In this third of a series of four blogs about WTN’s 2014 Disruptive Healthcare Conference (DHC), I’ll focus on three disruptive innovation waves reshaping healthcare. These innovations could lead to better care for less cost. But will they happen fast enough to allow us to channel wasteful healthcare spending into efforts that would make our economy more competitive globally? New reimbursement models and incentives Slowly but surely, payers are adopting new approaches for reimbursing providers. One is pay-for-performance (e.g., Medicare won’t reimburse hospitals for avoidable re-admissions). Another is making providers financially accountable for a population’s healthcare (e.g., Accountable Care Models, introduced in Obama’s far reaching reform). These new models create financial incentives to keep people healthy, surface health issues earlier, move care to less-expensive settings, and avoid unnecessary tests and procedures. In addition, Obama reforms preclude insurers from kicking out the chronically ill,…
Would Checker Cab becoming UBER have been a good thing?
Let’s work backwards. Take Checker Cab, Michigan’s largest cab company and the only one to cover all 147 square miles of Detroit. After a strategic planning retreat, the owners, now calling the company Checkmate, decide to: Replace dispatch units and meters with an internet-based platform that manages fee calculation and customer billing and provides a faster and more consumer-friendly matching of drivers with riders. Change the pricing model to enable the company to earn excessive premiums in peak traffic. Eliminate its extensive driver training focused on defensive driving and driver and passenger safety. Lower its renowned standard for driver background checks. Sell rather than rent its fleet of cabs to drivers, so it no longer needs to pay insurance. Create a process to make sure drivers are insured. Whether individual owners’ insurance covers cars used for commercial purposes is unclear, but hey, that’s…
WTN Fusion 2014: It’s all about disruption of business models and IT
Last week, WTN Media’s Fusion 2014 conference in Madison, WI captured information technology-driven external business challenges and IT leaders’ responses. Small or large, government or private, non-profit or for-profit, the challenges are shared. Here are my take-away thoughts. IT’s Role IT leaders now largely accept a distributed model. “Shadow IT” is here to stay. The shift is correct from my perspective now that insight is one of remaining sources of advantage. Data is abundant and its interpretation must be real-time, predictive and prescriptive. As Greg Pfluger, VP for Information Systems at American Family Insurance, commented, “Marketing … better understands technology than IT people understand marketing. Treat them with respect.” Despite the complicating issues, Software as a Service (SaaS) is a winning business model; the benefits far outweigh the cons for customers and suppliers. A primary IT role is to ensure integration and security…
Five Indicators of Broken Industry Business Models
How do you know when an industry is broken and radical change is undoubtedly on its way? The question is an important one for established and start-up companies. Industry transformations offer rich opportunities and devastating risks. Take the case of college education. I’ve seen enormous progress in my daughter’s writing and critical thinking skills since her arrival at Bates College in Maine where she is a Junior. Yes, the tuition payment (without any scholarship or financial aid) is very high, but I see significant value in the exchange, based on the college papers Lauren has shared and conversations about issues at the dining room table. Apparently Lauren is the exception to the rule among college students, according to a recently released book, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum and Jospia Roksa. “According to their analysis of more than 2,300…