Q&A with Dr. John Gover: Redefining Success After 38 Years

After nearly four decades in practice, Dr. John Gover — an internal medicine doctor with Graves Gilbert Clinic in Bowling Green, Kentucky — has seen his share of change in the health care industry. But through his experience as an agilon health physician partner, Dr. Gover discovered that sometimes, the most powerful changes come from within.

agilon health: What drew you to take an interest in value-based care and agilon health?

Dr. Gover: If we’re being very honest, I could say I was dragged to value-based care yelling and screaming. You have to understand that I’ve been in practice 38 years. I got my start in internal medicine before computerization, before specialization. We did everything ourselves – hospitals, nursing homes, office care – and we didn’t write anything down.

Over the years I’ve seen so much change, and so much potential for even greater change, particularly with the growing role in health care. I’ve seen data rise in importance as a powerful force for greater understanding and knowledge. And seeing all that, I began to realize that I had to change also.

agilon health: Then why the resistance? Why do you say you came to value-based care yelling and screaming?

Dr. Gover: Because change is hard. Knowing that change is needed and actually doing something new are two very different things. And that probably has a lot to do with why our health care system is in the situation it’s in. Making the decision to join a partnership with agilon was a hard change at first, but it was a worthy change. And it has been extraordinarily positive. If I can do it at my stage of career, anybody can.

agilon health: How did the agilon partnership model influence your receptivity to change?

Dr. Gover: I’m glad you asked about that, because through my working life I’ve had experience with ownership. I’ve worked in a practice that was purchased and owned by a health system. And I’ve seen the dynamics of ownership get in the way of patient care. With agilon’s partnership model, it’s not about being owned or being employed by a separate group. It’s about collaboration. All parties working together toward mutually shared goals. That’s superior in my opinion.

agilon health: What would you say is the biggest impact that becoming an agilon physician partner has had on your work and your outlook?

Dr. Gover: A big thing is simply the realization that you can’t make this type of change alone. No individual physician or medical practice could. It takes a vast team and a whole system like the one provided by agilon to make the shift to value-based care. And that’s a huge change in mindset for me.

Physicians of my generation are workaholics. We built our careers believing that the harder you worked, the more patients you saw, the better a doctor you were. Now with agilon I have a totally different rubric to work from, and part of that is becoming open to the help and resources that come with this type of partnership.

Doctors tend to be those who take care of other people, not those who are comfortable receiving care and support. To change my mindset and realize how much can be achieved by partnering and collaborating with others toward mutual goals — that’s a very powerful thing. It changes how you treat your staff, how you collaborate with colleagues. It really changes your ideas about what’s possible in health care.

agilon health: How is your day-to-day experience of practicing medicine different since becoming an agilon partner?

Dr. Gover: I was the epitome of fee-for-service. I was on such a terrible treadmill, working 90 hours a week seeing voluminous numbers of patients. And honestly, no matter how much I aspired to provide the best possible care, it was just not possible under those circumstances. Now I can operate at a much more reasonable pace. I’m still seeing a lot of patients, but I’ve been able to reestablish my time commitments and define success differently, in a way that’s much more sensitive to the true value that health care can and should provide.

agilon health: You’ve experienced decades of evolution in the American health care system. How do you think value-based care and leaders like agilon will change the system for future generations of physicians?

 Dr. Gover: It will show them a new way, and that’s a good thing. For one,  value-based care rewards the true quality of care we provide, not the volume of patients we see. And that alone is inspiring because it means that as a physician, you’re really helping people. And once you become inspired by the feeling of doing what’s right, it affects those around you. It really is a profoundly awesome feeling.

The new generation coming into medicine won’t have to feel so overwhelmed. They won’t have to get on the treadmill. I truly believe that the future of health care will be very different from what I’ve experienced in my career. And that’s very positive.

agilon health: You mentioned that you’ve redefined success since becoming an agilon physician partner. In what way?

John Gover: Success used to be measured in patient volume, because that’s what fee-for-service required. That meant long hours, and not necessarily a lot of satisfaction. As I said, my generation of physicians are workaholics. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Today, success means doing what’s right. And I just had an example of it earlier this morning. I was able to take the time out of my schedule to return calls to a couple of patients who had reached out to me. In the old days, that kind of responsiveness often just wasn’t possible. I care about my patients. To be there when they need me — now that’s success.