UnitedHealthcare announced an interesting new product the other day that, in essence, is designed to insure your insurability. As I understand it, UnitedHealth Continuity enables a consumer to purchase individual health insurance at any time, but not activate it until they feel they need it. In other words, a 50 year-old-person who’s planning to retire at 55 can buy the insurance-to-insure now, while they’re covered under their employer’s health plan and presumably healthy, and then buy the full individual coverage once they retire and/or lose their employer’s benefits. Should the individual develop a chronic illness in those five years between the purchase and the activation of the plan, they’re covered, no pre-existing conditions questions asked. United’s Web site says the policy is also aimed at people who decide to become self-employed, suddenly find themselves unemployed or take a different job without benefits. Users can turn the coverage “on” or “off” as they need it as many times as they want.

This novel concept illustrates how the health care industry is adjusting to the current state of the economy. United has seemingly done its homework and come up with an innovative product to capitalize on new and different opportunities. I think we’ll see a lot more of this going forward as economic conditions force businesses in general and health care entities in particular to be more inventive and think outside of the box. Old products (including this UHG Continuity offering) may become obsolete in the near future, depending on what systemic changes the new administration is able to implement, but change inevitably brings renewed opportunity as well. I'm told that the Chinese symbol for "crisis" is the combination of the symbols for "danger" and "opportunity." Perhaps something good — innovation — can come out of the economic crisis after all!

I had the pleasure of sharing some exciting personnel announcements with the folks at MEDecision on Monday. The two additions and one promotion signal good things for our company as we continue to build on the momentum created by the release of our Alineo and Nexalign products earlier this year.

Scott Storrer is our new President and Chief Operating Officer. He brings with him 15 years of executive leadership experience in the health care industry with a number of high profile organizations including Liberty Mutual, CIGNA and, most recently, Cardinal Health. He will be responsible for managing and overseeing all of our operations. We also added Jim Adamek as Senior Vice President of Sales. Jim has more than 20 years of experience in sales and sales management, primarily in the software technology arena. And our own Kathy Gincley has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Development. Kathy has done an outstanding job in her role as Vice President of Development in the years she’s been with us and her promotion is well deserved.

These organizational changes allow me to transition back to having more of an external focus. I will be able to spend more time with clients and prospects, on speaking engagements, legislative affairs, and industry involvement. I will also continue to spend a considerable amount of time refining our health information technology strategies and investments and, of course, I’ll have more time for blogging.

All of this amounts to some really good news for MEDecision, particularly in light of current national and international economic conditions. Things are quite firmly on the upswing for us and I’m excited about the possibilities that lie ahead.