July 29, 2024 • 24 mins
In this episode, Evelyn Erives sits down with Michelle Rai, the driving force behind IEHP’s communication and marketing strategies. Find out how the Covering Your Health podcast came to be and how it’s playing a part in healthcare communication & community engagement.
Discover how IEHP fosters trust, transparency, and collaboration within the community, especially during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic. From impactful campaigns to finding your passion right here in the Inland Empire, Michelle shares her expertise and insights, leaving us inspired to prioritize health and stay informed.
For more information on this show's topic visit IEHP.org or (800) 440-IEHP.
Reach out to Evelyn via Instagram @evelynerives or email her at EvelynErives@iHeartMedia.com
Discover how IEHP fosters trust, transparency, and collaboration within the community, especially during challenging times like the COVID-19 pandemic. From impactful campaigns to finding your passion right here in the Inland Empire, Michelle shares her expertise and insights, leaving us inspired to prioritize health and stay informed.
For more information on this show's topic visit IEHP.org or (800) 440-IEHP.
Reach out to Evelyn via Instagram @evelynerives or email her at EvelynErives@iHeartMedia.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Well, hello and welcome back toCovering your Health with the Evelini Reves.
I am so happy that you havefound us, that you are here with
us. Of course we're on videoand audio again today, so this is
really cool. If you're just listeningon audio, come find us on YouTube
and you can see our faces.I did my hair just for you.
Well, I'm very happy to haveyou here today. We are joined by
(00:23):
someone so very special to me andto many people at IHP, Michelle Rye.
She's the chief of Communications and Marketingfor Inland Empire Health Plan who's going
to talk to us about the importanceof this podcast yay, why it matters
to the community, and how thetool is going to be used moving forward.
(00:44):
This is something I'm excited to hear. What her plans are for this
podcast as well. Obviously we'll betalking about how we're going to be promoting
the Health Lands mission, its valuesand its vision. The goal of IHP
is to ensure communities in Riverside inSan Bernardino Counties achieve optimal health, and
they do this in several ways,including through this podcast. So I really
(01:08):
really am excited to chat with MichelleRye. Welcome, to Covering your Health,
a wellness podcast dedicated to covering allareas of living a healthy and happy
lifestyle, from healthy hearts to understandinghealth plans and everything in between. Each
episode will provide you with a betterunderstanding of managing your health, preventative care,
(01:32):
and staying on the right path foryour family's wellness journey. The Covering
Your Health podcast is presented by IE HP. Now your host, Evelina
Revez. Welcome, Michelle, Howare you hi? Evelyn? So good
to see you. This is sonice. I love talking with you.
(01:53):
So we have known each other nowlike a couple of years, which is
kind of cool. Yeah, I'mgoing to say three, maybe more no,
no, gree breath for sure?Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, And we got started ina whole new way with which we'll
talk about. But I want todive right in because this is the first
question I always ask everybody. Let'stalk about you for a second. How
(02:13):
did you get your start? Wasthis always going to be your career of
choice? Why? Communications? Whymarketing? Tell me? Yeah, I
had been involved in my junior highand high school yearbook and newspaper, and
it felt like a really nice youknow, transition to say, well,
why don't I do something like thisfor a living, you know, to
write and to interview. I thoughtI was going to be a journalist,
(02:38):
So I was going to be LisaLing. Lisa Ling, Oh, I
love to hear if you ever wantto, like, yeah, get a
like a sub, I'll sub foryou, but you definitely will. So
I went into journalism in college andthen you know, worked for the school
newspaper and everything like that. Souh, and then my natural career progression
(02:59):
just stayed with marketing. I didmy master's in it and communications overseeing you
know, different writers, designers,and now here in healthcare in an amazing
space where all of these skills aretransferable, right, so like your ability
to communicate, to write for differentaudiences, and to build a team.
So I'm really thrilled to be atIHP right now. That is so cool
(03:22):
and I love for you. Itstarted very very young. You know,
you kind of knew, Okay,I love this, this is what the
path I'm going to stay on,and you never know what kind of comes
your way right as you walk downthat path. Very cool, and it
started for you in college, yourhigh school you said high school, Well,
high school is when I got allthe experience. But I mean I
was even on my you know,eighth grade yearbook. I might have been
(03:46):
editor or assistant editor or something likethat. And you know, some of
those times you have to look backand say, what did I naturally want
to do as a kid, andalso what was I good at? And
that's what I keep hearing people sayis don't just go with your passion.
I'll so go with what you're goodat. And it might be something that
you don't think is valuable, butit is. And I love that.
And I think about my own position, and I think my progression started that
(04:11):
young too. In middle school Ialso did yearbook things like that, and
then in high school I was classpresident and you know, I was very
very involved with every aspect of everything. I had to talk to everyone all
the time, and I thought Iwas good at that. Yeah, I
was good at talking. When didyou get your good your recording voice?
Though? That's what I need togore out how to get that? Yeah,
(04:33):
So the voice started very young,and it was sort of embarrassing.
If I'm gonna be honest with you, did you just come out of the
womb like hi I'm Evelyn. Hi. I sound like a raspbye woman who
smokes ten packs a day, butI swear I don't. No, Yeah,
it's super funny. When I wasyounger, my voice just was always
deeper. It was just always deeper. I always sounded more womanly, even
(04:58):
as like a young person. Soif I ever got horse, I ended
up sounding very manly and people wouldmake fun of me. They're like,
okay, evil, here comes ashe hers. You're gonna need to pull
a video now. I want tosee like a ten year old Evelyn.
