Keynote speakers at this year's Health Care Business Alliance

Just days before the Health Care Business Alliance conference at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, I thought it would be interesting to look at this year's incredible line-up of keynote speakers. These gentlemen have reached the highest level of leadership in the health care industry and can offer unparalleled insight into the current and future state of the industry.

Wayne Smith
Chairman of the Board, President & CEO
Community Health Systems

Since Wayne Smith’s arrival in 1997, CHS has grown from $742 million in net revenue to over $10.8 billion in 2008 net revenue. This represents a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent— the strongest record of revenue growth in the industry.

For the last six years, Mr. Smith has been selected by the readers of Modern Healthcare Magazine as one of the "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare".

When Mr. Smith was recruited as Community Health Systems, Inc.'s president and CEO, he brought more than 20 years of healthcare industry experience to the company. He was named Chairman of the Board of Community Health Systems, Inc. in February 2001. Prior to joining CHS, Smith was with Humana, Inc. for 23 years where held a variety of senior management positions including president and Chief Operating Officer. He also was a member of Humana, Inc.'s Board of Directors from 1993 to mid-1996. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Praxair, Inc., Citadel Broadcasting Corporation, the Nashville Healthcare Council (2006 & 2007 Chairman) and the Federation of American Hospitals (2003 Chairman). Before joining Humana in 1973, Smith spent four years as a Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Services Corps. Mr. Smith holds both a bachelor of science and Master of Science from Auburn University and a master of science in healthcare administration from Trinity University. He studied at the King's Fund College of Hospital Administration in London, England.



George Barrett

Chairman & CEO

Cardinal Health, Inc.



George S. Barrett is chairman and chief executive officer of Cardinal Health, a Fortune 20 health care services company dedicated to improving the cost-effectiveness of health care.



Barrett has refocused the company on enabling customers to improve the business behind health care, so pharmacies, hospitals and ambulatory care sites can focus on patient care, while reducing costs, improving efficiency and quality, and increasing profitability.



Barrett joined Cardinal Health in 2007 as vice chairman and chief executive officer of the company's Healthcare Supply Chain Services segment, where he was responsible for all of Cardinal Health's supply chain businesses, including pharmaceutical distribution, medical/surgical distribution, nuclear pharmacy services, Presource surgical kitting services and the Medicine Shoppe International retail pharmacy franchise operations.

Previously, Mr. Barrett served as CEO of Teva North America and Corporate Executive Vice President, Global Pharmaceutical Markets of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. He held the position of President and CEO of Teva Pharmaceuticals USA from March 1999 to December 2004. Prior to joining Teva Pharmaceuticals in 1999, Mr. Barrett was President and CEO of Diad Research, a technology start-up based at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. From 1991 to 1997, he held various positions with Alpharma Inc., serving as President of US Pharmaceuticals from 1994 to 1997. Previously, he held various positions with NMC Laboratories, serving as President from 1988 through its acquisition by Alpharma in 1990.



Mr. Barrett serves on a variety of boards including the board of directors of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers, Board of Visitors at the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University and is a board member of Project Restore at John Hopkins School of Medicine. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Healthcare Leadership Council and a past chairman of board of directors of the Generic Pharmaceutical Industry Association (GPhA). Mr. Barrett is also a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award of Excellence in Global Business from New York University Stern School of Business.



Mr. Barrett received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University in 1977 and a Masters in Business Administration from New York University in 1988.

Randall N. Spratt

Executive Vice President

Chief Technology Office & Chief Information Officer

McKesson Corporation



Randall N. (Randy) Spratt is Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer for McKesson Corporation. Spratt is responsible for all technology initiatives within the Corporation. Spratt has been with McKesson for more than 18 years, most recently as chief process officer for McKesson Provider Technologies (MPT), the company's medical software and services division based in Alpharetta, Georgia. He also managed MPT's Business Development, Information Technology, and Strategic Planning offices, as well as MPT's Technology Services business.

Prior to joining McKesson, Spratt held executive positions of increasing responsibility at the start-up Advanced Laboratory Systems (ALS), culminating with the role of Chief Operations Officer. ALS was acquired by HBOC in 1996, which in turn was acquired by McKesson in 1999, and Spratt took on responsibility for HBOC's laboratory systems business shortly thereafter. Following the acquisition of HBOC by McKesson in 1999, Spratt relocated to Georgia to become part of the reconstructed management team.

Spratt earned a bachelor of science degree in biology, with a minor in computer science, from the University of Utah.

