With an increased need to demonstrate program outcomes for state Medicaid programs, it is important for managed care health plans like CareSource, which serve Medicaid consumers, to develop new ways to administer health benefits and reduce the costs on State and Federal governments. In an effort to generate new innovative solutions to health-care challenges while also developing new executive-level leaders, CareSource University (CSU) created a program called “Leadership for the Next Generation.”
Program Details
The program spans seven months and encompasses several key executive-level skill areas, including:
- Entrepreneurship
- Finance
- Managing Human Capital
- Critical Analysis
- Operational Excellence
- Building Business Strategy Through Innovation
CSU leadership and CareSource’s CEO, CFO, CAO, and COO co-create and deliver the program content.
The capstone segment of the program incorporates learning and tools from all prior sessions in order to build a strategic plan and outline the thinking behind the plan. Participants spend a day experiencing the challenges of leadership in building a complete business strategy and communication plan through a collaborative team process. The participants then make a formal presentation of their strategic plan to CareSource’s Core Team, which includes the president and CEO and her direct reports.
The most recent group of senior leaders envisioned an innovative approach called Life Services, a service designed to be a more holistic approach to consumer well-being by addressing all aspects of their socio-economic environment and supporting them to move into a sustainable lifestyle. The CEO was so impressed that she incorporated the approach into her strategic planning presentation slated for the next day. The idea then was adopted as an innovation strategy for CareSource’s 2014 business plan.
After adoption by the CEO, the next step in the process was to create an innovation team from individuals identified from CareSource’s succession planning process to take Life Services from concept to implementation. This innovation team was taken offline for 25 percent of their time and supported in completing extensive research and learning around the socio-economic factors affecting CareSource consumers. At the end of their six-month stretch assignment, they concluded that a job focus was the most impactful first step in supporting the successful implementation of the full Life Services concept.
In launching “Job Connect,” more than 180 employees volunteered their own time to participate in “Job Connect” employment open houses for CareSource consumers. During the open houses, CSU facilitated learning sessions to teach CareSource consumers valuable employment skills and matched them with local employers.
Results
To date, 24 percent of leaders completing the Leadership for the Next Generation program have been promoted to executive-level leadership positions.
In addition, “Job Connect” has succeeded in producing employment for 60 consumers, with four being promoted and another 60 in the employment process pipeline. This approach has gained both state and national political attention with legislators who are considering how Life Services could transform the way Medicaid programs are designed in the future.