I want to I want to hearthat totally. I know. I got
to see if I can find that. I started on television when I was
(05:20):
sixteen, so they were, youknow I it was already naturally happening for
me with my voice. The personthat actually put me on this it was
on k BCR here in San Bernandino, and the person that put me on
TV was the one that said tome, uh, you have a really
nice speaking voice. And I waslike, that was speaking to my talent.
(05:41):
I didn't know, Okay, person, Yeah, I think I know
some people at KVCR. We mayneed to pull some some b roll.
We'll look it out, we'll lookit up. Okay, Well, let's
get into this a little bit more. Your role now is within healthcare,
the healthcare space. Let's dive intothat. What is you know going on
(06:02):
with IEHP and how it communicates withthe community. I want to talk about
how this podcast came to be alongthat plan as well. Yeah, So
when I came in four years agoat IEHP, one of the big directives
was how do we continue to engagewith our members in lots of different ways
(06:23):
and how do we get the wordout about what we do. So the
luxury I had is coming in witha very strong brand. You know,
we have been in the community forlike twenty eight years now and just a
ton of respect. And so whenyou're working from that standpoint where people trust
and respect and value your brand,your company it's personal to them, you
(06:45):
really just continue to build on thatstrong foundation. And so we built a
team around that, you know,really going more into developing social media strategies,
trying to find other avenues to reachpeople. And so with our quality
focus in the last couple of years, really focusing on how can we help
engage our members in their understanding oftheir healthcare and then also the delivery,
(07:12):
right, so they're an active participant. So that's how this podcast started,
and you were there from the beginningin my session. I know when we
first talked about it. It kindof came to be because of a different
audio interview that we had done,you know, for something completely different,
and it was kind of fun becauseit was very short, it was sweet,
(07:33):
and then you're just like, Iwant more of that. How do
we make this happen? And it'ssuch a cool medium, podcasting, Well,
it's grown so dramatically over the past, you know, so many years,
and it is really meeting somebody intheir place, in their space.
We know that they're on social media, we know that they're they're already they're
(07:55):
on YouTube, those kinds of things. We know they're on the apps,
listening to books, they're listening allof these different ways to touch people.
So it is a really fun wayto get you know, all of these
messages across love. I love itand I'm so I'm grateful to you too
for allowing me to help do thiswith you. Thank you, thank you
for taking the lead and really divingin right because it's just you've you've made
(08:20):
it your own and I really loveyou and Christina. You guys really kind
of are the brainchild to moving thisforward. Yeah, big shout out to
Christina. She's amazing. She helpsbook all the guests and get these talking
points and make sure we're staying ontask, on point with everything that we're
trying to discuss, and really it'sall a benefit to the Inline Empire,
that's all this is all about.So what do you hope for the podcast
(08:43):
future? So what I really wouldlove to see this grow into is a
space where we're not coming up withthe ideas for the topics, where we've
got just tons of people saying,hey, Evelyn, I want you to
talk about this, right so youare the advocate for the community, and
I think we've done a good jobjust trying to find those spaces to say,
(09:05):
hey, you know what do youknow about you know your your mental
health? Do you know what signsto look for? Do you know why
dental health is important? Things thatpeople wouldn't necessarily think about for themselves.
I would love for to grow intoHey, I'm kind of wondering why does
this happen or what's you know?I have a problem and I can't solve
it. Evlyn, can you bringon a guest, right, and we
(09:26):
really want local. IHP is builton this this local aspect. Right.
We were formed by Riverside and SanBernardino Counties together they partnered and said we
need a health plan to help deliverthe care for our medical residents. And
now we have one point five millionpeople in the IE who are IHP members,
(09:48):
and so we want them to say, here's something I'm dealing with.
Help find local experts and be myvoice. And that's really what I wanted
this podcast to be is not justthis like billboard of why you should care
about your health, but help meunderstand the why, help me talk through
some of the things that I canbe doing better to improve my health and
my outcomes. I feel like we'reon that we're on that path too.
(10:11):
Yeah. Yeah, that makes meso excited, you know, with some
of the past guests, especially havinglike a mother here to talk about the
way that she navigated the healthcare systemwhile learning alongside her daughter who you know,
with special needs. Things like that. I love that. I love
the future. I know it's sobright for this podcast specifically, but really
(10:33):
for the people of the Inland Empirebecause it's another resource, it's another avenue,
and I love they can find eachepisode and go not this topic doesn't
really pertain to me, oh butthis one does. Yeah, right,
and you can keep forwarding that rightwhere it's like if you just see I
don't know an article or like youdon't remember where it was, but if
you know, I can count oniHeart and IHP and there's a repository of
(10:56):
all of the topics and it's alwaysthere for your learning. This is so
cool. I love it. Okay, so why is it so important to
help dispel some misconceptions about the healthcarescope? And how do you hope we
can do that here this podcast?Yeah, I think there's a lot of
distrust mistrust in the system. Ithink there's a lot of frustration, and
(11:18):
it is completely valid, right,Like this healthcare delivery system really isn't set
up to think about the consumer first. It's just a lot of red tape.
