Taking a page from national payers such as Aetna and Humana, Independence Blue Cross opened an innovation lab this week. The idea is to use it to examine the best ways to integrate startup ideas from DreamIt Health companies and research insights produced with its provider collaborations at Penn Medicine and New York University Langone Medical Center.
Insurance companies have a reputation for moving slow as molasses and being resistant to change. But the changes mapped out by the Affordable Care Act are forcing them to make changes. Will adding a few white boards and comfortable chairs in a separate location from its corporate offices make that much difference at IBC?
Terry Booker, the head of corporate development, and Tom Olenzak, director of innovaton, think so. In a phone interview with MedCity News, they talked about the center and how they view its role in their collaboration with entrepreneurs, research partners and the company staff.
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First, although one of its uses will be as a hub for the DreamIt Health classes, it’s not an incubator so much as a “greenhouse of ideas.”
The space is designed to have a non-corporate atmosphere to encourage the free flow of ideas — a little like something you might expect to see at say, a younger company or a startup — but certainly not an insurance company. By taking people from different parts of the company and sitting them down with entrepreneurs and providers they can offer a better perspective in their discussions about how new products can be integrated.
“Our overall effort is to use collaboration and innovation as a magnet between payers and providers and consumers.” Booker said.
Which brings up the question of how the consumer oriented technology and population health tools from startups and research partners will find their way into daily practice at IBC.
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“The healthcare industry as a whole, particularly in the payer space, is one about workflow,” Booker said. “The great thing about entrepreneur entities is they are great at coming up with ideas. You have to spend the rest of the time figuring out — does this fit in our system?”
Then there’s the question of how a startup would fit in to a big company if IBC takes a lesson from UnitedHealth and Aetna and starts acquiring companies. How many of the employees would remain after an acquisition? Would it be just the founder who had the idea or the employees that helped him or her develop it? Or would they just focus on the company’s IP?
“Most entrepreneurs don’t want to be part of large organizations,” Olenzak said. “We have different strategies. Does the company need to be merged into the corporate entity? Everyone has a different perspective on that and that’s just one of the things to think about. Most entrepreneurs do not have the wherewithal to see that process through.”
Booker added, “We take the view that there are some things that startups do very, very well. We look at them on an individual basis.”
Olenzak pointed out that there are many ways that IBC can work with startups.
“Obviously, we could write a check and buy a company, or create a joint venture, or take an investment stake and help them grow as an independent agency. But some companies make more sense to grow independently. We do have a lot of tools at our disposal to come up with a lot of solutions.”
It’s not out of the question that with the push to standardize the insurance industry outlined in the Affordable Care Act, some of IBC’s future customers could be other payers as the complexities of ACA are put into practice.
“Healthcare has historically been siloed and the way the industry is working together, there’s more collaboration, more handoffs and more care coordination,” said Olenzak. ” I think you will see all the different payer organizations coming to different conclusions on what’s the best way to achieve their goals.”
