Successful Health Care Corporations

Nothing succeeds like success.

Alexandre Dumas (1824-1895)

Successful health care corporations of the 21st century will include:

One, regional hospital-based integrated organizations offering a panoply of services.

Two, physician-led chains of walk-in clinics offering cash and 3rd party covered services.

Three, ambulatory surgical clinics offering a narrow range of minimally invasive repetitive performed procedures.

Four, specialized hospitals covering specific diseases or field of disease, e.g. cancer, heart disease, pulmonary disorders.

Five, retail clinics embedded in large retail outlets offering nurse-practitioner services for minor or chronic conditions.

Six, large regional or national corporations controlling the full spectrum of services - health plans, hospitals, and physicians.

Seven, chains of regional or national cash-only, retainer and non-retainer concierge practices offering bundled services over a full-range of primary care services.

Eight, large regional/national physician groups with full-range of diagnostic, surgical, and palliative services.

Nine, centers specializing in diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases.

These various corporations will have these common characteristics.

One, professional management by health professionals emphasizing perpetuity and growth.

Two, social responsibility for content, standards, quality, performance, and impact of knowledge.

Three, adherence but not dominance by federal regulations.

Four, transparency with bundled or capitated, and value-based services with prices known in advance and back-up insurance.

Five, internet-based marketing and management by data-based protocols and algorithms with reliance on fast, cheap, and universally available information.

Six, social awareness of political trends and social culture with shaping of those trands and culture.

Seven, the ability to organize physicians and other health professionals into teams to gain access to capital, to deal with bureaucracies, to organize complex technologies, to achieve productivity, and advance knowledge and cure of disease.

Eight, as costs shift to consumers, an increasing and systematic emphasis on health education and prevention to lower costs.