Thoughts from the Road

Mid-sized, regional health plans are stuck in the middle. Every health plan faces the same issues: consolidating providers and medical trends that premiums can’t cover. But mid-sized payers have a specific challenge of being neither fish nor fowl. On one hand, national plans and dominant local plans have scale and contracting advantages that are difficult to match. On the other hand, there is an increasing number of “piranha” plans that bite off small, niche chunks of sub-sub segments. So, what is a mid-sized plan to do? How can they create market distinction?

The iPhone is an engineering marvel. Really, it is orders of magnitude more powerful and complex than the Apollo Guidance Computer. And yet it’s simple enough for even a toddler to use intuitively. The magic is in its simplicity.

I just spent a few days in Vegas. To my wife’s relief, I didn’t get into trouble—no tigers in the suite or Mike Tyson punching out me or anyone else. Instead, I spent my days meeting and listening to healthcare innovators in the MGM Grand Convention Center. The presentations were great, but I found that while listening to discussions about the future, I started thinking about high-efficiency boilers, AC compressors, new roofs, and asphalt.