Yes, I am still here at Monida, although I have been away from the blog for several weeks. I have reduced my time working for you. And now it’s time for me to take my career transition to the next level. When my daughter graduated from high school and moved away for college, my plan was always to move on to bigger things, outside the state. The opportunities for someone with my background abound. Joelle is off to college in 3 months, so that time has come. But leaving is not so easy. I have spent my whole healthcare career, after training, in Western Montana. I raised my kids here. My wife grew up in Corvallis. And I care about the future of healthcare in Montana. So when an opportunity arose to stay, to continue to collaborate with all of you, to live in Montana, but to apply my skills like never before (which is what I was after), how could I say no?
Think of it this way: I will be looking at solving similar problems as you, but from a different angle. Allegiance Benefit Plan Management is giving me that opportunity. In retrospect, I should have recognized that the healthcare payer industry was the best fit for an MD, MBA – many business problems in economics and finance are tied to the insurance methodology and actuarial science. But I wouldn’t ever work for just any payer. Allegiance sees their work as a collaboration between providers, payer, employers and patients (members). They are primarily a third party administrator. This is a very important point because it allows me to continue to work with you and to continue to carry my message that I started at Monida: We will only make progress and succeed in today’s healthcare markets if we truly collaborate. If we all have the same goal of putting patients first, we should be able to accomplish great things.
And so, I will pass the blog on to someone who gets it. She sees the vision, often better than me. She believes in you, and struggles alongside you with provider issues, from a rural medicine perspective, from an independent practice perspective, and from a primary care perspective. She is a collaborator, invested in helping to make healthcare delivery better in Montana as well as in her Ronan-Polson community. She has recently received a Master’s degree in Healthcare Innovation, so she has excellent perspective. Dr. Cara Harrop will share her insights and continue with provider education for Monida members. I know that you are in good hands.
As always, my door will remain open. You can contact me about anything.
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