News

2007 Tulane Business Forum highlights opportunities

October 24, 2007

The nation’s healthcare system isn’t just broken, it’s not even a system to begin with, according to Mike McCallister, president and CEO of Humana Inc., the nation's fourth-largest healthcare benefits company.

“The attributes of a system––process improvement, connectivities, good metrics, Six Sigma, the things we talk about in the rest of our businesses every day that drive improvements––do not exist in health care,” said McCallister.

McCallister took on the topic of reforming the nation’s healthcare system as keynote luncheon speaker at the 28^th annual Tulane Business Forum.

The forum, a presentation of the A. B. Freeman School of Business and the Tulane Association of Business Alumni, took place at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside on Friday, Oct. 19. More than 700 business people from the greater New Orleans region attended this year’s event, which focused on the theme of discovering opportunities.

McCallister noted that with one out of every five dollars in the U.S. economy going toward health care, creating a new model for delivery is critical to the nation’s future.

“At the end of the day, I think health care has to be brought into the rest of the economy,” McCallister said. “What are the attributes of the rest of this economy? Growth in productivity. Higher quality and lower prices. Ubiquitous real-time information. Transparency around products, services, quality and price. All those things. You’ll find none in health care.”

McCallister proposed a variety of changes at all levels of health care. He called on consumers to demand simplified information from their healthcare providers and insurance companies. He called on employers to work more closely with their benefits companies to provide appropriate coverage for employees and not to treat health plans like commodities to be sold to the lowest bidder each year.

He called on physicians to digitize prescriptions and records and make that information available to other physicians as patients move from doctor to doctor. He called on the federal government to eliminate barriers that prevent health insurance companies from operating between states and to make the federal Medicare database available to the private sector to generate better quality metrics.

And he challenged healthcare benefits companies to provide consumers with monthly statements similar to those provided by financial services companies, with a clear breakdown of costs and benefits.

“These are all opportunities,” McCallister noted. “Our best days are ahead of us.”

Tulane President Scott S. Cowen kicked off the forum with a presentation on the Cowen Institute and its efforts to transform public education in New Orleans by bringing academic research and national best practices into the city’s troubled school system.

“We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to rethink and rebuild the school system in New Orleans,” Cowen said. “I have never been more hopeful about the future of public education in New Orleans than I am today.”

Later, Donald E. Powell, federal coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding, provided an update on the region’s recovery. Powell said that despite frustrations at the local level, signs of progress are everywhere. He specifically cited the recent announcements regarding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ plans to bring New Orleans levees up to the 100-year flood protection level. “I don’t think there’s been a more important announcement that’s been made since I’ve been involved,” Powell said. “That is the most important announcement that relates to the long-term viability of greater New Orleans. If people don’t feel safe, it doesn’t matter about housing, economic development, health care or any other issue.”

Powell added that with abundant credit, tax incentives and insurance settlements, the entire Gulf Coast is poised for a dramatic surge in activity. “It’s a perfect set of existing issues that will yield an incredible amount of economic vitality,” Powell said. “This is a unique opportunity that only comes along once in a generation.”

Also presenting at this year’s forum were Kevin H. Kelley, chairman and CEO of Lexington Insurance Co., who addressed the prospect of increased hurricane activity over the next decade and the effect that is likely to have on the insurance industry; James Monroe III, president of the Thermo Companies, who detailed his experiences as an entrepreneur and offered thoughts on how to transform post-Katrina opportunities into profitable businesses; and Peter DiMartino, senior managing director and asset-backed and mortgage credit strategist with Bear Stearns Inc., who addressed the mortgage credit market in both the U.S. and New Orleans.