There's not a lot of information upfront. And so what I would
love to do now is say,Okay, here is the system we're working
in. What can we do tonavigate this and how can we help our
(11:39):
members? Like we are your partner, We're not trying to make it more
complicated. We're trying to help,you know, be the translator, you
know, if you will, Likewhen you go to another country and you've
got someone who knows that their spaceis right, don't go at this time,
go with this server. They're reallygreat. That's what we hope to
be. And in my experience atIHP, I've seen that happen time and
(12:00):
time again, where a member isnot getting something, it get gets escalated,
and you know, we've got ourCEO on the phone with another hospital
CEO saying, hey, we needwe need a bed and we need it
urgently. And it's those kinds ofconnections that I mean, if I could
go on for hours about how manypersonal stories are you know, people that
(12:22):
I know that have advocated for ourmembers, and when you know that your
health plan cares about you, thatway that you can pick up the phone
and talk to someone who lives here, works here. They're not you know,
overseas and like you know nothing abouthaving twenty four hour thing, but
these are people who are just likeyou, and we're helping you navigate this
side by side. Well, youknow what's so powerful about even what you
(12:46):
said beside the whole thing, becausethe whole scope is just beautiful, the
fact that everybody will just get inthere and advocate for you, because I
think what we've learned through many ofthe podcasts episodes so far is if you
don't have an advocate, it's somuch harder. And you know, even
if it's just you bringing along yourspouse or your mother or someone along to
help you through your health plan.But if you have a healthcare system in
(13:09):
place that helps you navigate it andyou can pick up a phone and just
say, here's my problem, canyou help me? What I thought was
so amazing is that you said,even your CEO gets on the phone,
and maybe that's all he's so wonderful. Tell us a little bit about him.
He was our first guest. Iknow. Yeah, he's a hard
(13:30):
he's a tough act to follow.You know, it's amazing to have a
CEO who cares so personally about thiswork. To me, that that's what
makes the difference, right. Youknow, people want to be inspired,
they want to work for someone whothey can respect. And you know,
Jared comes from the perspective of havingbeen on government assistance right as a kid,
(13:54):
having to work so hard. Sohe isn't just saying, oh,
well, that's that's too bad thatpeople have these these barriers. He had
those barriers. He had to workthrough the you know that system and navigate
that with his own family. Soit's really personal. And I think when
he hires, and you know,when we hire our teams, we look
for that spark. We don't lookfor, uh, do you just have
(14:15):
the expertise, It's do you careabout the mission? Because that's what makes
this work meaningful and that's the onlyway we're going to move the needle is
to have people who really care.Beautiful Beautifully said outside of the podcast,
tell us what is a HP uptoo? So some of the ways we're
trying to reach our members a lotof partnerships with our community, so backpack
(14:37):
drives, food food drives, we'redoing clinics, you know, kind of
like mobile clinics, and we're partneringwith Sack Health for those. We formed
a partnership with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, which is a minor league baseball team
about you know, less than tenminutes from our headquarters, and you know,
trying to find new ways to reachpeople. Right, So if if
(14:58):
you don't have time to go tothe doctor and schedule your visit or get
screened. Maybe we can bring thatto you and incentivize them. So we
have a couple coming up this summer. I go to IHP dot org,
you know, plug that to lookfor those those dates. But we have
one coming up this weekend. Bythe time this airs, it'll be passed.
But then we'll have another one comingup in August. Awesome. Yeah,
(15:22):
there's always something. It's so beautifulto see as I've gotten deeper in
and our partnership has grown, andI really really really care about IEHP because
I've seen it in action. I'veseen now how it's touched so many lives.
It's so exciting to see so manythings pop up on the calendar quickly.
So you have a lot of peopleworking. We have a lot of
people that are very busy, andwe've you know, nearly doubled in four
(15:46):
years our workforce. And a lotof that is due to California, you
know, so the state has formedall of these amazing programs. Calleen is
one big umbrella in that they've gothow services things to help members who have
high care needs. Right so theyget their own personalized care team to help
(16:07):
them in their journey meal plans.I mean, they've just got so many
resources. If you just google calaimand look at everything that the state is
doing to try to help our populationof Californians. It's really really a big
deal. Yeah, it is,and it's inspiring because it makes you feel
so good about where you live thatthere are so many of these these different
(16:30):
entities at play to help you,you know, just to help you.
What piece of advice could you givesomeone that's looking to get into the field
of healthcare first and foremost, whetherit's maybe going through patient care or on
the marketing side like you are.Yeah, And one of the things that
I love to tell students to do, or encourage not to tell them,
(16:51):
you know, to encourage students todo, is to shadow and to talk
to people because sometimes things look glamorousor they look interesting and then they actually
spend some time with someone who doesthat for a living. And I did
that as a college student as well. Right, I went in and I
said, oh, I think Imight want to do you know, reporting
(17:11):
and journalism, and then I spentsome time interning at a TV station and
said that's really hard. I don'tlike being on camera, which is a
surprise to me. I thought thisshould be fun. I'm going to interview
people. I'm going to be likeyou, Evelyn, it's hard. It's
hard to keep everybody on. Sospend some time with people in the field
(17:34):
to really get a good idea,right, and make sure you're going into
something for the right reasons. Isit something you care about, because once
you stopped caring, it doesn't matterhow good you are, you're not going
to have fulfillment. Right. Andthen just yeah, anyway, so following
following the footsteps of other people listento their advice is one thing. And
(17:56):
then for communications specifically if you wantto get into that or to healthcare in
general, just find a way in. So many people come into IHP and
say I really want to work foryour company, and they might come in,
you know, maybe they're a projectmanager, but they come in as
a phone you know, customer servicerep. Just to get their foot in
(18:18):
the door, to understand the business, to get a name for yourself.
