Module 2 : Understanding The Healthcare Environment

The SWOT analysis is an approach generally used by the executives or upper level management of an organization to construct an outline of the company’s strategic direction. First I will cover and discuss the internal strengths and weaknesses and will also cover the external opportunities and threats of both Allstate Insurance and Target. I will start off by covering Allstate Insurance, their internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. A quick overview of the company is that they are in the business of selling personal property and casualty, life insurance, etc. Being a former employee of Allstate Insurance in the auto insurance side of the business, I can attest to the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization. One of

A regular assessment of a company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats or SWOT analysis is an effective measurement to discover the internal and external issues, strategies, and tactics for a long-term market plan. Understanding of a company’s present status is fundamental for achieving the future goals. The first CVS or Consumer Value Store tore was selling beauty and wellness products and based in Lowell, Massachusetts by the Goldstein brothers and partner Hoagland in 1963 and it's grown to be the largest pharmacy in the United States with its health and beauty aids as its main products. After the acquisitions of many other pharmacies, CVS changed its name into CVS Health to further reflect its commitment to health

Knowing the importance of a strategic vision, every company undertakes a complete analysis periodically. In order to create a strategic plan the parties involved must know every aspect of the industry and the company at hand. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the retail drugstore industry and then focus on Walgreens, the industry leader in terms of sales. As part of the in-depth analysis of Walgreens, its major competitors will also be described and analyzed. The retail drugstore industry consists of all those stores that contain a pharmacy and sell prescription drugs. It also includes businesses that sell prescription drugs online and through the mail. Most retail drugstores also offer other

Aetna Medicare Plan (PPO) offers advantages such as comprehensive annual examination and fitness facility membership at without a cost, according to Aetna. It also offers in-network coverage regardless of where a member travels to.

Aetna is one of the nation's driving differentiated health care benefits companies, serving an evaluated 46.7 million individuals. Aetna offer a wide extend health insurance products and services including medical, drug store, dental, behavioral wellbeing, group life and disability plans.

Our business strategy involves providing customers with differentiated, easy to use, secure products and solutions that leverage information to meet customer needs. The types of technology and levels of service that are acceptable to customers and members today will not necessarily be acceptable in the future, requiring us to anticipate and meet marketplace demands for technology. (Aetna Inc., 2014, p.65) Even with this chosen strategy, company’s still need to be competitive on cost.

Pat Geraghty, CEO of Florida Blue, has worked in insurance for three decades and readily acknowledges that the changes due to HealthCare Reform known as Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires radical changes within health insurance companies in order to remain competitive and profitable (Abelson, R., 2013). In order to facilitate this change, Geraghty is seeking a multi-pronged approach for the business model and strategy at Florida Blue. Many people don’t realize but as a former employee I am aware that a large margin of profit for Florida Blue in the past comes from investment earnings. That will continue to occur. Additionally, Florida Blue has sought to leverage into new models of care such with subsidiaries such as Diagnostic Clinic and

The principle of a strategic plan is to define how the organization is making a decision and in what direction to pursue the strategy. This approach aids the team in focusing on its future. The policy will cover a five-year plan. A Feasible plan can only result in careful attention to the organization’s performance objectives and a detailed analysis of the internal and external environments (Sadeghi, 2013). A SWOT analysis is performed to allow the managers to consider both the inner and outer conditions of the organization. When an organization is planning an elaborate process, targeted at the future, irrespective of its nature, the managerial, economic, technical or technological, etc. necessitates, in advance, a detailed analysis of the organization’s current state. Or its procedural components or basic levels on which it will occur (Verboncu, 2016). The planning starts by assessing the current situation of the Cleveland Clinic’s business and environmental factors. A SWOT analysis will bring awareness of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. “The SWOT analysis helps the managers to formulate a strategic plan that considers the organizational ability to deal with whatever situation that is current. The planning process is ongoing, to continuously deal with changes in the environment and competitive conditions” (Mathis, 2011, p.39). The healthcare industry and its competitors are having a hard time with finances, but the Cleveland Clinic has substantial financial gains, a stellar record and excellence leadership, operational efficiencies, its human assets and human resource management all are a strength. The weaknesses are lower levels of patient satisfaction and efficacy, limitation of geographical growth, communication with other healthcare organizations, and transitioning to

In July of 2015, Anthem, Inc. announced its intention to acquire competitor Cigna Corp (Mathews & Hoffman, 2015). According to the company’s joint website, betterhealthcaretogether.com, Anthem is one of the nation’s largest health service companies that covers approximately 38.5 billion people and boasts annual revenue of $78.5 billion. Led by president and CEO Joseph R. Swedish, Anthem will purchase smaller health service company, Cigna. Cigna covers around 14.5 billion people and has $36.5 billion in annual revenue (bettertogether.com, 2015).

