June 26, 2012  – As CarePlanners launches, I really want us to take a close look at “why CarePlanners” and how CarePlanners is going to impact the world. Any analysis like this for me always starts with thinking about Jerry Maguire.

In the movie starring Tom Cruise, Jerry Maguire is a sports agent who has an epiphany that his business had become more about protecting its status quo and growth than about servicing its clients. In his words, “we are less ourselves than we were when we started that organization.”

Taking a Page from the Jerry Maguire Manifesto

How does a company, an industry or even a country avoid being the subject of a Jerry Maguire manifesto? It goes to the beliefs and cultural imperatives an organization puts in place when it is founded. Culture is derived from the collective leadership and beliefs of those involved in the organization at its outset – culture is not a one person job, it needs to be each and every person’s passion. Again, harkening to Jerry Maguire, his first boss said “you and I are blessed to do something that we love.”  It’s the same underlying motivation at CarePlanners – our passion and our love for what we are doing translates into supreme service and a deep desire to do what is right for those we serve.

Learning from Mistakes

Don’t worry; we won’t quote Jerry Maguire in every blog post. But there is much to learn from others – to make sure we don’t repeat the mistakes they couldn’t realize without 20/20 hindsight. Why is there an opportunity for CarePlanners? Because the healthcare system no longer effectively services the people it was nobly created to serve. This is not to question the integrity of the people within the system, but to question the industry’s foundation itself.

Make no mistake – it would be better off for everyone if CarePlanners wasn’t needed. That would mean the healthcare system was working in a cost efficient and operationally sound manner. It is not.

Creating (Better) Change

Saying “that’s how we’ve always done it” is no longer good enough. Kicking the can down the road hoping that others will fix the system is no longer good enough. Protecting the formerly progressive systems that have become defensive in posture is no longer good enough. We need to do better, and we will.

The success or failure of CarePlanners will be in our execution. And our execution’s success or failure will always be directly correlated to our mission, our beliefs and our culture of responsibility. In Part II and Part III, I will describe CarePlanners’ mission and vision. – Alan Blaustein