Humana's competition for change

By Jen McCabe Gorman

Health benefits heavyweight Humana Inc. (HUM – 11.5M members) recently launched ChangeNow4Health, an ambitious, optimistic coalition inviting anyone to submit ideas to fix America’s ailing health care system.

The top three entries receive a $10k prize, and the top 20 get publication exposure galore, including a spot in Humana’s forthcoming e-book, “Tomorrow’s Health Care.” The big winning concepts have a chance to secure further funding and incubation support from Humana.

Full Disclosure: Shortly after this interview was conducted, ChangeNow4Health became a sponsor of The Health care Blog. However, if you think that in any way influenced the content of this article, you don’t know the Health 2.0 folks very well…

On the second day of World Health care Congress 2008 in Washington D.C., I interviewed Elizabeth Bierbower, Humana’s Vice President of Product Innovation.

Bierbower, who has spent her career working with consumers, told me that ChangeNow4Health is looking for doable ideas that can quickly be put into play in the game as it is now, not how we wish it were.

They’re also harnessing the power of the semantic Web by partnering with Innocentive.com, an online community that posts projects from groups like the Rockefeller Foundation.

The contest has 4 categories:

• Helping Consumers Make Smarter Health Care Decisions
• Simplifying the Business of Health Care
• Preventing Sickness and Maintaining Health
• General Innovations in Health Care

The contest runs through July, and winners will be announced in August. Judges include industry experts, who are looking for “both an idea’s potential to bring about true change in a tangible way” and “feasibility for implementation now.”

Here’s a transcript of my conversation with Bierbower.

JMG: Why start an innovation competition? Do you really think ChangeNow4Health communities (and winners) can ‘fix’ the broken system?

EB: We started this because we “understood changes need a wide variety of participants to collaborate and discuss.” Humana staff recognizes the value, intrinsic and extrinsic, of broad participation in the program. Good ideas generate discussion, which generates more good ideas. Good ideas also generate viable business models (hopefully), and $10k is not a lot of capital to drop for a decent, implementable business concept (or to recruit top folks from winning teams who would otherwise fly under the radar).

In addition, those submitting a concept must give Humana and ChangeNow4Health a “free, perpetual, and non-exclusive license to practice any idea submitted for this challenge.”  So Humana doesn’t just gain the winning ideas, it can bite off bits and pieces of submissions if they have utility value.

Humana is using the classic innovation melting pot model – throw a bunch of creative innovators together in a pot, add hot water in the form of critics/interrogators, and boil until you have an implementable plan or product design.

Every innovation competition designers’ worst nightmare isn’t too much participation, but rather a lack of viable ideas posted on the site. (Humana doesn’t seem to be having any problem there. The site has more than 100 submissions).

ChangeNow4Health planners obviously thought this through…the best way to encourage participation is to incentivize it. You’re always liable to get more entries when prize money and a significant chance at corporate incubation are the stakes.
Although at first blush 10k might not seem like a big award, other startup/innovation exchanges like TechStars in Boulder award each founder $5k for the summer, for a max of $15k, to develop and incubate a business model with the aim of securing big venture capital buyers in just under 3 months.

So Humana’s program is ‘competitive’ in this sense as well, but entrants have a better chance of winning because the focal point of entries must be specifically health care related.

JMG: What are you actually hoping to get from ChangeNow4Health entries?

EB: We want to get the snowball rolling downhill and be a catalyst for change. We’d love to see some ideas come to fruition, that’s why we’re offering incubation in the Humana Innovation Center. We want to see some things pushed out to market.
It could go anywhere really. When you ask for “ideas” – this is the idea hive, the hub. We want to have this interaction that allows us to pick from the best and the brightest.

We’d even love to see partnerships develop – we’d love to see some of the Blues, Aetna – let’s not work against each other. If it’s for the betterment of the consumer why not?

JMG: How are you going to get the word out about ChangeNow4Health in the blogosphere?

EB:  We’ve partnered with Dr. Jacque Sokolov, he’ll bring in some policy wonks, and hopefully they’ll start blogging as well.

In addition our three online communities are moderated by three prominent health care bloggers. They include Fard Johnmar, founder of Envision Solutions, Clive Riddle president of MCOL, and Dmitriy Kruglyak of Trusted.MD. Online communities include: Helping Consumers Make Smarter Health Care Decisions, Simplifying the Business of Health Care, and Preventing Sickness and Maintaining Health.

JMG: In other markets how are you spreading the good word?

EB: We’re using advertising in the medical community, business journals and employer communities, but also we’re hoping to reach general consumers. Our CEO often speaks about change so we have this covered.

The Innovation xChange is looking for practical ideas and suggestions for improving the health care system. All participants in the system, from providers and health plans to consumers and government, are encouraged to join in the discussion.

JMG: Where’s the industry going, and how will consumers be involved?

EB: At ChangeNow4Health we want to be an incubator for the industry. Our goal is to bring together like-minded people to share best practices and develop solutions. We want to find good ideas and bring them to fruition. Consumers are smart. We believe they can make wise decisions and take control of their health and health care financing. We don’t have all the answers.

But at least Humana knows who does – the health care consumer. Let’s see what comes out of ChangeNow4Health – it’s going to be an interesting summer for consumer-directed, patient-centric care companies, that’s for sure. Depending upon the success of this inaugural campaign, ChangeNow4Health may host an annual ideation competition.

JMG: Do you think change will happen all at once, or will we gradually integrate consumerism into health care?

EB: There are a lot of moving parts. We think incremental change, over time, has the best chance of success. But the current discussions need to go beyond talk and move towards action. Innovation xChange demonstrates a commitment to doing just that.

THCB Readers – To submit an idea, register at ChangeNow4Health.com. Or just ‘lurk’ and view the community submissions before voting on ideas.