“Our values carry through our thoughts and actions every day, inspire innovation in our products and services, and drive our commitment to excellence in all we do” Chairman, CEO, and President Mark Bertolini stated. Aetna’s core values consist of three factors such as, simplicity, focus, and connection. These factors provide a simple process to help Aetna give customers an enhanced health care system. An improved health care system leads to doctors, hospitals, and health networks to stay focus on Aetna’s customers and their health. Aetna also believes that a more effective system is the one that stays connected, using the right technology to connect individuals and their health care team; thus, they will be able to provide a more convenient care for their customers. Aetna follows four more values. These values include showing their integrity by doing the right thing, showing their excellence by delivering the highest quality of service, showing appreciation by listening and respecting their customer, and showing inspiration by exploring new ideas to make a better world (Aetna Values, n.d.). The company’s values are significantly important to achieve the company’s mission and entitle the culture of the

Change can be devastating and not always everyone agree with it. The biggest transformation in healthcare is the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. With the new health care system the government mandated U.S. citizens and legal residents to have health insurance that resulted in the rise of insured individuals. Due to the new policy more people have access to health care that means more primary physician needed to accommodate the rise of new patients. Shortages of physicians not only in the primary care area but also in specialty care area are projected between 46,000-90,000 by 2025 ("The Physician Shortage," n.d.). The pay-for-performance focuses on quality that will eventually decrease the costs (James, 2012, p. 1). This system will give a reward or a bonus to the health care providers whenever they meet or exceed quality standard that are being set (James, 2012, p. 1). In contrary the system can also penalized those providers that are unsuccessful in providing the indicated goals or cost savings (James, 2012, p. 1-2). There are 2,225 hospitals in 2013 that were fined under the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) which is part of the ACA regulation (Anderson, 2014, p. 11). For the institutions to survive with the new system a lot of hospitals are merging that a year after the ACA implementation there were already

The health care environment is fast- paced and hectic, and delegation is an essential part of nurses’ work. When delegating, leaders and staff must master the tools of communication to ensure that nursing care is completed safely and that unit goals are met. Fostering effective communication is accomplished by using the elements of trust, respect, and empathy (Huber, 2014-a). For this post, I will discuss the issues of the power, conflict, communication, and delegation presented in the critical thinking exercise in chapter nine.

The company is well established and offers telehealth services to over 100 million people in 46 states and the District of Columbia (Mohney, 2016). American Well has developed a network that includes more than 40 health systems, independent health plans, and thousands of employers (American Well, 2016). In 2016, American Well introduced the Exchange to the market, which is predicted to place the company in an excellent competitive positon now and in the future.

The aim of this background research report is to establish general background details on the company Aetna. This report will identify some key characteristics about the company. This will include a brief overview of the company history. Additionally, this report will provide details about the company mission, the range of services that Aetna provides, as well as logistical details of how Aetna goes about its operations. Lastly, this background research report will go over a few examples of how Aetna has appeared in recent news articles. Aetna’s financial reports are due in the last month of the year, December, so because of this time frame, a majority of the information in this research report will be in regards to publicly available information from 2015 and prior. By aggregating all of these details about Aetna, the report can provide insight into complex structure of the company, which may be influential in regards to internal communication issues within the organization. Synthesizing all of these details together into this report will allow for a complete story of the company that was assigned to the SI-506 group.

By looking at how other organizations are performing, they can pinpoint areas where they are failing. Organizations are also able to detect techniques that can advance their own procedures short of reinventing the wheel. They are able to fast-track the course of transformation because they have models from other organizations in their industry to help influence their modifications (What is Benchmarking?, 2015). Benchmarking is vital in the process of assessing the ability of Plaza Home Health to provide service above market competitors. Based on the weaknesses and threats identified in the SWOT analysis it is crucial that