthand how busy these infusion providers are, how much time they spend on the phone and the administrative burden of pushing back against even just one specific prior authorization request for one patient or one denial. So the thought of fighting the whole system, I think is very intimidating. And people, patients and providers just feel like they maybe don’t know how to go about it. So NICA is working to make that a lot easier by developing this tool kit. You know, providers can sign up for our newsletters and then when there is an issue that might affect them one of the things with these payers is when one payer successfully puts in place a utilization management policy then the others follow suit. So just because it’s a policy in say Tennessee and it’s not affecting the provider in Colorado, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t sort of perk up their ears and pay attention. When these issues happen in our newsletters, then we often have petitions or sign on letters. We just did one about some restrictive payer policies from United Health Care and had put out a letter with a sign on petition. I think we had three hundred and seventy five providers signed on that letter representing almost 200 practices pushing back saying hey this isn’t Ok. This policy doesn’t make sense, it’s not clinically appropriate and it’s going to restrict our ability to care for patients. And we did that. It was a collaborative effort with stakeholders all throughout the infusion community. And that policy actually they are not implementing that policy. So it works but we have to get involved. You have to speak up. It’s you can’t just take for granted that someone else will fight those battles for you really need to get involved, share your stories, share patient stories, really establish that human connection. It really does make a difference.

Dylan McCabe: Ok, so let me get this straight. There was a utilization policy that was that was going to be you know, there was going to come out from a major payer?

Kaitey Morgan: Mmmhm.

Dylan McCabe: And you guys sent a letter out to your list to a lot of providers said, sign the petition. We’re going to take this to the key stakeholders and the insurance world and get them to try to get them to not proceed with this thing. And then they relented from their decision.

Kaitey Morgan: So there were three different parts of the policy that we had concerns with. Two of them said they were not going to implement it anymore. And the third, they said they’re not going to implement at this time and they’ll revisit it basically, you know, it’s on hold until further notice.

Dylan McCabe: Wow, that’s incredible. Because I said I mean, the first thing that comes to my head is like a petition that comes across my news feed on Facebook.

Kaitey Morgan: Right. And you think Ok.

Dylan McCabe: Yeah it’s like saying that protect the dogs or do whatever. And you think, well what is it really going to do right. If I sign this or some political thing. But you guys are actually bringing about results that impact people’s lives. And so can you share a story of a real incident, a real case study where some policy like this has come out, where you guys have pushed for it or maybe it was too late and it came out and it negatively impacted. Providers and negatively impacted the infusion landscape just so we can kind of take this out of the philosophical and give a real life incident of this.

Kaitey Morgan: Sure. I think that’s a really important question, because that is, you know, that is what we all want to shout from the rooftops is that these are real patients with real lives, livelihoods, families. It’s not an abstract. It’s a real person. In my years of bedside nursing before I was more on the administrative side I would hear from the patients that this such and such medication was prescribed to me, but my insurance company won’t pay for it. So I had to take this other thing. And in the process of a patient not being able to get the medication that they want to say it’s a prior authorization requirement, step therapy policies are especially harmful to patients. Those are sometimes called fail first policies. So patients have to try and fail multiple medications before their insurance company will cover the medication that their provider wants them to take. And that decision is made between the patient and the provider based on all of the lifestyle factors, all of the socioeconomic factors, everything that they know about that patient situation. That’s why they chose that medication. And then when a patient can’t get it, they’re forced to try and fail, which means suffering the symptoms of their disease for months or years. And really that’s not an exaggeration. There are step therapy policies that require a patient to try as many as a policy I was just working on. A response letter to yesterday requires patients to try six different therapies before they could receive this treatment for there was a plaque psoriasis indication. So each of those required a three-month trial. So how long is that for that patient to have to step through trying and failing these medications, while their symptoms get worse before they can just finally get to that treatment that their provider chose for them in the first place? It just and especially if you think about it, from a cost savings perspective, it really doesn’t make sense. It’s really counterintuitive how forcing patients to try and fail equally expensive treatments sometimes can be cost savings,

Dylan McCabe: Which is so crazy. I mean, nothing else, nothing made, no major service in life exists that way, like a water company doesn’t go, well. We’ve got six variations of water, they’re all pretty crappy. We’ve got one that works really well. But we don’t want you to try that one yet. We know it’s clean, we know it’s processed the right way. But we got these other five that we’ve cut some corners on how to keep the water clean, we want you to drink those First, make sure you don’t get sick first,

Kaitey Morgan: Right or drink that one, maybe you’ll like that dirty, brownish water, maybe that’ll be good enough for you. And then we don’t have to waste or use that nice clean water on you. Brian, our executive director has an analogy he uses which is just so appropriate to me. He said it’s like saying; everyone has to drive a sedan. Unless you can try it and prove that it doesn’t work for your family. You can’t have a minivan, you can’t have a truck. Everyone has to drive this car unless you can show why you shouldn’t? We would all think that’s ridiculous. But that’s, that’s what we’re doing with healthcare.

