20A - Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert:

1.      Joseph Resnick, Chief Executive Officer at Premier Community Healthcare Group    

2.      I selected Joseph to fill the role of the Domain Expert because he has been in the healthcare field for over eight years and ensures proper operations for all of our offices which include Primary Care, Dental, Women’s Health, Pediatrics, and Behavioral Health.

3.      I have been working under Joey for three years now. He came on board as our CEO in 2014 and has been improving patient care and employee experience since. I simply emailed Joey and asked him to help me with this portion of my assignment; Joey visits the sites often, so it wasn’t hard to corner him, despite his busy schedule.

4.      As mentioned above, I sent him an email and set up a date through Human Resources to ensure he would have the time to help me. In the email, I included a brief explanation of my business plan and my elevator speech for his review. He advised me that I had great aspirations and should keep my ideas open because he is looking to expand behavioral health in Spring Hill; we currently only offer the services in Dade City, FL which is far for all of our patients that live in Hernando County. He was honest and told me providing mental health services and drug/alcohol rehabilitation services would require a large building to house both disciplines, large staff, and lots of funding.

5.      By including Joey into my network, I will receive proper direction in regards to the services I want to offer, what grants or funding I should access, and how to properly negotiate contracts with suppliers. In addition, he will also aid me project management, healthcare business operations, leadership development, and strategic planning and implementation.

Expert:

1.      Donna Delong, Chief Financial Officer of Premier Community Healthcare Group

2.      I selected Donna for the role of expert because she has a lot of experience in healthcare finance and accounting.

3.      I’m an employee at Premier Community Healthcare and she usually holds our staff meetings in regards to cash collection, bad-debt, and billing. It was actually a lot more challenging to get a hold of Donna, as I inquired during the end of month period, which is usually busy for our billing and accounting departments. I sent her an email, and mainly conducted everything via email due to the time-constraints.

4.      For Donna, I did not send her my elevator speech. Instead, I sent her both of my Idea Napkins, so that she can review and offer me insight as to what I will be able to do and how to achieve it. She was actually surprised at how much information I had, although I’ve never operated or managed a business.

5.      With Donna on my team, I will be able to learn the entire financial aspect of the business that I plan to run. She will provide me with information regarding budgets, business expansion, accounting, and the financial management process.

Supplier:

1.      Luis Acevedo, M.D, Drug Assistance Liaison with Premier Community Healthcare Group

2.      I selected Dr. Acevedo to be the supplier as he is the Liaison for our Drug Assistance Program at Premier. He contacts pharmaceutical vendors to verify what programs they offer for underinsured and uninsured patients.

3.      I have formally met Dr. Acevedo once, and have seen him every so often when he delivers medications for our patients. I actually contacted him via email for additional information.

4.      This was actually the first time I had ever spoken to Dr. Acevedo outside of work. He was actually pretty shocked that I had interest in the program and discussed that my business plan is going to be a challenge, but I have a lot of resources at my reach. He stated that his job is tough. There is always a battle with trying to get patients medication. If patients are a cent over the poverty scale it can make a world of a difference, and usually the outcome is bad for patient who need expensive medications such as insulin.

5.      With Dr. Acevedo’s assistance, I will learn a lot about how insurances work when handling the Drug Assistance Program and what is considered being “underinsured.” Also, Dr. Acevedo will help me learn how to research pharmaceutical companies and contact them to discuss the medications they are offering and what their guidelines and restrictions are. With the Drug Assistance Program, most patients get their medications at the cost of $11 processing fee per year! This would be extremely beneficial for me and my business because most medications are available on the program as long as the patients meet the guidelines.

Reflection:

            This was a unique experience, as most people know me to be the joking or giddy type. I could tell that it was a little different for my superiors to see me in this light, especially as a young (almost) professional. This experience has definitely helped me realize how important it is to use immediate resources, and also to come prepared. Because I am younger than the majority of people that I work with, I have to make sure I conduct research and make sure that I can properly present the information so that it is easier for them analyze it and provide me with critical feedback. This networking experience was different than the previous because I was actually able to speak to the corporate hierarchy as opposed to the office staff. These are professionals that have been in the field for over 15 years and have loads of knowledge.