And once you get that that footof the door, people know you and
that helps establish your relationships. Ilove that. That's great advice. I
think I tell that to people too, just like, just get in where
you fit in, right, Like, that's the easy way to say.
Just get in where you fit inbecause it'll grow. I started in promotions
(18:40):
and I, you know, movedto the on air team. So you
never know, right, just somewhere, you got to start somewhere. I
have a daughter who is going tograduate college next year. She's in that
she's in that last year sort ofnervous place where she's going to she'll be
getting it a business degree. She'sthinking about getting your masters. She's trying
(19:00):
to figure all the things out.But now she's also thinking, but I
always thought I wanted to do nursing, So did I waste my time?
And do I need to go tonursing school next? And I'm just like
calm town. And there are peoplewho go back, you know, like
they get a business degree. Infact, we have someone in our on
our team right now at IHP whodid a full business degree and then later
(19:23):
years later went back and got anursing degree and spent time here in the
l An Empire in the as aer nurse. Yes, well there's room,
but we also here's a little plugfor those of you who are a
junior or a senior in college.IHP has paid internships and so you can
come in and say, hey,I have a business degree, I'm interested
(19:44):
in project management, accounting, finance, HR marketing, and you can apply.
It's paid. I believe it's tento twelve weeks. And I might
put a little plug in for yourdaughter to say, see what you like,
you know, see if there's thingin the work that you like.
And the best thing I can tellpeople to do is try different things and
(20:07):
that helps you narrow it down.Right. So even if you say,
well, I don't know what Iliked, it's going to tell you what
you don't like. And sometimes that'seven more valuable. Oh for sure,
for sure. Uh. And I'llgive you a small story about myself.
I started in ad sales with thatvoice. I mean, I bet you
did well. I bet you didwell. I did okay, because I
(20:29):
was they would ask me to dotheir commercials and so that was the That
was when I knew, I'm like, I need to go and stay on
this other path. It's just adsales. There's money. There's money there
for sure, but I was like, that's not what I was doing.
It for I was doing it forthe passion, for the love of radio.
So then I found my niche Iwent, this isn't for me on
the phone all the time, Ithink I'm over here. So it's true.
(20:49):
You have to just get in andfigure out what you like and specifically
what you don't like. Great,great advice. Oh Michelle, I could
talk to you all day long.I know I have like so many more
things I want to talk to youabout anyway with the podcast, but I
will wrap it here. I wantto ask you one last thing. This
is you know you've listened to thepodcast. You know I have to ask
(21:11):
what are the three biggest takeaways thatyou hope our listeners get from our chat
today. So first, I wantpeople to know that they are singularly,
singularly in control of their healthcare,of their journey of their health. Please
be an active participant. Talk toyour doctor, get involved, learn as
much as you can. Number one. At number two, there are so
(21:33):
many resources. Find them. We'redoing our best to get them to you.
Even if you don't need the resource, maybe your friend does. Ask
them. I've talked to so manypeople and even when I just ask them
a leading question, sometimes like,well, you know, when they ask
me what I do, I say, oh, have you heard of IHP?
They'll say, oh, I've mykids are on IHP, but I
(21:55):
don't have health insurance. Boom,there's my segue. Hey, let's let's
figure this out right. So havethose conversations with your friends and family to
make sure they're not putting off theirown health because they're scared of paying for
it because California is so great aboutthat. And the third, the final
takeaway here is for those of youwho are looking at what to do with
(22:17):
your career, whether your entry level, mid career, find out what you're
good at, get better at it, you know, be the best that
you can be at it, andthen just don't be afraid to try new
things. You know, ask people, talk to people, don't be afraid
of nose. You know. Wewe need good people. We need good
work a great workforce in the lAnd Empire. Please stay here, Please
(22:42):
make this region better. We needyou. I love that. Yeah,
please stay here. I like thattoo. I tell people that all the
time. I'm like, we needpeople that are passionate, we need people
good and trusting. We need youto stay here, especially in the I
E I have such a love forthe Inland Empire group here. You know,
I know all the things here.Please don't tell your daughter tell her
(23:08):
that could be a whole other conversation. Oh yeah, you should interview your
daughter next. I should totally dothat. Oh my gosh, what would
we Oh it would go on forhours. She's a good talker, though,
I will say that that's another littlething she's really really good at.
But oh, Michelle, thank youso much. I really really appreciate you.
(23:29):
I first of all, want tothank you for allowing me to be
able to do this alongside ie HPand iHeart as well. We are.
