Guaranteed Healthcare

I have many years experience as a hospital administrator and saw the difference in the treatments that patients got as a privately insured patient to the medicaid patient. Forget good care if you're uninsured. Medicare is actually one of the better payors in New York State. After my hospital stint, I went to work for a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan. Never in my life (including the 6 years in other industries before I went to work for the hospital) have I ever seen such an unorganized, inefficient operation as the operating of this multimillion dollar health insurance company.

There was no responsibility taken for any cost controls, any quality improvement initiatives were pure lip service or community hype; costs were just passed onto the consumer. Hospitals and doctor negotiations were simply: tell us what you want to be paid and we'll pay it. This company made millions every year, operated on several disparate computer systems and made mistakes that cost consumers millions.

The final straw was actually after I had already made a private decision to leave. I had my annual review with my boss, an executive VP for the company. I got a 5 out of 5(highest score) for all of the goals that had been assigned to me. I was then told that what I needed to work on was that I was A: "Too professional" in the way I conducted meetings and B: "Too Intelligent" The final comment was from my boss and I quote: " I can tell that you really care about what happens to the patients, our members and their outcomes in their care." My boss then leaned over towards me and stated: "We're not about that." The senior leadership on this team all made millions and have very rich retirement plans. I have since left the field and have been the happier than I have been in years.