Rachael Jones on the Calling of Leadership. And it starts with Grit and Grace || EP. 140

Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Rachael Jones, Founder and CEO of Syntax Health at HLTH 2023.

This is the next episode of this Inspiring Women collaboration highlighting several of the extraordinary women leaders in the Redesign family. Syntax Health was launched out of the Redesign process and Rachael could not be more excited to talk about the company, how data and analytics support the industry’s move to Value Based Care. And then of course, what it really means to be part of the 1% club…. meaning, the few African American women who are also CEOs.

In this episode you will hear Rachael talk about the move to Value Based Care, true value based care. The importance of understanding all of this data means the opportunity to determine, up front, best fit delivery models to achieve best clinical outcomes. It takes all of seconds to hear Rachael’s depth of expertise and excitement about data analytics, understanding how to use data to reduce time to provider contracting and to provide a much better understanding of how the finances will work in VBC. Today, the move to VBC (imperative in her view) is that it is too complicated. She doesn’t have simple answers. but she does have the tooling and understanding to do dynamic negotiation of contracts at the most effective stage – the beginning.

When talking about her own ascent to leadership, Rachael took the step to CEO with a clear vision of her why. Wanting autonomy to scale her grand vision, building her own team, and leaning into a clear strength of hers – having significant impact and leaving a legacy. There is no better space for this than in healthcare.

When Rachael shares her leadership journey, it has the appearance of a smooth trajectory to the top (haha). She shares a bit of behind the scenes of what it took to get here. This includes a strong core of support. For her, it’s family first that provides grounding and an escape when needed. Professional groups are valuable, supportive, help expand perspectives. But there is nothing more valuable than the lived experience of very tough moments. The times when the heads-down, just work “twice as hard” approach was a miss in terms of reading the room when leadership changed (and so did support for her project). And with great challenge, Rachael also knows this is the calling of leadership. She calls it the need for Grit and Grace. She adds (importantly), and a little bit of “SuckItUpNess”.

Best advice for other women leaders? Claim credit. And if that does not feel natural (and very often, it does not), write it down in your own personal Win log.

Guest Bio:

Rachael Jones is the Co-founder and CEO of Syntax. Syntax is a SaaS-based enterprise tool that helps payors and providers model out their value-based care contracts. Rachael is an award-winning healthcare executive, bringing over 20 years of experience transforming healthcare through strategic leadership, operational oversight, product strategy, P&L management, and data-driven analytics.

Rachel joins Syntax after serving as SVP of Performance Analytics & Quality at Cotiviti where she led a team that updated, refreshed, and delivered industry-leading, flagship healthcare analytics tools and AI solutions. She also held several leadership positions at Anthem, HealthFirst and the TriZetto Group. Rachael is passionate about paving the way for a smoother journey to value-based care by allowing health plans to transition from simply reporting quality measures to driving the purchase, delivery, and utilization of higher-value healthcare.