Entrepreneurship has affected the health care field in positive and negative ways. For background information, health care systems have typically been government run and so it seems that business or entrepreneurship has not place in the health care world. However, the health care system has witnessed a lot of change in the last decade. Concepts more associated with socialized systems of health services and access for all people have influenced the United States health care programs. Thus, we see a number of companies offering health care to the public that had either not previously done so, or did so in a different manner.
One example is Coventry. I spoke with my family about this during the big shift to Obama Care last year. Coventry developed out of the plans that the recent administration has laid down regarding health services. But what I found interesting, was that Coventry made space for entrepreneurial sorts of work. Rather than a traditional set of phone lines and mailing payments, the subscribers were able to order health cards online and even pay bills or edit their account online. Furthermore, the entire health care sign up system was online in 2014.
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This web presence is fruitful ground for entrepreneurs. These men and women with a business mind set can help the health care providers with recruiting and retaining members, primarily through making their online services accessible and attractive. The entrepreneur thinks of, for example, the aesthetics of a website. The internet home site does not only service the basic needs of the client, such as gathering information and supplying it. The website can bolster the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the customer. For example, the smoothness with which the website operates or the ease with which a user can navigate will make the customer more satisfied with their health care service. And this occurs, I think, regardless of the quality of health services involved. It is purely a business side of the health care system that can influence the customers.
Entrepreneurs can also aid the hospital, the actual services provided by medical professionals. Entrepreneurs understand need and demand and efficiency, and there exists a lot of inefficiency in medical institutions. I often wait for hours and hours in the hospital, or move from room to room over the course of the hours until I finally see someone. The case is not always that dramatic, but I think the point stands: medical facilities are not renowned for their high levels of efficiency. This being said, the entrepreneur can help hospitals by meeting with the owners and operators and evaluating the current system. They see things and ask questions that many medical professionals will overlook. As long as the institution cooperates and the entrepreneur will remember that it is a service provider and not a money generating machine, the entrepreneur can greatly benefit the health care system.
On the other hand, entrepreneurs can negatively affect the health care world. One example is that just mentioned, the danger that the entrepreneur treating a hospital as if it is a business. In the first place, the hospital must make money; it needs funding somehow. But often this funding comes from the government and the already high costs of service. In the second place, the entrepreneur must remember that the quality of service is the most important aspect. While corners can be cut and the organization can stream line in a business setting, such rigorous efficiency is not always appropriate or even safe in the medical world. Thus, the entrepreneur can help and hurt health care today. The potential for both is great, but I think and hope that the system will benefit above all.
- Coventry Health Care. http://coventryhealthcare.com