Dylan McCabe: That’s so interesting. And so it’s easy to see from the patient’s side, but let’s say for the provider or somebody who maybe it’s a provider that is thinking about starting an infusion practice, what does this mean for them? For the patient, it’s clear; they really get the raw into the deal. But for the provider, sometimes, I mean, let’s face it, sometimes people will think and well, how’s this going to impact my bottom line? Yes, the patient’s terribly important, but how does this affect the dollars and cents area of my business.

Kaitey Morgan: So it’s kind of one in the same for providers that are offering infusions because it the dollars and cents do affect their patients another utilization management strategy, we see a lot of really ties providers hands-on where they can get the medications from they require that they’re obtained from a certain pharmacy, a certain specialty pharmacy, maybe a specialty pharmacy owned by that insurance company, oftentimes, and the soft costs the administrative burden of going through that procurement process, if you would, a provider would have to hire another full-time employee just to manage that in order to have it be successful and not create any treatment delays for patients, which they can’t, they can’t do, they can’t afford that. And so if they can’t afford to offer infusion services, then they won’t be able to offer them anymore. And so patients have to find somewhere else to go. So if this is a widespread problem, you run out of treatment locations for patients pretty quickly, because there are some therapies that are appropriate to be given, maybe self-injections or home infusion, but certainly not all of them. A lot of these treatments really require close clinical monitoring. That’s, that’s best done in an office-based setting. So if a provider can’t do that, and remain financially solvent, then they won’t be able to offer that service and patients will have even less access to care.

Dylan Morgan: So if I understand you correctly, will some of these utilization management strategies affect whether the provider can offer biologics an in bill as far as a buy and Bill scenario versus a specialty pharmacy scenario?

Kaitey Morgan: Right, right. Yeah. Because, yeah, the buy and build scenario providers can purchase the medication, have it in stock on their shelves, ready to administer when the patient’s ready. Specialty comes from a specialty pharmacy for that patient. There’s also a huge amount of waste associated with specialty pharmacy. If a patient is prescribed a new treatment, and they need they’re loading doses so they usually get maybe three doses fairly close together a few weeks apart before they space out to their regular every few months infusion. A lot of times the specialty pharmacy will send those first three doses together. And there’ll be administered over a period of like 12,14 weeks if the patient receives that first infusion, and then can’t tolerate it, maybe they have an allergic reaction or they move away or any number of things, interrupt that, that loading dose and make it so the patient’s not going to get the drug anymore, that drug can’t be used for another patient, it can’t be returned, the patient can’t get a refund, it really just sits on the infusion provider shelf until it expires, and then it needs to be discarded. And that’s depending on the drug 10s of thousands of dollars of waste that the patient paid for the insurance company paid a bit of it to, and now it’s going to be thrown away. Whereas if it were a buying bill, that drug doesn’t have any patient’s name on it, and it can be reused for someone else.

Dylan McCabe: That is so interesting. So just I gotta keep it simple for me since I know you’re an expert in my eyes clear to what I know about the infusion center landscape, but when it so what it sounds like you’re saying is at the outset, we said, what’s one of the biggest challenges facing the infusion center, and it sounds like to me, you’re saying there’s healthcare policies that are coming out, they are affecting the way patients what patients can receive, what their out of pocket cost is whether or not they can even receive the drugs. And then on the provider side effects whether or not they can do get the drugs via specialty pharmacy or have a buy and Bill scenario where they buy from a manufacturer, administer the drug and then built so it’s, it’s impacting everybody, it’s impacting the provider financially, it’s impacting the patient, as far as the quality of life in general. So this is a big deal. And the insurance companies are making providers jump through a lot of hoops to get this stuff done. And I’ve been in enough infusion centers and talked to enough office managers to know that it’s impossible to stay on top of all of the changes, and every payer does it a little differently. And it’s almost like if you don’t have somebody just full time staying up to date, with what the changes are, and how to navigate these changes, you’re just going to get left behind.

