Doing Well by Doing Good

Back when I was in graduate school, I was constantly (some would suggest obnoxiously) talking about health care.  I was surrounded by fellow classmates that had come from a multitude of different backgrounds, careers, cultures, and countries, and each of them had a different perspective on business problems and how we should go about solving them.  For those that wondered why I related so much of what we studied and discussed back to health care, I would routinely offer two reasons:

1)      Health care is everyone’s problem.  “Do you think that health care is a top 3 issue for the CEOs of Wal-Mart, IBM, Google?” I would ask, rhetorically.  “It absolutely is!” I would answer, predictably.  Whether from an internal human resources perspective or an external market solutions perspective, health care is on the agenda for nearly every corporation and the executives that lead them.     

2)      In health care, one can do well by doing good.  I had classmates that were focused on careers leading non-profits.  They will do a lot of good in the world, but it’s questionable whether or not they’ll do well for themselves financially.  I had other classmates that went on to careers in investment banking.  They’ll do quite well for themselves, but it’s questionable as to how much good they’ll do in the world.  I chose health care because I get the best of both.

Every day at PRIUM we work hard to ensure that the right care is delivered to the right claimant at the right time for the right reasons.  And we’re particularly focused on the over-utilization of prescription drugs to treat injured workers.  By no means is it easy to come to work every day prepared for the inevitable fights with doctors, lawyers, claimants, and others that would rather take the path of least resistance and continue with medically unnecessary and potentially damaging treatment.  We come to work every day with our proverbial boxing gloves on. 

But it’s worth it.  We’re on the right side of a major public health issue.  And we’re giving injured workers their lives back, one claim at a time. 

Whether or not we do well may, in fact, be determined by how much good we’re able to do.  And we’re working hard to do good every day. 

Michael
On Twitter @PRIUM1