Chief Managed Care Officer & Senior Vice President, TENET HEALTHCARE CORP
Summit Voices: Clint Hailey of Tenet Healthcare at The Summit 2013
Clint Hailey, SVP, Chief Managed Care Officer of Tenet Healthcare speaking on hospital strategy for the exchanges at The ...
About Clint Hailey
In a 2013 appearance at The Summit, Clint Hailey, then Senior Vice President and Chief Managed Care Officer at Tenet Healthcare, discussed strategies related to health insurance exchanges. He described a concept in which multiple provider organizations could establish a foundation to fund the remaining premium costs for individuals who, after federal subsidies, still faced a small monthly payment, such as $18 on a $300 premium. Hailey noted that some organizations in the room had expressed interest in developing health plans and were in discussions with Tenet about participation. Hailey characterized the period as a dynamic time for the healthcare industry, stating that creative and early-moving organizations would likely gain market share. He observed that while some large nonprofit hospital systems were taking a wait-and-see approach to exchanges, others were more progressive, and he anticipated that the next couple of years would reveal which strategy was correct.
Transcript (8 segments)
I
Interviewer0:05
So you know, if you take the step that I'm taking with it, is there the same opportunity for providing supplemental financial support for purchasing product on exchanges? So if you take the example I've cited several times with people here over the last day or so, you know, if you think about a $300 premium on exchanges and you have a person who's at between 100 and 138% of the federal poverty level, so that's $11,500 to $16,600 a year. If they have a $300 a month premium, $282 of that is paid for by the federal government subsidized, so all they have to pay is $18. Well, if you're making $11,200 a year, can you afford $18 a month? Maybe you can, maybe you can't. Say you can't. Well, we could set up a foundation, and when I say we, I'm talking about multiple provider organizations because you can't really control it, you need multiple parties participating in it, and they would fund the $18 a month for somebody who needs the coverage. So that concept of setting up a foundation to provide premium support is the last thing that I'm going to talk about, and that's what I'm going to spend most of my time on. So yeah, more specifically, would there be any information? I know we kind of talked about what you're talking about in general with those. Is there anything from those that you could offer to others, like what if they're going to consider looking at their own plan related to the exchange piece?
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Clint Hailey1:36
I've interesting you said that because there are people in the room that I've talked to about co-owning a health plan, and there are people in the room who have said they're going to develop a health plan and they've asked the Tenet hospitals to participate in that, and we're talking to them about that and very excited about the prospects there. Similarly, on the whole notion of a nonprofit foundation that provides premium support for people who can't afford it beyond the subsidies, I've talked to several of the people in the room about that both before I came as well as while I've been here. So I think there are some exciting possibilities to further enhance the chances of success of healthcare expansion, coverage expansion.
I
Interviewer2:24
Yeah, so a lot of the things that you're talking about are pretty creative, I mean, or early adopter type things. From those, I guess, is that where we're headed? I mean, you're going to have to get creative to kind of survive.
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Clint Hailey2:39
Yeah, I really think the people who are creative and are first movers are the ones who will probably have the most success. And everything you do creatively won't work, but if you hit something that's right, or a couple of things that are right, I think that really gives you a leg up in terms of gaining some market share and helping your company be more successful.
I
Interviewer3:02
So what's the word on the street with exchanges just in general? I mean, as you're talking to your peers, what are the concerns, what are the opportunities, what's the thinking that's out there right now?
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Clint Hailey3:12
You know, I think you heard in the room, just the discussion, there's a lot of negativity about it, a lot of people who are taking a wait and see approach. Some of the big nonprofit hospital systems seem to me to be taking a wait and see approach, and there are others that are more progressive that are giving it a shot. And one of us will be proven right and one will be proven wrong, so we'll see how it works out. It should be interesting.
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Interviewer3:37
Anything that we haven't talked about that you would kind of make a point of, or any other trends or things that you're seeing with the industry?
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Clint Hailey3:47
There's a lot. It's interesting. There's a friend of mine who is head of Business Development for Tenet that left last summer to go do a one-year advanced degree program at Columbia University in New York, and he came back last Friday to talk to me just about some things I was working on. We call it a talent development, it's sort of a talent sourcing arrangement. So this guy comes back and I'm supposed to talk to him about making sure he comes back to work for us and doesn't pursue something else. And it was real interesting all the things that had happened since I talked to him. All the things that happened that I was talking to him about when he left that I hadn't really talked to him about, it's like he went away, no communication, and just the progress that's been made over that time period on a variety of things is very interesting. I was talking to him and I was like, wow, you've been gone not that long, there's been a lot of things done in the last six to nine months. So it's a very dynamic time to be working in the space that we're in, and I like that. It gets kind of boring if you don't have a little change, so it's all good.