Kaitey Morgan: Absolutely. And there’s another piece for providers, it’s, it’s not just financial, for sure, but providers went into their fields to communicate with patients learn about their situation, and come up with a plan, right to help that patient get back to their optimal health state, the sort of buzzword is sure words are shared decision making. So the patient, the provider gets together and comes up with a plan. And study after study shows that that is essential for, I mean skipping many steps as essential for better patient outcomes. But to kind of walk through it step by step, if they make the plan together, then patients are more likely to stick to the plan, which just makes sense. any parent will tell you a plan you come up with your child, they’re more likely to follow it right. So they come up with a plan together, they stick to the plan, the treatment plan, and that is a prerequisite for having that therapy work, right, the patient has to take it for it to work, for the treatment to be effective in controlling their disease and controlling their symptoms preventing progression, then they need to actually stick with it like they’re supposed to and then that is going to contribute to better health outcomes a decreased economic burden of disease. So if the patient and provider aren’t able to make that plan together, because the insurance company says, Well, no, I understand you want it to go with this treatment, but you have to try these six first, then what are what’s the likelihood that patient is going to adhere to the treatment, that it’s going to be effective, it’s going to control the disease, it’s going to provide for better outcomes. It just doesn’t make sense.

Dylan McCabe: Yeah, it’s like at some point in the process a long time ago, people making decisions for these insurance companies and for the entire industry. We’re way more concerned about the bottom line instead of the pay. I mean, it just makes no sense. There’s no common sense in that. I mean, it’s the same like if I want to get a roof put on my house. I don’t want the insurance company deciding how the roofer does the best job possible.

Kaitey Morgan: Right.

Dylan McCabe: The roofer, the expert in the industry, saying here’s how to keep a roof over your head that doesn’t leak. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I’m going to make sure you get the best route possible. I don’t want the insurance company, some person sitting behind a desk and never hammered a shingle in their life to make a decision on my behalf. That is just crazy.

Kaitey Morgan: Exactly, but we allow that with health care we have insurance companies sort of practicing medicine so to speak instead of the provider who’s sitting there or for your example the roofer who’s looking at the roof. Make you should make the decision right, not the person who’s states away who’s looking at, I guess, facts and figures instead of the actual situation?

Dylan McCabe: Well, what I like about this is I mean, we’re dealing with something that’s largely idealistic, but it’s so practical. I mean, you gave real, you’re giving real scenarios of how patients are impacted, providers are impacted because they mean; you go to medical school because you want to help people. You want to practice medicine, practice medicine, I think about my grandfather, my grandfather, who’s passed away, but he was the founding physician in a place called Bedford, Virginia. And most people have never even heard of Bedford, Virginia unless they read the book, Bedford boys, which guys who died in the war, but it’s a tiny little town, he was the founding physician. And he told me stories of when he got started; he actually went to some patients’ houses on horseback. Oh, my God, I’m talking about people living way up in the mountains in Virginia. And so that’s but that’s what it was all about. It was about him being the founding physician, and I’d go visit my grandparents every summer. And everybody I would meet would say, oh, Dr. McCabe and who’s this is your… he knew everybody because he delivered everybody’s baby. He took care of everybody. And, and it was awesome because his whole deal was bedside manner, and getting to know people and giving them exactly what they needed. And that it’s like, that’s almost like a dream world now.

Kaitey Morgan: Oh, for sure. And I don’t think that’s probably any different than today’s providers. It’s just that your grandfather had the ability to do that. He didn’t have these restrictions on what he could and couldn’t do. Nobody said, Well, no, you can’t ride your horse into the mountains to see the patients you’re going to have to whatever walk or something crawl no one was, was dictating how he could do what he wanted and how he could practice.

Dylan McCabe: That’s such a good point. Well, I love what you guys are doing. And I love the fact that you, I mean, you guys are a big deal. And Brian is up in Washington repeatedly. And you guys are really pushing for positive changes in this landscape. And, and it shows and so for people who want to take action, people who want to be a part of the winning side of this, people want to be part of positive change in this situation. What can they do? I mean, again, going back to it, I guarantee there are people listening right now they go, Yeah, but it’s just a little me and my little old practice, I mean, what can people do today?

Kaitey Morgan: So they can sign up for our newsletters, our emails, that way, they’ll be aware of current initiatives, current issues, that maybe there’s a letter they can sign on to, they can get as involved as they’d like to, but the easiest thing a lot of times is just patient stories, or even provider stories about their patients are so powerful. We need those stories, and we love getting those stories. So if a patient the idea of writing a letter to a legislator is a little bit intimidating send an email to advocacy@infusioncenter.org. And share your story of how, maybe why you love your infusion center and why it’s so important that you’re still able to have access to it, or maybe it’s a less happy story about what happened when some utilization management strategy impacted you impacted your ability to get the care you need and the consequences of that. Any real world’s way we can bring up the human element to these health policies is really helpful.