We're just eternally grateful, and Ihope we can do it for a very
long time. I'm here. Thankyou so much for having me, thank
you for taking the lead, andthank you for being the voice for our
community. Oh, thank you somuch. Well, let's get to do
(23:52):
it for us this time. Ihope you will join us for another episode
of Covering Your Health with Evelyini Reves, presented by I E HP. I
am on my own healthcare journey.I am having a ton of fun while
doing it. I am now almostfully trained for my half marathon. I
know I talked about a few episodesago. I'm going to be doing that
with Ron Disney. I am inspiredby all of our guests. I'm inspired
(24:14):
by Michelle, and I hope thatyou're getting inspired and getting a little bit
of information too with all of theepisodes that we put out. Until next
time, I will see you soon.
Well, hello and welcome back toCovering your Health with the Evelini Reves.
I am so happy that you havefound us, that you are here with
us. Of course we're on videoand audio again today, so this is
really cool. If you're just listeningon audio, come find us on YouTube
and you can see our faces.I did my hair just for you.
Well, I'm very happy to haveyou here today. We are joined by
(00:23):
someone so very special to me andto many people at IHP, Michelle Rye.
She's the chief of Communications and Marketingfor Inland Empire Health Plan who's going
to talk to us about the importanceof this podcast yay, why it matters
to the community, and how thetool is going to be used moving forward.
(00:44):
This is something I'm excited to hear. What her plans are for this
podcast as well. Obviously we'll betalking about how we're going to be promoting
the Health Lands mission, its valuesand its vision. The goal of IHP
is to ensure communities in Riverside inSan Bernardino Counties achieve optimal health, and
they do this in several ways,including through this podcast. So I really
(01:08):
really am excited to chat with MichelleRye. Welcome, to Covering your Health,
a wellness podcast dedicated to covering allareas of living a healthy and happy
lifestyle, from healthy hearts to understandinghealth plans and everything in between. Each
episode will provide you with a betterunderstanding of managing your health, preventative care,
(01:32):
and staying on the right path foryour family's wellness journey. The Covering
Your Health podcast is presented by IE HP. Now your host, Evelina
Revez. Welcome, Michelle, Howare you hi? Evelyn? So good
to see you. This is sonice. I love talking with you.
(01:53):
So we have known each other nowlike a couple of years, which is
kind of cool. Yeah, I'mgoing to say three, maybe more no,
no, gree breath for sure?Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, And we got started ina whole new way with which we'll
talk about. But I want todive right in because this is the first
question I always ask everybody. Let'stalk about you for a second. How
(02:13):
did you get your start? Wasthis always going to be your career of
choice? Why? Communications? Whymarketing? Tell me? Yeah, I
had been involved in my junior highand high school yearbook and newspaper, and
it felt like a really nice youknow, transition to say, well,
why don't I do something like thisfor a living, you know, to
write and to interview. I thoughtI was going to be a journalist,
(02:38):
So I was going to be LisaLing. Lisa Ling, Oh, I
love to hear if you ever wantto, like, yeah, get a
like a sub, I'll sub foryou, but you definitely will. So
I went into journalism in college andthen you know, worked for the school
newspaper and everything like that. Souh, and then my natural career progression
(02:59):
just stayed with marketing. I didmy master's in it and communications overseeing you
know, different writers, designers,and now here in healthcare in an amazing
space where all of these skills aretransferable, right, so like your ability
to communicate, to write for differentaudiences, and to build a team.
So I'm really thrilled to be atIHP right now. That is so cool
(03:22):
and I love for you. Itstarted very very young. You know,
you kind of knew, Okay,I love this, this is what the
path I'm going to stay on,and you never know what kind of comes
your way right as you walk downthat path. Very cool, and it
started for you in college, yourhigh school you said high school, Well,
high school is when I got allthe experience. But I mean I
was even on my you know,eighth grade yearbook. I might have been
(03:46):
editor or assistant editor or something likethat. And you know, some of
those times you have to look backand say, what did I naturally want
to do as a kid, andalso what was I good at? And
that's what I keep hearing people sayis don't just go with your passion.
I'll so go with what you're goodat. And it might be something that
you don't think is valuable, butit is. And I love that.
And I think about my own position, and I think my progression started that
(04:11):
young too. In middle school Ialso did yearbook things like that, and
then in high school I was classpresident and you know, I was very
very involved with every aspect of everything. I had to talk to everyone all
the time, and I thought Iwas good at that. Yeah, I
was good at talking. When didyou get your good your recording voice?
Though? That's what I need togore out how to get that? Yeah,
(04:33):
So the voice started very young,and it was sort of embarrassing.
If I'm gonna be honest with you, did you just come out of the
womb like hi I'm Evelyn. Hi. I sound like a raspbye woman who
smokes ten packs a day, butI swear I don't. No, Yeah,
it's super funny. When I wasyounger, my voice just was always
deeper. It was just always deeper. I always sounded more womanly, even
(04:58):
as like a young person. Soif I ever got horse, I ended
up sounding very manly and people wouldmake fun of me. They're like,
okay, evil, here comes ashe hers. You're gonna need to pull
a video now. I want tosee like a ten year old Evelyn.
I want to I want to hearthat totally. I know. I got
to see if I can find that. I started on television when I was
(05:20):
sixteen, so they were, youknow I it was already naturally happening for
me with my voice. The personthat actually put me on this it was
on k BCR here in San Bernandino, and the person that put me on
TV was the one that said tome, uh, you have a really
nice speaking voice. And I waslike, that was speaking to my talent.