One week until HCBA conference in Nashville

A week from today, close to 400 health care students, professionals, and thought-leaders will converge on Vanderbilt University for the 2nd Annual Health Care Business Alliance conference. Here's a look at this year's panels and panel participants:

Debating Obama’s Health Care Reform

With the weakest economy in decades, poor public support for the current system, and many pundits viewing the potential reform as the defining aspect of Obama’s presidency, this debate could not be any more saturated with importance.  The president has hopes of expanding coverage, improving quality, lowering costs, honoring patient choice, and increasing accountability within insurance companies.  But how? What means will prove the most effective?

Moderator:
    Jon Lehman, Associate Dean, Owen Graduate School of Management
Participants:
    Larry Van Horn, Faculty Director of Health Care Programs at Owen
    Paul Keckley, Executive Director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions

Financial Life Support: Maintaining Bottom Line Health

Maintaining financial viability is always a challenge in the health care marketplace. This has been especially true given the environment of decreasing reimbursements, uncertain health reform measures, and increasing debt and charity care.  This panel will address the key issues that health care companies across the board must address in order to maintain strong margins and secure future growth. The panelists will also discuss lessons learned during their previous turnaround and start up efforts.

Moderator:
    Bobby Guy, Esq., Partner at Waller, Lansden, Dortsch, & Davis
Panelists:
    Kevin Lombardo, Managing Principal of GCP Management Services
    George Pillari, Managing Director of Alvarez and Marshall HC Industry Group
    Jim Usdan, Operating Partner at Council Ventures

Health Care 2020: The Future of Health Care Delivery

With comprehensive reform, groundbreaking research, and the exponential growth of the health care market all in full swing, tomorrow’s leaders must be keenly aware of the direction the industry is taking.  A theme that crosses all of these catalysts is that of health care delivery.  How will America’s medical system adapt to the shortage of primary care and family practice physicians?  What will drive the shift towards evidence-based treatments?  This panel will delve into the issues of personalized medicine, future change and advancements, safety and quality, and the re-engineering of doctor-patient care.

Moderator:
    Bill Stead, MD, CIO, VUMC
Panelists:
    Peter Buerhaus, PhD; Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies;
    Julie Morath, Chief Quality and Safety Officer, VUMC;
    David Posch, CEO, Vanderbilt Clinic

Consumerism in Health Care: The Resuscitation of Patient Involvement

Unlike most consumer products, where the buyer gets to pick out exactly what he or she wants, health care does not traditionally operate with the patient at the forefront.  Treatment is determined by the physician and payment scheme is established by the insurance company.  With health care consumers beginning to become more engaged, hospitals, healthcare professionals and carriers must begin to empower their customers.  From cost management to provider reimbursement, to insurance administration, our panel will examine the full spectrum of consumer involvement.

Moderator:
    Joseph Woods, National Product Innovation Leader, Humana

Panelists:
    Gregg Allen, MD, CMO, Medsolutions
    David Frederiksen, CEO, Cumberland Healthcare Credit
    Christopher Parks, co-founder and CEO, Change: Healthcare

The Second Annual Health Care Business Alliance (HCBA)

For the second year in a row, the Owen Graduate School of Management will host one of the nation’s premier health care conferences. Created last year as the brainchild of an Owen Health Care MBA and now organized and run entirely by Owen students, the Health Care Business Alliance brings together over 350 health care professionals and students to discuss the future of the industry.

Health care heavy weights McKesson and Cardinal Health are Gold Sponsors for this year’s conference. Other sponsors include DaVita, PSI, Waller Lansden, Humana, The Deloitte Center for Health Solution, Vanderbilt Medical Center, HIMSS, the Nashville Health Care Council, Bass Berry & Sims, and many may other companies. Professionals and students from over 50 organizations will be in attendance.

This year’s keynotes will be Wayne Smith, Chairman and CEO of Community Health Systems, George Barrett, Chairman and CEO of Cardinal Health, and Randall Spratt, CIO & CTO of McKesson.

The conference is currently sold out, but there is a waiting list that will be tapped early next week. Check out the website www.OwenHCBA.com for more details about one of the many special events happening through Owen’s Health Care MBA.

Learning from the pros

In preparation for my Health Care IT class tomorrow morning, I'm going over a few recent reports from KLAS Research, a premier health care market research firm that sells its reports for around $15,000 a pop (free of charge here at Owen). As I prepare for class tomorrow, I'm reminded of the fact that when I analyze and debate these reports with my classmates and professor, I'll be doing so under the guidance of one of the best in the business. You see, the professor for my Health Care IT class is Noel Williams, the current Chief Information Officer for HCA, one of the largest health care services companies in the world.

