hospital impact
Post details: A new idea: The 338 Foundation
A new idea: The 338 Foundation
by Tony Chen
I have an idea that I wanted to share with you - please give me your honest opinion (i.e. you can tell me if I'm crazy!). I would love to find others to collaborate with on this. So, if you're interested, contact me directly (tony at hospitalimpact dot org) or comment below. Obviously, the idea is still very rough, but hopefully you'll see where I'm heading. And hopefully, we can refine it together.
What do you think about a new a philanthropic/VC hybrid that invests in preventive health projects that yield at least 338% ROI? (thus the name "The 338 Foundation.")
I'm going on 2 key assumptions:
1. Prevention is one of the biggest opportunities in healthcare. We don't have a healthcare crisis as much as we have a health crisis. We need to pour out a lot more creativity and resources for prevention/healthy living.
2. The biggest obstacle around prevention is a lack of (or misaligned) incentives. No one wants to invest the real money for what's truly best for the patient because these potential investors (whether they be hospitals, insurance companies, pharma, or other companies) make the investment, and others would get the benefit.
For example, a hospital may choose not to hire a chronic disease mid-level practitioner because the "cost savings" it generates essentially goes to the insurance company. Maybe the hospital saves some real costs from reduced ER visits, but not enough to pay for itself. With so many pressures on margin, I can't blame them for that decision. Insurance companies are investing in some disease management 2.0 items, but I doubt they will ever really invest because their members stay with them for only a few years (I've heard 2.5 years?). So any investment they make into keeping the patient healthy is most likely benefiting their competitor (i.e. who ever happens to be their member's insurance company 5 years from now)
It's the classic case of no one wanting to do what's "right" because they pay 100% of the costs while reaping only a fraction of the benefit. So this idea would turn that notion on its head by getting all interested parties to pool their resources together into initiatives that collectively will pay off for all of them.
How I could see this playing out:
- Some smart, collaborative healthcare people could solicit and collect all potential ideas/projects/research and rank them by ROI & approximate benefit to each industry.
- We would welcome individual and corporate donors to the foundation.
- We could do a targeted pilot (i.e. partner with the City of Chicago - i.e. trying to get Chicago to be the "healthiest city in the U.S. by 2015")
- Solicit proposals/applications from organizations who can most effectively implement these projects.
- Fund based on potential ROI and effectiveness of organization's implementation proposal.
So, what's the significance of 338? I'll leave that as a riddle for you. It has to with an important year coming up in our lifetime.
(one side note: One of the ideas I would love to see funded is a savvy viral advertising campaign that changes how people think about their lifestyle habits, like how http://www.thetruth.com/ reduced teenage smoking)
Imagine investing in a fund that yields $3.38 savings/benefit for our country for every $1 we put in.
Please comment/brainstorm with me! Is this crazy or what?
Comments:
Neat idea...it's bold/brazen enough for the VCs, yet rational enough for the humanists. How cool!
05/09/08 @ 15:26 I think you are on to something remarkable here.
I personally think that when the day begins there is not enough innovation in preventative medicine because insurance does not cover it.
I have an article I do not want to dig out right now because I am to tired on the research about managing investments for your health prevention and more important sustaining quality of life and health outside of seeing doctors and going to hospitals.
This has been fundamental to my business plan.
05/09/08 @ 23:02 Onehealthpro
05/11/08 @ 13:17
05/11/08 @ 14:30 http://news.sfzc.org/content/view/527/44/
About Wendy Johnson, the woman who leveraged organic farming in the US.
Roberto Vargas Marciel of Mexico and former Cabinet member of the environment leveraged organic farming in Mexico.
05/12/08 @ 11:53
05/13/08 @ 15:29 Eric, I totally agree that motivation is a key issue.
In some sense, people can think of prevention as: getting people to do what they don't want to do (get healthy) and ask them to pay for it, too.
I think this is why we need some more creative and innovative thinking in this area. This is also why I think the "thetruth" anti-smoking campaign was so brilliant - it motivated teens not to smoke - not by "patient education" and the fear of death. Nope, primarily, it made smoking uncool.
05/13/08 @ 15:54 Of course prevention is the right thing to do. It would seem that the experience of the last 20 years or so with hmos, managed care etc. demonstrates that government through regulation may have to create a market that encourages acute care entities to reform and/or stimulates the emergence of a new kind of provider.
b walsh
05/15/08 @ 13:07 Second, take a look at USPreventiveMedicine-Chris Fay, Tommy Thompson and Fred Goldsteins new venture. They are certainly proving you can raise dollars from VC's around prevention.
As for getting hospitals on board I favor the suggestion that hospitals need to grow a product line around community health. We dont have a healthcare system we have a wealthcare system and if hospitals want to hang on to healthcare dollars they will have to play in the prevention arena where the dollars will be spent.
Carl
05/20/08 @ 11:09 I am with you---the best way to keep people out of hospitals is to impress upon them the value of their health (and have them take action). In my DSME classes, I stress the "blessing" aspect of having diabetes: it is an incentive to do what they should have been doing all along---eating healthy foods (or at least foods in proper portions), exercising, geting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy weight, and managing stress.
Their family members are encouraged to attend as they are also at increased risk for diabetes. Health prevention and promotion are woefully underfunded and under-appreciated. But, hospitals that make their money by keeping beds full don't want to take this approach---and Americans don't value preventive health activities.
06/23/08 @ 05:13 Leave a comment:
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