Dylan McCabe: I think that’s so great because when you share real-life stories. You can garner a powerful emotional response from the person who hears that story. And I think about that documentary, Mr. Rogers. And there’s a point in that documentary, where he goes before Congress to get funding for PBS. And he has the guy that he goes before. That’s the I guess that’s the key decision-maker on the panel is just known for saying no, to different areas of public funding. Have you seen this documentary?

Kaitey Morgan: I haven’t.

Dylan McCabe: Oh gosh, I saw I watched this on the plane coming home from a trip to meet with a lot of infusion center managers. I’m flying home on Southwest Airlines like crying in my seat. Like the person sitting next to me, probably these have big emotional problems. I’m watching this documentary. Mr. Rogers goes before this huge panel. He tries to secure 20 million in funding for PBS, the guy that’s sitting up there; just even the look on his face says that he’s not there to help. doesn’t care is just going to say no, he’s like, all right, Mr. Rogers, you clearly want funding What do you want, just kind of get it out so we can hurry up and move on. He shares this story about this little boy that watched his program and how it helped him and you can see the change in this guy’s face as he hears this really moving story about this little kid. And the guy just sits and listens. And he looks around and he looks like he’s getting choked up. And then when Mr. Rogers’s finishes, he goes, Well, Mr. Rogers looks like you just got yourself $20 million. And I mean, I broke down. That’s what I mean, I started crying in my seat and it’s something to see a grown man six foot four sitting next to you on airplane tries. But thankfully, I had my laptop up, so they could see why I was crying, right. But I think that’s so powerful that you guys can communicate that to providers, and fusion center operators and owners, to say, share your stories, and we’re going to unify the voice, we’re going to amplify that we’re going to be your megaphone. And we’re going to take this, this unified front, to key decision-makers in the big world of healthcare. And we’re going to actually make things happen, and you guys are doing it. So I just want to encourage anybody listening, if you haven’t done so already, definitely get involved go to infusioncenter.org. They’ve got tons of great free resources that they’ve worked on and work diligently to put together and they are on the front lines. I mean, this is not a small thing that we’re talking about here. You guys are on the front lines already mentioned, Brian going to Washington and nobody knows more about what’s happening as far as policies than you guys do. So I just want to challenge anybody that if you haven’t gotten involved, get involved be a part of the positive movement here. And, real life change can occur.

Kaitey Morgan: Absolutely. We say we’re the nation’s advocacy voice. But we’re your voice. And so we need your involvement, we need to hear what’s happening to you, what’s impacting your stories your challenges so that we can use the collaboration that I say we because I’ll take credit for the last 10 years of NICA building relationships we can use that to really protect, preserve, expand access to infusion for patients who need them.

Dylan McCabe: Well, that’s great. Well, everybody listening, you’ve heard from Kaitey Morgan, Director of quality and standards at NICA, you can connect with her on LinkedIn. And you can also just check out their website and go to the team page to see the rest of the team. And I know Reese and Brian are also putting stuff out on LinkedIn about these changes that are affecting the buy and Bill situation for infusion centers. And you guys are at the tip of the spear with all of this. So, Kaitey thanks so much for joining the show.

Kaitey Morgan: Dylan thanks so much for having me.

Dylan McCabe: All right, that concludes my interview with Kaitey Morgan. I love what she brought to the table, especially in regard to the real-life scenarios, where the NICA has brought changes, gotten signatures, and made some real differences in the world of the infusion for infusion centers. It’s just amazing. And so if you want to learn more about that, definitely check out infusioncenter.org. And you can get involved and be on the front lines of fighting the good fight for infusion centers. And also if you want to learn about how to take your infusion center to the next level, especially as a lot of people are working remotely and go from multiple tools and multiple methods of communication and project management down to one tool that’s tailor-designed for infusion practice, check out weinfused.com head on over to our website. And you can schedule a discovery call or a software demo with one of our account executives. You will be blown away and how much WeInfuse software will simplify your practice. Or if you’re thinking about starting an infusion practice, you can have an expert looking over your shoulder and you can talk to us about consulting. We’ve consulted with infusion centers and startups around the US and helped them start and grow successful infusion practices just go over to we infused calm and you can schedule that discovery call now. Thanks so much for joining us in another show. This is Dylan McCabe with the WeInfuse podcast and I will catch you in the next episode.

Guest Speaker: As Chief Clinical Officer for the National Infusion Center Association (NICA), Kaitey Morgan, RN, BSN, CRNI, directs the standards for in-office infusion. Prior to her position as Chief Clinical Officer, Kaitey served as a Board Member for NICA, a nonprofit association dedicated to representing non-hospital, community-based infusion providers. With over 15 years of clinical experience, she works to develop educational resources and training material for infusion patients and providers.