(05:41):
I didn't know, Okay, person, Yeah, I think I know
some people at KVCR. We mayneed to pull some some b roll.
We'll look it out, we'll lookit up. Okay, Well, let's
get into this a little bit more. Your role now is within healthcare,
the healthcare space. Let's dive intothat. What is you know going on
(06:02):
with IEHP and how it communicates withthe community. I want to talk about
how this podcast came to be alongthat plan as well. Yeah, So
when I came in four years agoat IEHP, one of the big directives
was how do we continue to engagewith our members in lots of different ways
(06:23):
and how do we get the wordout about what we do. So the
luxury I had is coming in witha very strong brand. You know,
we have been in the community forlike twenty eight years now and just a
ton of respect. And so whenyou're working from that standpoint where people trust
and respect and value your brand,your company it's personal to them, you
(06:45):
really just continue to build on thatstrong foundation. And so we built a
team around that, you know,really going more into developing social media strategies,
trying to find other avenues to reachpeople. And so with our quality
focus in the last couple of years, really focusing on how can we help
engage our members in their understanding oftheir healthcare and then also the delivery,
(07:12):
right, so they're an active participant. So that's how this podcast started,
and you were there from the beginningin my session. I know when we
first talked about it. It kindof came to be because of a different
audio interview that we had done,you know, for something completely different,
and it was kind of fun becauseit was very short, it was sweet,
(07:33):
and then you're just like, Iwant more of that. How do
we make this happen? And it'ssuch a cool medium, podcasting, Well,
it's grown so dramatically over the past, you know, so many years,
and it is really meeting somebody intheir place, in their space.
We know that they're on social media, we know that they're they're already they're
(07:55):
on YouTube, those kinds of things. We know they're on the apps,
listening to books, they're listening allof these different ways to touch people.
So it is a really fun wayto get you know, all of these
messages across love. I love itand I'm so I'm grateful to you too
for allowing me to help do thiswith you. Thank you, thank you
for taking the lead and really divingin right because it's just you've you've made
(08:20):
it your own and I really loveyou and Christina. You guys really kind
of are the brainchild to moving thisforward. Yeah, big shout out to
Christina. She's amazing. She helpsbook all the guests and get these talking
points and make sure we're staying ontask, on point with everything that we're
trying to discuss, and really it'sall a benefit to the Inline Empire,
that's all this is all about.So what do you hope for the podcast
(08:43):
future? So what I really wouldlove to see this grow into is a
space where we're not coming up withthe ideas for the topics, where we've
got just tons of people saying,hey, Evelyn, I want you to
talk about this, right so youare the advocate for the community, and
I think we've done a good jobjust trying to find those spaces to say,
(09:05):
hey, you know what do youknow about you know your your mental
health? Do you know what signsto look for? Do you know why
dental health is important? Things thatpeople wouldn't necessarily think about for themselves.
I would love for to grow intoHey, I'm kind of wondering why does
this happen or what's you know?I have a problem and I can't solve
it. Evlyn, can you bringon a guest, right, and we
(09:26):
really want local. IHP is builton this this local aspect. Right.
We were formed by Riverside and SanBernardino Counties together they partnered and said we
need a health plan to help deliverthe care for our medical residents. And
now we have one point five millionpeople in the IE who are IHP members,
(09:48):
and so we want them to say, here's something I'm dealing with.
Help find local experts and be myvoice. And that's really what I wanted
this podcast to be is not justthis like billboard of why you should care
about your health, but help meunderstand the why, help me talk through
some of the things that I canbe doing better to improve my health and
my outcomes. I feel like we'reon that we're on that path too.
(10:11):
Yeah. Yeah, that makes meso excited, you know, with some
of the past guests, especially havinglike a mother here to talk about the
way that she navigated the healthcare systemwhile learning alongside her daughter who you know,
with special needs. Things like that. I love that. I love
the future. I know it's sobright for this podcast specifically, but really
(10:33):
for the people of the Inland Empirebecause it's another resource, it's another avenue,
and I love they can find eachepisode and go not this topic doesn't
really pertain to me, oh butthis one does. Yeah, right,
and you can keep forwarding that rightwhere it's like if you just see I
don't know an article or like youdon't remember where it was, but if
you know, I can count oniHeart and IHP and there's a repository of
(10:56):
all of the topics and it's alwaysthere for your learning. This is so
cool. I love it. Okay, so why is it so important to
help dispel some misconceptions about the healthcarescope? And how do you hope we
can do that here this podcast?Yeah, I think there's a lot of
distrust mistrust in the system. Ithink there's a lot of frustration, and
(11:18):
it is completely valid, right,Like this healthcare delivery system really isn't set
up to think about the consumer first. It's just a lot of red tape.
