 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| ||||||
|
|
Home > Resources > eNews > Feb 2000 |
|
|
|
|
The Managed Care Insider eNews Volume Two Number 2 February 2000 PART ONE of TWO Welcome to The Managed Care Insider eNews. You are receiving this because you have subscribed; the eNews is never sent unsolicited. Subscribe/unsubscribe information can be found at the end of this eNews. The Managed Care Insider eNews is published, copyrighted, and owned by The Scheur Management Group, Inc. (SMG), http://www.scheur.com and is distributed monthly, free to subscribers. If you wish to forward this edition, you may do so only if the edition is forwarded in its entirety. No reproduction of any part of this publication is permitted without the express permission of the publishers. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This issue of The Managed Care Insider eNews focuses on providers: physicians, people and change. A seemingly ongoing theme, the opinions and suggestions found in these columns are presented to evoke thoughts and responses from our readers. What do you think? Let us know at insider@scheur.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Insider Vision: It's About People By Barry S. Scheur To some I am considered an iconoclast, a Contrarian, and a person who is very bullish on both the healthcare and the health insurance industries from an entrepreneurial, opportunistic, economic, and a "making a difference" perspective. As the chairman of a healthcare incubation venture company, the chairman of an HMO acquisition and turnaround company, and the president of a healthcare operations consulting firm, I often feel like the Dr. Seuss character, Bartholomew Cubbin, in his book about the 500 hats. When I try to take one off, the other one is still there! But all hats lead to healthcare, and for me, to managed care. In today's market, I ask myself, what's wrong with our industry, an industry where class action lawsuits are running rampant, where anti-managed care jokes in movies are greeted with loud audience applause, where consumers have about as much trust in their healthcare delivery systems as in used car salesmen, and where the financial structure of hospitals and managed care companies are in ruins. In this issue, I want to discuss why provider-owned HMOs have failed. WHY HAVE PROVIDER-OWNED HMOs FAILED? (1) The Wrong Vision - mixing apples with oranges. Hospital and physician managed care systems were designed to capitalize on steerage, not to satisfy customers looking for a package of high quality, coordinated, healthcare services at an affordable price. (2) The Wrong Medicine - physician groups and hospital-owned HMOs have unfortunately often selected the wrong management, executives who won't rock the boat, who don't understand that health insurance is a product that needs marketing, brand equity, and differentiation, and who don't deal with the basic elements that can lead to customer satisfaction. (3) Underpricing - pricing to "match or beat" the competition. Seeking to gain a large market share by undercutting pricing ultimately has led to ruin of many HMOs. (4) Failure to Block and Tackle - the basic managerial and operational processes of most HMOs are badly flawed, resulting in overly bureaucratized, silo-structured companies. Non-integrative technology, paralysis for fear of taking risk and using the no-loss capitation model is a recipe for organizational failure. (5) Not Playing to Win - healthcare is about competitive differentiation in terms of trust, service, education, data, and about all else - execution. Not playing to win hasn't worked in any other business, why should it work in healthcare? (6) Organizational Incompatibility - organizations coming together for purely business reasons in the absence of cultural compatibility will fail before they start. (7) Lack of Focus - managed care is not a strategy to choose from among many. It is the focus around which to wrap your vision, goals, and mission. So why do I like this industry? Because it's an industry that is about people. And for those who continue to struggle with their managed care organizations, may I suggest we need to remember that healthcare is not about business, it's about people. It's about people who are sick, people who are most vulnerable, people who have expectations that have not been met, and should. Forget the turf wars, don't overly focus on the money, focus on what matters - provider relationships, not relations among themselves and with their patients, and a product that customers feel good about buying, using and bragging about to their friends. Provider-owned and -governed systems can prevail, that is, if we don't kill them all first. ---------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at SMG? E=MC SQUARED BEGINS! Now you can access your own set of managed care experts!... news!... information!... and Ask SMG! at the scheur.com SUBSCRIBERS ONLY site. JOIN US! Our NEW subscriber-based site will afford you access to all of these information resources with a monthly fee of $10 or annual fee of $100. To learn more, visit e=mc squared now at http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/e=mc2.html Rate Us! We need you to rate this ezine. It's easy! Just go to http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/ezinearchives.html and click on one or both of the rating sections. We appreciate your taking the time to do this. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sites and Sounds on the Internet Part One of this eNews is about "People." What better way to invest in people than to provide the sites that tell you where to find them! SMG takes no ownership of the following sites, nor does SMG endorse these sites which are presented solely as a resource for subscribers. Directory of people, places and businesses, phone, addresses, emails at http://www.anywho.com. More of the same at http://www.switchboard.com. The Yellow Pages...Let your fingers do the walking, and your browser do the searching at http://www.bigyellow.com. Zip Code Finder at http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups/lookup_ctystzip.html. Airline phone numbers at http://www.travel-watch.com/airphones.htm. ---------------------------------------------------------------- End of PART ONE of TWO, The Managed Care Insider eNews, Volume Two, Number 2. Scheur Management Group (SMG) is one of the most experienced specialized healthcare operations management and business revitalization consulting firms in the country. Our expertise is in time-sensitive analyses, strategic business and market planning, operational re-engineering, and communications, as well as implementation of start-ups, expansions, and new products. The firm's clients cover the spectrum of insurers, managed care organizations, physician groups, integrated delivery systems, hospitals, employers, governmental entities, vendors, and other providers. Contributors to this edition are Barry Scheur and David Buchmueller. Editing and Research by Judith Jaffe. Production Coordination by Nancy K. Belle. TO SUBSCRIBE: visit http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/ezine.html or send e-mail to insider@scheur.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject and name, email, company, title, and country in the message. TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email message to insider@scheur.com with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject. Please take a minute to visit our eNews page at http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/ezine.html for archives, subscriber information and to RATE our ezine. Get up-to-the-minute health care news on-line at www.scheur.com Go to February 2000 Part 2 |
|
Scheur & Associates, Inc. One Gateway Center, Suite 810 Newton, MA 02458 Copyright 2003, Scheur & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. |