That's one of the amazing things about the Health Care MBA program here at Owen. I've taken classes from a virtual who's who from the world of health care. Health Care Regulations from Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Law Grad Congressman Jim Cooper (Democrat). Health Care Policy from former heart surgeon and Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (Republican). Health Care Entrepreneurship from the former CEO of the entire Vanderbilt Medical Center Harry Jacobson. And now Health Care IT from one of the leaders in the field. It's a constant reminder of the health care powerhouse located at Owen, Vanderbilt, and the city of Nashville.

Back to work figuring out what meaningful use means in the health care IT field. If I have any questions, I'll know who to ask both in Nashville and in Washington.

The HCIT Belt?

Recently, scholars such as Richard Florida have studied “the rise of the creative class" (Dr. Florida is just the most famous of these academics). Dr. Florida and others contend that geographic regions with large clusters of individuals working in "creative" professions such as IT, healthcare, the arts, and the sciences, tend to develop more productive (and sustainable) economies. Dr. Florida calls these places “leading centers in the new economy” and points to the Bay Area as a tech center and Boston as a life sciences center as examples of positive clusters.

Since reading Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel a number of years ago, I’ve been interested in why the economies of certain geographical locations have succeeded while others stagnanted. I’ve also moved around quite a bit in the past decade or so (Alabama, Virginia, NYC, DC, San Francisco, Nashville) which has added to my interest in the factors that influence regional economic success

All of this background is a long way of getting to the point that here at Owen, we live and attend school in a region with tremendous potential in the health care IT sector. With the focus Owen places on the Health Care MBA, we're all well aware by now that Nashville is a major center for health care services in the United States. However, if you take a look at the Healthcare Informatics Top 100 HCIT companies by revenue, a full 24 of the top HCIT companies by revenue are based in states that border Tennessee. In addition to health care services, Nashville and the greater southeast, is well-positioned to be the epicenter of health care IT.

Think about it – almost one quarter of the top 100 health care IT companies in the world are located in states bordering Tennessee. Additionally, of the top 20 ranked medical schools based on NIH funding, 5 are based in this region. For those who might quibble that Tennessee borders more states than any other, I would also note that 17 of the top 100 companies and 3 of the top 25 medical schools (by NIH funding) are based in just three southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee). The two largest research parks in the country are based in North Carolina and Alabama, respectively. Talk about a regional advantage in the world of health care IT.

My question is: why let San Francisco or Boston be the future center of health care IT when all the ingredients are right here in our own backyard? 

Health Care Resources Online

One of the aims of this blog is to connect readers to the multitude of health care industry resources online. Below you'll find a sampling to some of the resources found online. I’ll eventually have all of these as links on the site’s homepage but for now I'll just include them in a posting.

Also, for daily health care current event postings and the latest information on Vanderbilt's Health Care Business Alliance conference in October, please follow me on Twitter @owenhcba.

Dartmouth Atlas

http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/index.shtm

Deloitte Center for Health Solutions

http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/section_node/0%2C1042%2Csid%25253D80772%2C00.html

Real Clear Politics – Health Care Articles

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/topic/?topic=Health_Care

Kaiser Family Foundation

http://www.kff.org/

Congressional Budget Office – Health Care Publications

http://www.cbo.gov/publications/bysubject.cfm?cat=9

White House OMB – Health Care

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health_care/

The Health Care Blog

http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/

CMS

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/

California HealthCare Foundation

http://www.chcf.org/

The Commonwealth Fund

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/

Harris Interactive

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters_healthcare.asp

Pew Internet Project

http://www.pewinternet.org/topics/Health.aspx

The Return of Little Blue Pill

After a brief hiatus, I’m pleased to announce the return of the Little Blue Pill. As a current Health Care MBA at Owen, I’m looking forward to blogging on the exciting things happening in the world of health care and the role Owen is playing in health care. It is truly a unique time to be at Owen and to be pursuing a career in health care.

Some of the things I hope to touch on during my tenure at Little Blue Pill:

• Posting links concerning current events (newspaper and magazine articles, webcast links, relevant blogs, etc.). Given the political nature of much of health care and health care reform, I’ll just post a link and a brief sentence or two summary and refrain from adding any commentary. This site does not intend to be op-ed in nature.