There's not a lot of information upfront. And so what I would
love to do now is say,Okay, here is the system we're working
in. What can we do tonavigate this and how can we help our
(11:39):
members? Like we are your partner, We're not trying to make it more
complicated. We're trying to help,you know, be the translator, you
know, if you will, Likewhen you go to another country and you've
got someone who knows that their spaceis right, don't go at this time,
go with this server. They're reallygreat. That's what we hope to
be. And in my experience atIHP, I've seen that happen time and
(12:00):
time again, where a member isnot getting something, it get gets escalated,
and you know, we've got ourCEO on the phone with another hospital
CEO saying, hey, we needwe need a bed and we need it
urgently. And it's those kinds ofconnections that I mean, if I could
go on for hours about how manypersonal stories are you know, people that
(12:22):
I know that have advocated for ourmembers, and when you know that your
health plan cares about you, thatway that you can pick up the phone
and talk to someone who lives here, works here. They're not you know,
overseas and like you know nothing abouthaving twenty four hour thing, but
these are people who are just likeyou, and we're helping you navigate this
side by side. Well, youknow what's so powerful about even what you
(12:46):
said beside the whole thing, becausethe whole scope is just beautiful, the
fact that everybody will just get inthere and advocate for you, because I
think what we've learned through many ofthe podcasts episodes so far is if you
don't have an advocate, it's somuch harder. And you know, even
if it's just you bringing along yourspouse or your mother or someone along to
help you through your health plan.But if you have a healthcare system in
(13:09):
place that helps you navigate it andyou can pick up a phone and just
say, here's my problem, canyou help me? What I thought was
so amazing is that you said,even your CEO gets on the phone,
and maybe that's all he's so wonderful. Tell us a little bit about him.
He was our first guest. Iknow. Yeah, he's a hard
(13:30):
he's a tough act to follow.You know, it's amazing to have a
CEO who cares so personally about thiswork. To me, that that's what
makes the difference, right. Youknow, people want to be inspired,
they want to work for someone whothey can respect. And you know,
Jared comes from the perspective of havingbeen on government assistance right as a kid,
(13:54):
having to work so hard. Sohe isn't just saying, oh,
well, that's that's too bad thatpeople have these these barriers. He had
those barriers. He had to workthrough the you know that system and navigate
that with his own family. Soit's really personal. And I think when
he hires, and you know,when we hire our teams, we look
for that spark. We don't lookfor, uh, do you just have
(14:15):
the expertise, It's do you careabout the mission? Because that's what makes
this work meaningful and that's the onlyway we're going to move the needle is
to have people who really care.Beautiful Beautifully said outside of the podcast,
tell us what is a HP uptoo? So some of the ways we're
trying to reach our members a lotof partnerships with our community, so backpack
(14:37):
drives, food food drives, we'redoing clinics, you know, kind of
like mobile clinics, and we're partneringwith Sack Health for those. We formed
a partnership with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, which is a minor league baseball team
about you know, less than tenminutes from our headquarters, and you know,
trying to find new ways to reachpeople. Right, So if if
(14:58):
you don't have time to go tothe doctor and schedule your visit or get
screened. Maybe we can bring thatto you and incentivize them. So we
have a couple coming up this summer. I go to IHP dot org,
you know, plug that to lookfor those those dates. But we have
one coming up this weekend. Bythe time this airs, it'll be passed.
But then we'll have another one comingup in August. Awesome. Yeah,
(15:22):
there's always something. It's so beautifulto see as I've gotten deeper in
and our partnership has grown, andI really really really care about IEHP because
I've seen it in action. I'veseen now how it's touched so many lives.
It's so exciting to see so manythings pop up on the calendar quickly.
So you have a lot of peopleworking. We have a lot of
people that are very busy, andwe've you know, nearly doubled in four
(15:46):
years our workforce. And a lotof that is due to California, you
know, so the state has formedall of these amazing programs. Calleen is
one big umbrella in that they've gothow services things to help members who have
high care needs. Right so theyget their own personalized care team to help
(16:07):
them in their journey meal plans.I mean, they've just got so many
resources. If you just google calaimand look at everything that the state is
doing to try to help our populationof Californians. It's really really a big
deal. Yeah, it is,and it's inspiring because it makes you feel
so good about where you live thatthere are so many of these these different
(16:30):
entities at play to help you,you know, just to help you.
What piece of advice could you givesomeone that's looking to get into the field
of healthcare first and foremost, whetherit's maybe going through patient care or on
the marketing side like you are.Yeah, And one of the things that
I love to tell students to do, or encourage not to tell them,
(16:51):
you know, to encourage students todo, is to shadow and to talk
to people because sometimes things look glamorousor they look interesting and then they actually
spend some time with someone who doesthat for a living. And I did
that as a college student as well. Right, I went in and I
said, oh, I think Imight want to do you know, reporting
(17:11):
and journalism, and then I spentsome time interning at a TV station and
said that's really hard. I don'tlike being on camera, which is a
surprise to me. I thought thisshould be fun. I'm going to interview
people. I'm going to be likeyou, Evelyn, it's hard. It's
hard to keep everybody on. Sospend some time with people in the field
(17:34):
to really get a good idea,right, and make sure you're going into
something for the right reasons. Isit something you care about, because once
you stopped caring, it doesn't matterhow good you are, you're not going
to have fulfillment. Right. Andthen just yeah, anyway, so following
following the footsteps of other people listento their advice is one thing. And
(17:56):
then for communications specifically if you wantto get into that or to healthcare in
general, just find a way in. So many people come into IHP and
say I really want to work foryour company, and they might come in,
you know, maybe they're a projectmanager, but they come in as
a phone you know, customer servicerep. Just to get their foot in
(18:18):
the door, to understand the business, to get a name for yourself.
