Some Members of Healthcare Ecosystem Could Face Changes Under Current Reform Agenda

Chicago, IL – September 14, 2010 – Disclosure and transparency requirements under the healthcare reform bill potentially could have a net negative impact on the overall vigor and evolution of the healthcare value chain, according to a new West Monroe Partners whitepaper released today.  In “Leveraging Spiral Dynamics to Thrive in the New Healthcare Ecosystem,” the management consulting firm used the Spiral Dynamics evolutionary model to assess reform’s potential impact on the key players in the healthcare ecosystem—patients/members, payers, providers, and pharmaceutical/life sciences organizations.

Spiral Dynamics is a model of human development that characterizes the values and motivations of an individual or group. Based on more than 40 years of research, Spiral Dynamics is grounded in a theory originally conceived by Dr. Clare Graves. Later on, Dr. Don Beck and Chris Cowan advanced this theory as a framework for leadership and management audiences.

The paper’s authors—William Hinde, Anwer Khan, and Munzoor Shaikh, all executives in the firm’s Healthcare practice—combined the Spiral Dynamics model with years of industry experience to demonstrate potential areas of gain or de-evolution resulting from the changes imposed by healthcare reform. For example, their analysis considers that rising healthcare insurance premiums may cause consumers to be better savers and planners in order to effectively care for themselves, or that payers will increasingly band together—or adopt “tribal” behaviors—in order to offset a shift in power to consumers and providers. 

“Our analysis indicated that the dynamic and changing environment could influence players within the healthcare ‘spiral’ and have a net negative impact on the overall vigor and evolution of the healthcare value chain,” said Khan, who co-leads West Monroe Partners’ Healthcare practice. “But, our real message in this paper is not our own estimates of how a particular constituent’s position on the spiral will change; it is the fact that healthcare constituents will be forced to change, and their ability to adapt will depend not only on their own behaviors but also on the collective intrinsic behaviors of all constituents.”

The authors propose that in order to thrive in this new environment, each constituent must be aware of their own position within the ecosystem as a foundation for achieving synergy and interoperability across the healthcare ecosystem. The whitepaper includes a series of actions for each constituent group, relative to the healthcare reform timeline. 

“The use of Spiral Dynamics to describe intrinsic healthcare constituent behaviors offered me a more ‘macro’ perspective regarding the necessary balance of ‘group think’ and individual incentives that are needed in order to achieve greater collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem,” said Ketan Gitma, director of IT application services for Blue Shield of California.

For a copy of “Leveraging Spiral Dynamics to Thrive in the New Healthcare Ecosystem,” please visit us on the web at: www.westmonroepartners.com.