Publications

12 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Michael Porter’s Prescription For the High Cost of Health Care

the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program). Health plans could choose to cover more services and treatments for competitive reasons, but they could not be forced to do so... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter; Health

Article

Health Care Providers Need a Value Management Office

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Catherine H. MacLean, Alexander Dresner, Derek A. Haas and Thomas W. Feeley

Many health care organizations are striving to implement a value agenda that delivers better patient outcomes at lower cost, medical condition by medical condition. To accelerate the dissemination and adoption of the value agenda, across many more medical conditions,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Value; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

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December 2014 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Discovery Limited

By: Michael E. Porter, Mark R. Kramer and Aldo Sesia

Discovery Ltd. is a South Africa-based insurance company. Started in the early 1990s, Discovery used behavioral economics and data collection to innovate in the health care insurance industry. Its founder Adrian Gore believed that the company's products needed to not... View Details

Keywords: Shared Value; Health Care; Financial Services; Strategy; Value Creation; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; South Africa

January 2000 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network - The Primary Care Unit

By: V.G. Narayanan, Lisa Brem and Ryan Moore

The Cambridge Hospital Community Health Network needed to gain a better understanding of its unit-of-service costs, which had been rising at a rate of 10% per year. The network's step-down costing system gave only aggregate costing information, and there was some... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Cost Accounting; Cost; Network Effects; Health Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts

October–December 2005
Article

Medicine's Service Challenge: Blending Custom and Standard Care

By: Richard Bohmer

Keywords: Health; Problems and Challenges; Health Industry

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June 10, 2021
Article

Preparing Hospitals for the Next Pandemic

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Barak D. Richman

The COVID-19 epidemic response has shown that the U.S. is blessed with heroic physicians and other health care providers, researchers, and facilities. But it has also revealed a health care system that was woefully unprepared for the surge of pandemic patients. In the... View Details

Keywords: Hospital; Hospital Management; Hospitals—administration; Health Care; Health Care Industry; Health Care Investment; Health Care Operations; Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Operations; Performance Improvement; Investment; Health Industry; United States

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2006
Chapter

Consumer-Driven Healthcare: Transforming the Delivery of Health Services

By: R. E. Herzlinger

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Demand and Consumers; Health Industry

September 2013
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: General Gale Pollock and Services for the Vision Impaired

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins

In July 2012, retired United States Army Major General Gale Pollock created Elevivo, a venture that worked on developing a comprehensive disease management software system to support the growing number of visually impaired individuals by providing them with tailored... View Details

Keywords: United States; Health Care; Health Care Education; Insurance Companies; Disease Management; Technology; Military; Leadership Skills; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Education; Insurance; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States

April 2003
Module Note

Design and Management of Health Care Delivery Processes, The

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer

Discusses the design and management of clinical processes in health care. Presents a framing of the clinical process as a problem-solving process that fundamentally involves learning along two dimensions and at least two levels. The two dimensions are: 1) learning in... View Details

Keywords: Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Service Delivery; Management Practices and Processes; Learning; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

07 Aug 2009
What Do You Think?

Why Can’t Americans Get Health Care Right?

Summing Up Does U.S. health care need more pull or push? There are clear symptoms that something is wrong with U.S. health care. In Edward Hare's words, "It's making us... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

February 2014 (Revised July 2016)
Case

Iora Health

By: William A. Sahlman and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan

The Iora Health case looks at a new approach to the management and delivery of primary care. Instead of having a doctor, half a nurse and two accountants, Iora deploys a doctor, a nurse and several health coaches, all operating as an integrated team. Iora focuses on... View Details

Keywords: Management; Service Delivery; Groups and Teams; Financing and Loans; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

September 2014 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Mayo Clinic: The 2020 Initiative

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Robert S. Huckman and Jenny Lesser

Describes the challenges facing Dr. John Noseworthy, President and CEO, in implementing a long-term strategy for the growth of the Mayo Clinic—a leading academic medical center with a reputation for excellence in tertiary and quaternary health care. The case highlights... View Details

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

29 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Consumer-centered Health Care Depends on Accessible Medical Records

Your patient health care data is most likely scattered throughout the medical universe, in everything from notes scribbled by various doctors to test results resting in far-flung computer systems. So when... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health; Health

2009
Book

Designing Care: Aligning the Nature and Management of Health Care

By: Richard Bohmer

Today's health-care providers face growing criticism - from policy makers and patients alike. As costs continue to spiral upward and concerns about quality of care escalate, the debate has focused on how to finance health care. Yet funding solutions can't... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Organizational Culture

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March 2016
Case

Tenet Healthcare and Conifer Health Solutions

By: Robert F. Higgins and Jeet Guram

This case explores the relationship between Tenet Healthcare, the third largest for-profit hospital chain, and its subsidiary Conifer Health Solutions, a health services company. Conifer's IT programs help healthcare providers with revenue cycle management and... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Health Solutions; Business Subsidiaries; Growth Management; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Health Industry; Texas

July 2002 (Revised March 2003)
Case

North East Medical Services

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Wendy Carter

Sophie Wong, president and CEO of North East Medical Services, a health care organization dedicated to serving the underprivileged Asian American community in San Francisco, must decide how to reposition the organization to serve patients from multiple income levels... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Human Resources; Leadership; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Health Industry; San Francisco