And once you get that that footof the door, people know you and
that helps establish your relationships. Ilove that. That's great advice. I
think I tell that to people too, just like, just get in where
you fit in, right, Like, that's the easy way to say.
Just get in where you fit inbecause it'll grow. I started in promotions
(18:40):
and I, you know, movedto the on air team. So you
never know, right, just somewhere, you got to start somewhere. I
have a daughter who is going tograduate college next year. She's in that
she's in that last year sort ofnervous place where she's going to she'll be
getting it a business degree. She'sthinking about getting your masters. She's trying
(19:00):
to figure all the things out.But now she's also thinking, but I
always thought I wanted to do nursing, So did I waste my time?
And do I need to go tonursing school next? And I'm just like
calm town. And there are peoplewho go back, you know, like
they get a business degree. Infact, we have someone in our on
our team right now at IHP whodid a full business degree and then later
(19:23):
years later went back and got anursing degree and spent time here in the
l An Empire in the as aer nurse. Yes, well there's room,
but we also here's a little plugfor those of you who are a
junior or a senior in college.IHP has paid internships and so you can
come in and say, hey,I have a business degree, I'm interested
(19:44):
in project management, accounting, finance, HR marketing, and you can apply.
It's paid. I believe it's tento twelve weeks. And I might
put a little plug in for yourdaughter to say, see what you like,
you know, see if there's thingin the work that you like.
And the best thing I can tellpeople to do is try different things and
(20:07):
that helps you narrow it down.Right. So even if you say,
well, I don't know what Iliked, it's going to tell you what
you don't like. And sometimes that'seven more valuable. Oh for sure,
for sure. Uh. And I'llgive you a small story about myself.
I started in ad sales with thatvoice. I mean, I bet you
did well. I bet you didwell. I did okay, because I
(20:29):
was they would ask me to dotheir commercials and so that was the That
was when I knew, I'm like, I need to go and stay on
this other path. It's just adsales. There's money. There's money there
for sure, but I was like, that's not what I was doing.
It for I was doing it forthe passion, for the love of radio.
So then I found my niche Iwent, this isn't for me on
the phone all the time, Ithink I'm over here. So it's true.
(20:49):
You have to just get in andfigure out what you like and specifically
what you don't like. Great,great advice. Oh Michelle, I could
talk to you all day long.I know I have like so many more
things I want to talk to youabout anyway with the podcast, but I
will wrap it here. I wantto ask you one last thing. This
is you know you've listened to thepodcast. You know I have to ask
(21:11):
what are the three biggest takeaways thatyou hope our listeners get from our chat
today. So first, I wantpeople to know that they are singularly,
singularly in control of their healthcare,of their journey of their health. Please
be an active participant. Talk toyour doctor, get involved, learn as
much as you can. Number one. At number two, there are so
(21:33):
many resources. Find them. We'redoing our best to get them to you.
Even if you don't need the resource, maybe your friend does. Ask
them. I've talked to so manypeople and even when I just ask them
a leading question, sometimes like,well, you know, when they ask
me what I do, I say, oh, have you heard of IHP?
They'll say, oh, I've mykids are on IHP, but I
(21:55):
don't have health insurance. Boom,there's my segue. Hey, let's let's
figure this out right. So havethose conversations with your friends and family to
make sure they're not putting off theirown health because they're scared of paying for
it because California is so great aboutthat. And the third, the final
takeaway here is for those of youwho are looking at what to do with
(22:17):
your career, whether your entry level, mid career, find out what you're
good at, get better at it, you know, be the best that
you can be at it, andthen just don't be afraid to try new
things. You know, ask people, talk to people, don't be afraid
of nose. You know. Wewe need good people. We need good
work a great workforce in the lAnd Empire. Please stay here, Please
(22:42):
make this region better. We needyou. I love that. Yeah,
please stay here. I like thattoo. I tell people that all the
time. I'm like, we needpeople that are passionate, we need people
good and trusting. We need youto stay here, especially in the I
E I have such a love forthe Inland Empire group here. You know,
I know all the things here.Please don't tell your daughter tell her
(23:08):
that could be a whole other conversation. Oh yeah, you should interview your
daughter next. I should totally dothat. Oh my gosh, what would
we Oh it would go on forhours. She's a good talker, though,
I will say that that's another littlething she's really really good at.
But oh, Michelle, thank youso much. I really really appreciate you.
(23:29):
I first of all, want tothank you for allowing me to be
able to do this alongside ie HPand iHeart as well. We are.
We're just eternally grateful, and Ihope we can do it for a very
long time. I'm here. Thankyou so much for having me, thank
you for taking the lead, andthank you for being the voice for our
community. Oh, thank you somuch. Well, let's get to do
(23:52):
it for us this time. Ihope you will join us for another episode
of Covering Your Health with Evelyini Reves, presented by I E HP. I
am on my own healthcare journey.I am having a ton of fun while
doing it. I am now almostfully trained for my half marathon. I
know I talked about a few episodesago. I'm going to be doing that
with Ron Disney. I am inspiredby all of our guests. I'm inspired
(24:14):
by Michelle, and I hope thatyou're getting inspired and getting a little bit
of information too with all of theepisodes that we put out. Until next
time, I will see you soon.
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