• Links to online resources for health care students and professionals (including things like the Dartmouth Atlas, the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, resources through Owen and Vanderbilt University).

• Information about the Health Care MBA and Master of Management in Health Care programs at Vanderbilt including profiles of faculty, information on events at Owen, classes, etc.

• Details and info on the upcoming Health Care Business Alliance (HCBA) conference in Nashville. The Health Care MBA students are hard at work planning this year’s conference which will feature C-suite keynote speakers, panelists, recruiters and MBA and health care graduate students from schools from around the country.

• Probably a whole lot of other random things going on in health care and at Owen. I want this blog to be as interactive as possible and welcome comments on all aspects of the site.

Thanks for bearing with me as we get things restarted here at Little Blue Pill.

Perry

Closing Key Note Mr. Jim Lackey, Chairman and CEO Passport Health

The beginning of day two came too quickly after the festivities of Friday night, but Jim Lackey got everyone's attention with a phenomenal speech. Mr. Lackey is chief executive officer and chairman of the board for Passport Health Communications, Inc. This morning he spoke about his experiences upstart and the growth of his extremely successful company. His story is every Owen student's dream. He was able to deliver this early morning talk with humor and passion that had the room sitting on the edge of their seats. In the end, he gave his personal advice to achieving success as the leader of a company.

It was evident that Mr. Lackey believes that success comes as a result of personal leadership and passion. First, a successful company requires lots of personal commitment in terms of finances, time, and energy. Second, build a product or provide a service you are proud of and can be passionate about selling. It is an additional benefit is the ways the product can benefit costumers' lives. Third, Mr. Lackey makes the point to serve everyone inside and outside the company. Finally, Mr. Lackey takes a lot of stock in personal improvement. He encouraged attendees to never stop learning and expand on talents. What do you do well? Take that and expand it. The most important skill he recommended is to learn to delegate now. He spoke of the empowerment it brings colleagues when work is delegated to them.

His insight was extremely beneficial and even more important his character is commendable. I would argue that everyone walked out of that room wanting to work for Jim Lackey!

HCBA Day 1 SnapShots

 

Panel: Consumer Driven Health Care

Consumer Driven Health Care

Moderator:

Larry Van Horn, Faculty Director Healthcare MBA Program, Associate Professor of Management

Panelists:

Timothy Gary, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Carleen Haas, VP of Talent Strategies at Humana

Chris Parks, CEO of Change Healthcare

“General Comments on Consumerism”

Gary

Consumerism works to a point that people want to be involved and make their own health care decisions. Consumers want transparency of the system. The baby boomers generation wants information. The generation is having a disconnect with tying monetary expense with health care benefits. People of that generation want good health care services, but rarely consider the cost aspect.

Haas

The term “consumerism” in the health care industry is not about cost shifting, but rather the technology that delivers actionable information. Consumerism is “about education, involvement, and some skin in the game”. Humana saved millions of dollar by getting people to go through behavior change. Having transparency and having education lead to better outcomes. Consumerism is a lot about education, understanding the choices, and having system and technology to obtain that information.

Parks

Parks agreed with Gary that people just want the right health care without worrying too much on the cost. The demand change will be slowly driven by mainstream. Individuals will not be able to pay for the rising premium. Once the individuals spend money, they begin to ask the questions about the right kinds of health care system that suits them.  Ultimately, health care is a service; it must be paid for in some way or another.

(The panelists then transitioned into the discussion on politics and healthcare. The possible healthcare policy change from McCain or Obama if either one is to be elected President.)

“Consumerism in the future”

Parks

The individual will be more accountable for their health care expenses. There will be new nuances that the employers want to get rid of, but at least it was a static cool. In health care, no one knows its exact behavior and policy from year to year. Companies used to do 5-8 year plans for their employees, but nowadays, companies that do 2-3 years are considered to be lucky. Over the next 10 years, time spam will get shorter and shorter. This constitutes easy transition. In health care, there will be much resistance, and much caution in employee shifting. The shift will be who is bearing that cost of health care.

Haas

We are in a society where health care is an entitlement now. Medicine today costs higher than ever. The procedure incentive is not align with the doctor anymore, but with the patient. Doctors are willing to perform shorter procedures and receive less revenue. Shifting accountability and getting out of the entitlement mode.

Gary

Unless you change the mentality that health care is an entitlement, you are not going to change the system a whole lot.

(The panel ended with a fun, interactive Q$A session.)