Writing on July 4th, I applaud a nation that produced a Rashaun P. Sourles, a compelling young man on a mission to improve health care and disrupt inefficient sales channels. Sourles grew up in a working class neighborhood and achieved top selling ranks at Johnson & Johnson, a Fortune 500 company. Sourles grew frustrated as one of J&J’s pharmaceutical representatives, with the considerable wasted time (up to 80% a week) spent trying to find, contact and set up meaningful exchanges with clinical and administrative decision makers. Had he been in the industry decades earlier, the hurdles would have been much lower. But an increasingly consolidated provider community now severely limits access of pharmaceutical representatives to clinicians to drive more volume over fewer drugs, thereby lowering costs. The barriers also reduce “hard-selling” – selling based on factors other than patient outcomes. In fact one-quarter…
Disrupt the US health insurance business model
Let Washington fight a tug-of-war over how much or how little of the recently passed federal health care legislation gets enacted. I’d like to step away from the politics and talk about the business model for the health insurance industry, why it needs disrupted and how to accomplish just that. With US health care costs far exceeding that of the rest of the world and health status outcomes mediocre at best, our health care system is ripe for disruption. The insurance industry business model is one lever for accomplishing this. I’m sharing my thoughts here hoping to get your feedback on what’s right and wrong with my thinking. (Note: I am a political independent, seeking pragmatic solutions, whichever political party provides them.) Health insurer profitability is driven by a number of factors: Accurately assessing and pricing risks of insuring a pool of people…