Publications

September 2014 (Revised March 2021)
Case

La Ribera Health Department (A)

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Emer Moloney and Daniela Beyersdorfer

The La Ribera case studies depict an innovative low cost/high quality privately financed hospital model struggling to achieve alignment with the Six Factors. It is reimbursed by the public sector in a Spanish environment whose Consumers, Structure, and Public Policy... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Financing; Health Care Industry; Health Care Operations; Health Care and Treatment; Operations; Business Model; Government and Politics; Programs; Innovation Strategy; Vertical Integration; Health Industry; Europe; Spain

Video

SIPs Intro: John Wells

June 2014 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Access Health CT: Marketing Affordable Care (A)

By: John A. Quelch and Michael Norris

At the close of open-enrollment in March of 2014, Kevin Counihan, CEO of Access Health CT, Connecticut's state health insurance exchange, stops to consider the success it has experienced so far and think about how to ensure its long-term sustainability. View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Industry; Health Care Policy; Public Health Insurance Exchange; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Connecticut

February 2018
Case

Health Savings Accounts: Enabling Consumer Participation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and James Wallace

Health savings accounts (HSAs), a creation of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, had become an integral part of the drive toward consumer-driven health care. Coupled with high-deductible health plans, HSAs allowed consumers to directly control a significant part of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Healthcare Costs; Health Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Cost; Insurance; Innovation and Invention; Health Industry; United States

November 10, 2020
Article

Value-Based Health Care in Four Different Health Care Systems

By: Mjåset Christer, Umar Ikram, Navraj S. Nagra and Thomas W. Feeley

Health care systems across the world have increasingly embraced a value-based health care (VBHC) agenda. They do so for different reasons, using different foundations, and variations on the tools and tactics to effect their strategic goals. The role of governments,... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Health Care; Comparative Analysis; Health Care and Treatment; Value; Global Range; Performance Improvement

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March 2016
Case

Evive Health and Workplace Influenza Vaccinations

By: John Beshears

Evive Health is a company that manages communication campaigns on behalf of health insurance plans and large employers. Using big data techniques and insights from behavioral economics, Evive deploys targeted and effective messages that improve individuals' health... View Details

Keywords: Vaccination; Influenza; Flu Shot; Preventive Care; Health Care; Behavioral Economics; Choice Architecture; Nudge; Experimental Design; Randomized Controlled Trial; RCT; Causal Inference; Consumer Behavior; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Communication Strategy; Health Industry

March 2016 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Evive Health and Workplace Influenza Vaccinations

By: John Beshears

Evive Health is a company that manages communication campaigns on behalf of health insurance plans and large employers. Using big data techniques and insights from behavioral economics, Evive deploys targeted and effective messages that improve individuals' health... View Details

22 May 2020
Blog Post

Remembering Well and Making Meaning of Memorial Day

pure well-wishing – “hope alone is not a course of action,” one of my commanders loved to say. I believe remembering well means both taking stock of where we’ve been, and taking action – in service – going... View Details

September 2022
Technical Note

Addressing Social Determinants of Health in the American Landscape

By: Susanna Gallani and Jacob Riegler

Social determinants of health (SDOH) have gained significant attention in recent years. A growing body of research shows that a person’s health is influenced by a large number of non-genetic factors, most of which operate outside the realm of health care and are... View Details

Keywords: Socioeconomic Determinants Of Health; Social Determinants Of Health; Population Health; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Social Issues; Health Industry; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States

01 Jun 2010
News

Get Well Soon

Medical Center” (CCHMC) details how one institution has implemented its own version of health-care reform, taking overall perfor-mance levels from well below average to the top 10 percent in the industry. Coauthored by HBS assistant... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Ambulatory Health Care Services

February 2015
Background Note

A Note on the Affordable Care Act and the U.S. Health Care System

By: Joseph L. Bower and Michael Norris

This note provides an overview of the U.S. health care system as it stood in 2014, including an overview of hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and other health care providers. It also discusses the major political actions on health care in the 20th century,... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Policy; Political Process; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

October 2004 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Wells REIT II

By: Arthur I Segel and Dwight Angelini

Dr. Richard Planter, a dentist, asks his financial adviser, Michael Saris, to review an offering memorandum for a new, private real estate investment trust. After reviewing the documents, Saris needs to develop an analytical framework and provide concrete advice... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Investment; Framework; Private Ownership; Mathematical Methods; Real Estate Industry

May 24, 2016
Article

Build a Culture of Health

By: John A. Quelch

Every company, large and small, has an impact on health. It does so in four ways: first, through the healthfulness and safety of the products and services it sells; second, through its attention to employee health and well-being in its work practices and benefits;... View Details

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3 PM – 4 PM EST, 11 Dec 2017
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Entrepreneurship: Failing Well

Most ventures fail. Most lives are built on journeys that did not get to their desired destination. How can we think about failure as a necessary part of growth and learn to fail well? View Details

Louis T. Wells

Professor Louis T. Wells is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at the Harvard Business School. He has served as consultant to governments of a number of developing countries, as well as to international organizations and private firms. His... View Details

Keywords: mining; telecommunications; utilities

Blog Post

Innovation in Health Care Education: A Call to Action

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Vasant Kumar, Kevin Schulman and Karen Staman

Health care administration educators are at a crossroads: the health care sector is rife with inefficiencies, erratic quality, unequal access, and sky-high costs, complex problems which call for innovative solutions, and yet, according to our content analysis of top... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care Education; Education; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Health Industry

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June 2018 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Innovation at Insigne Health

By: Srikant M. Datar, Linda A. Cyr and Caitlin N. Bowler

Insigne Health is a fictional for-profit, integrated health insurer/health care provider whose leadership believes that by shifting members’ focus from “sickness” to “well-being” it could increase the overall health of its insured population and decrease the resources... View Details

Keywords: Design Thinking; Behavior Change; Chronic Disease; Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Design; Behavior; Change; Innovation and Management