Word: humana
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...Today Humana has general hospitals from Geneva to Anchorage. Though Jones, 52, and Cherry, 49, resist the notion that their chain was modeled on the McDonald's restaurant company, the two corporations are based on similar retail philosophies. Humana's guidelines: consistency, quality and high-volume, affordable care...
Last year Humana launched an insurance plan for companies as a way of boosting business in its hospitals. Humana Care Plus guarantees employers that their medical costs will rise no faster than the Consumer Price Index for at least four years. Health care prices are currently rising more than twice as fast as the CPI. Employees enrolled in the insurance plan can use any hospital, but the deductibles they pay will be lowest if they choose a Humana facility. More than 200 companies and organizations have enrolled about 65,000 people in the program...
...difference between nonprofit hospitals and companies like Humana is that the large chains usually make better use of cost-cutting measures, including centralized billing and inventory controls. They can get the benefits of economies of scale by buying bandages and other supplies in huge volumes at discount prices. Profitmaking hospitals have no monopoly on cost-effective management, but they have more incentives. Says Humana Chairman Jones: "Making a profit is never an end. It's a requirement. Any hospital has the same opportunity...
...Humana's heart program is an example of how a corporation can use its resources to develop a new field of medicine. Its Heart Institute had been open less than a year when the company decided in June to work on the mechanical heart. Institute Director Allan Lansing, an open-heart surgeon, had told Jones that Dr. William DeVries, who performed the first permanent artificial-heart implant, on Barney Clark at the University of Utah in 1982, might be willing to come to Louisville to pursue his research...
With Jones' support, Lansing courted DeVries as ardently as any coach ever wooed an All-Stars pitcher or a Super Bowl quarterback. Lansing said that DeVries would benefit from a substantial clinical practice and a first-rate surgical support team. To help convince DeVries, Humana flew him and his wife to Louisville. At a dinner on the porch of Lansing's home, Jones asked DeVries, "How many hearts do you need to find out if it works? Would ten be enough?" As a flabbergasted DeVries indicated that ten would be good, Jones added, "If ten's enough...