Philip Dore – myLaurel

It’s an open secret about U.S. health care that can literally sicken. Hospitals are financially stressed, overcrowded, and understaffed. So, the sooner a patient can be discharged safely to the comfort of their own home, the better—for both the patient and the hospital.

Philip Dore | myLaurel | General Counsel

Philip Dore is working to make that dream a reality as general counsel at myLaurel, which in a few select locales—New Orleans, New York City and parts of New Jersey—provides in-home healthcare, telemedicine and extended follow-up to thousands of patients while significantly lowering costs, avoiding unnecessary admissions, and reducing the risk of readmission.

“One of our biggest value props is that we help to free up bed space in the hospital,” the personable Dore tells Vanguard in May from his Big Easy home, where he remotely serves the New York-headquartered company. “Our ethos is that there’s better value in treating patients at home than in a hospital. This helps the hospital and benefits the patient, especially if you can make that process seamless and safe.”

But in health care, nothing is seamless, and, as Dore explains, this isn’t a direct-to-consumer process but one where myLaurel partners with a hospital that must help assess whether an acute or frail patient can safely be discharged even if further treatment is advised.

With the rules and regulations differing by municipality, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach for matters such as labor, paid leave, and licensing, and as the company’s sole in-house lawyer, Dore weighs in on a slew of responsibilities: contracting, compliance, regulatory, personnel, and what-not. Challenges notwithstanding, he says myLaurel is making a difference and, with his help, will move into additional markets, with parts of Florida anticipated in the system later this year.

In growth mode

Dore credits the company’s chief growth officer, Lisa Sasko—“a rock star”—with the company’s growth momentum. He emphasizes that a myLaurel partnership would benefit plenty of hospitals and patients.

“We’re always looking to make it as quick and easy as possible for our partners,” he says. “We give them something reasonable and reflective of what they need—and what we need—to be successful together.”

This year, myLaurel has been able to give more as its services have expanded with Acute Care at Home™, a post-discharge initiative where the company facilitates the transition of care services to a patient’s home directly from a hospital’s emergency department, observation unit, or in-patient floors. This initiative, supported by a virtual doctor who supervises an in-home care team during onsite visits, provides partners with customized levels of post-discharge and follow-up care with myLaurel’s clinical staff. During this wraparound period—typically anywhere from 7 to 30 days—myLaurel maintains open communication channels with the patient’s full care team.  “That’s what the patient and the payor want,” Dore says. “The patient is always more comfortable at home. The hospital has another open bed, the insurer saves money, and the patient is more comfortable. It’s win-win-win.”

Acute Care at Home complements myLaurel’s two other offerings, Rapid Advanced Care™ and Recovery at Home™.  Rapid Advanced Care™ is a solution that responds to an acute need—within 90 minutes of receiving the call, a myLaurel care team arrives at the patient’s home to treat the patient in place and hopefully avoid a trip to the ER.  Recovery at Home™ is another hospital-oriented solution where myLaurel works with patients recently discharged from a hospital to help ensure they get home—and stay home—safely.

In New York City, for example, myLaurel currently provides Rapid Advanced Care™ to two Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (aka PACE), a nonprofit and federally funded program that provides comprehensive health services for patients 55 and older whom Medicaid categorizes as “nursing home eligible.” Like myLaurel’s, PACE’s goal is to keep older people out of institutional care at a financial savings to all parties.

Ready the start

Dore says he, too, has won, personally and professionally, by taking his career in-house with myLaurel in April 2020. A 2008 McGill University undergrad who earned his Juris Doctor at Louisiana State University Law four years later, he had honed his skills for nearly five years with the New Orleans firm of Liskow & Lewis, but, capable as Dore was in litigating corporate defense, he says being in-house is just different.

“In litigation, it’s literally one party versus the other, often a zero-sum game,” he says. “For me, it’s more rewarding and satisfying to work at growing a business, especially when it’s health care.  When our patients win, we win. Doesn’t get much better than that.”

Happenstance factored in Dore’s joining myLaurel, as he clerked in a New Orleans federal court right after law school. A senior co-clerk and fellow LSU Law graduate later told Dore she’d hire him for a private sector position one day. When she became general counsel in 2018, she lived up to her word, bringing him in as vice president of legal affairs two years later.

Dore hasn’t missed the courtroom drama—or having to collect the obligatory billable hours.

“Since moving to myLaurel, I’ve had to become a much more refined lawyer,” he says. “I had to learn all types of laws, including those about health care, all to help the company grow.”

Must mean business

That’s something Dore says in-house lawyers don’t do enough of. Too often, he’s observed, a legal department is overly cautious and thus an obstacle to progress.

“I pride myself as the complete opposite,” he says. “I make it a point to understand what other departments want and help them get there from a legal and business standpoint. To do that, especially in our industry, requires innovation and a willingness to think outside the box.”

His modus operandi includes anything it takes to protect and further the interests of his only client—the company. While negotiating contracts, he’ll trade redlines with the other side. Should Dore feel that myLaurel has been excessively billed by a vendor, he’ll contest the charge. He relishes any opportunity to apply his legal acumen on the business side.

Though born and bred in St. Louis, Dore has lived well in this part of the country. That said, he rises extra early to run before the New Orleans heat and humidity becomes too oppressive.

He’s also taken up pickleball, but recreational time is at a premium as a one-man legal team for a company in a very regulated industry. But he’s not complaining.

“There’s such a big business opportunity here to improve healthcare, and we’re thriving under it,” he says. “We’re saving everybody money and improving the patients’ lives. I’m grateful to be part of a company serving so many needs.”