Typical Day
Kit Anne Caboodle lets out a sigh of relief. Dinnertime, finally. It's 8:30PM and dinner is Chinese delivery at her desk. It's just another late-night dinner at the office. Yay.
Kit isn't the only person in the office that's eating dinner at their desk. Everyone's pretty freaked out because a big investor has just threatened to take his money out of BooBoo Healthcare (the HMO that she works for) because the company's earnings fell quite a bit last quarter.
As Vice President of Contract Management and Negotiations, Kit's job is to make sure she's able to maximize the profits coming in and minimize the risk of every contract entered. With a big investor threatening to leave, Kit's head will be on the chopping block if things go south.
While it's not all Kit's fault, a big factor in BooBoo Healthcare's decline has been Kit's contract negotiation. HMOs make money from their premiums, which is the net cost for services they charge companies and individuals. The key is to make sure that the premiums are substantially higher than the actual cost of healthcare. If the cost for one healthcare provider is, say, $10,000 a year, BooBoo Healthcare needs to more than cover that expense with their premiums in order to actually make a profit. Which they usually do.
The problem now is a few contracts (that Kit helped negotiate) with some of the healthcare providers that didn't fully take into account the rising costs of care. To make things worse, BooBoo took a big hit when, after having purchased another healthcare company, they found they had also acquired tons of backed-up claims cases the new company had been sitting on.
Kit was responsible for those contracts and had somehow overlooked the millions of dollars of medical claims that they would have to pay for. Yikes. When the investors found out that BooBoo was acquiring companies they couldn't afford, they panicked and threatened to pull the plug.
Kit doesn't plan on going home any time soon tonight. It's up to her to figure out a plan (or loophole) to balance out their current deficit.
At about 10:00PM, Kit meets with a small group of her exhausted team to find out what they've been coming up with for the deal. One member of her group brings up the idea that if they increase premium costs, they would be able to make up the deficit.
This idea has already dawned on Kit, but she hesitates to raise the premium. Higher premiums means higher co-pays for patients when they go into the office, which means an even higher number of patients won't be able to get the healthcare they need. Or, worse, they'll take their business elsewhere.
Finally, after about an hour of intense brainstorming, Kit's team decides on a brilliant solution: they'll buy another health care provider in a more affluent neighborhood. That way, they can increase the premiums for those who choose that healthcare provider—and those patients will more likely be able to afford it. Between that and an increase in the membership numbers, BooBoo should be able to increase its third-quarter earnings in a more ethical way.
Kit releases her team for the night so they can grab a few hours of sleep. She starts researching a new company that'll fit the bill—making sure to look for any indicators that they're hoarding backlogged cases. At about 3:00AM, once she's narrowed her search to three potential companies, she drives home. She tumbles into bed without even putting on her pajamas, and manages to get in a few hours of worried sleep before (later in the) morning.
The alarm goes off at 6:00AM and Kit freshens up, grabs an energy bar, and races back to the office. She's at her desk by 7:00AM, gathering up the guts to pitch her idea to the CEO, COO, board of directors, and investors. The team's plan is risky—but everything's risky when you handle millions on a daily basis. Kit was promoted to this position because she can handle the stress.
Pitching the idea to her superiors is pretty nerve-wracking, but Kit manages to pull it off. She's able to convince the investors to stay on another quarter in the hopes that her plan will work out. If it doesn't, well, Kit will deal with that later. Her job is mostly about putting out fires as they spring up.
After the meeting, Kit lets her team know they've escaped by the skin of their teeth. Everyone's relieved, but there's too much to do to celebrate. Kit collapses in her office chair and allows herself ten seconds to relax. Another crisis (hopefully) averted.
Once her ten seconds are up, it's on to the next thing.