Our First Think Different Event

Today was our first Think Different event in Boston. This is a road show we are doing around our new positioning and how health care companies need to get outside the box to improve the effectiveness of their communications. It has four external speakers plus our CEO.
[Spoiler Alert: If you are attending an [...]

Are You Going To AHIP Institute 2008?

Are you going to the AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans) Institute 2008 event in San Francisco in June?  I will be there and would love to connect.  Just let me know.

Facts About The Uninsured

The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation has a project called Cover The Uninsured.  As we all know, this is a major issue which is only getting more pressing with the economy the way it is today.  With food going up and gas going up, it is putting more and more economic pressure on people.
Granted…not all the [...]

Silverlink Coming To A City Near You

I am really excited about a new initiative at work.  We have pulled together a great set of speakers and are doing a road show around the country.
The speakers include:

E. Kinney Zalesne, co-author of Microtrends
Liz Boehm, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
James Taylor, Author on Enterprise Decision Management
Fred Jubitz, Former VP of Consumer Cards at American Express
Stan [...]

Upcoming Webinars

If you missed it last week, I am giving a repeat performance of my webinar on retention.  I am going to talk about driving customer satisfaction and building loyalty to improve retention which is and should be a hot topic for everyone in healthcare. (Sign up here for the 23rd at 1:00 EDT)
Additionally, my peers [...]

Next Webinar - Retention

The webinar I did last month on using patient communications to drive pharmacy trend went very well. We are continuing our educational series. I also have the honor of giving the next one on a topic I have discussed here a little, but one which I feel very strongly about. Here it [...]

Flooding

I am fortunate to live in high ground in Missouri, but this is definitely the closest the flooding has come.  As close as 2 miles away, my friends neighborhoods are almost inaccessible.  They had to have a fire department park in their neighborhood for a few days since once the water crested, there neighborhood would [...]

Health 2.0: The Companies

This is the third of three posts that I intended on the Health 2.0 conference which just ended in San Diego. This one is really just a laundry list of some of the companies that participated.
For sponsors, I was able to grab their logos:

 

For other companies, here is a quick list of some of [...]

Health 2.0: Observations

(Note that this is a follow-up post to my summary of the conference.)

First, I have to say that I feel old. At Monday night’s reception, someone guessed that I was late 40’s (not that there’s anything wrong with that but it’s a decade off). For years, I wanted to be older (as a [...]

Health 2.0: My Notes

I am just flying back from the Health 2.0 conference out in San Diego. I feel like there is a ton of information that I want to share so kudos to Matthew and Indu for the great job. (And, if you make it to the end of this post, you must really like [...]

Webinar: Prescription Trend Mgmt Through Communications

I must admit that one of my favorite things to do is give presentations. I used to do a lot of webinars at Express Scripts and have done a few others as a consultant. So, with that, I am really excited to schedule my first webinar as a Silverlink employee which I am [...]

A Second Look – Eli Stone Controversy

I must admit when I saw there was controversy over the content for the premier of the new show Eli Stone that I was really surprised. My view was that it was a show with an interesting story line not a news report. I honestly didn’t realize that the topic of vaccines causing [...]

PBMI Day One Notes

Just getting back from the first day of my first PBMI conference. Very pleased.
Here are some notes / observations:

PBMI was bought in the past 2 years by PSG (Pharmaceutical Strategies Group) which interestingly has numerous ex-Express Scripts people working there.
Great opening speaker (E. Kinney Zalesne) who is the co-author of Microtrends (a few blog [...]

Medicare COB Conference

If you are a Medicare provider, you might be interested in a conference Silverlink is hosting on Coordination of Benefits (COB). It is open to potential clients only, but here is the general information. If you are a potential provider, here is the basic information about the event.
Medicare Compliance: Strategies & Tactics for [...]

Drug Mix - Saving You $300

You can go and buy the AIS audio conference on drug mix for $300, or I will give you my executive summary of what you likely would hear.  (Note: I did not listen but used to do these presentations.)
Here is what they say they will address:

How an optimal drug mix can result in significant savings

Brand [...]

Are You Going To PBMI or Health 2.0?

If you are going to either the PBMI conference in Phoenix (2/26-2/29) or the Health 2.0 conference in San Diego (3/3-3/4), I will be there.  Drop me a note ahead of time or look me up when you are there.  Thanks.

On Vacation

I keep thinking I will get through my pile of draft posts to do a big data dump of ideas in the blog, but I have been crunching all week to get some major deliverables pulled together.  It’s now almost 11:00 for the 4th night in a row.
Given that I leave tomorrow and have one [...]

The Next Health 2.0 Conference

If you’re interested, the next Health 2.0 conference agenda has been released.  It looks like it will be even more interesting than the first conference.  From the agenda, you will see that Matthew and Indu have organized a good mix of large healthcare companies (McKesson, Kaiser, Regence) with new and rapidly growing healthcare companies (BeWell [...]

BCBSA President Interview on Forbes.com

If you are interested in what the president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is talking about, you can see a quick 5 minute video interview on Forbes.com.  He talks about his original vision when he joined of wrapping a strong national support organization around a group of companies that are embedded in the [...]

The ESI Outcomes Conference

It was always fun to prepare for our annual Outcomes conference at Express Scripts. What research did we have? Who would it surprise? How would it impact us or clients? Anyways, all of these presentations and even some audio are on the website (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007). I pulled a few slides / [...]

Shot Across the Bow or First Blow - Walgreens

I expected to see a lot more buzz yesterday after Walgreens announced that they were going to pull out of several contracts with CVS/Caremark over reimbursement.  Obviously, the two are huge competitors so I don’t find it surprising at all.
I assumed CVS would push on Walgreens through their PBM contracts.  What I wonder is whether [...]

The Express Scripts Outcomes Conference

In my time at Express Scripts, one of the most interesting events was our Outcomes conference. We invited about 700 clients to come to beautiful St. Louis for 3 days to hear from our research group on trends and new programs to manage pharmacy benefits. All the large PBMs (Medco, Caremark, Express Scripts) [...]

Student Ideas

When I got my MBA at Washington University, we had a business plan competition.  [Which I won one year and took second the other year.]  It was fun and challenging.  You got to present to a group of CEOs at the end.  (Mine included Chuck Knight (Emerson Electric) and Andy Taylor (Enterprise Rent-a-Car)  But, it [...]

Zyrtec to Go OTC

By now, everyone should be familiar with Claritin (loratadine) and Prilosec going OTC.  They were really the first two blockbuster drugs to go OTC (over-the-counter).  Motrin / Advil is available both as a prescription strength and OTC.  Zantac (ranitidine) is also available OTC.
From a personal perspective, I am happy.  I have two kids with allergies [...]

AHIP Panel

I am at the AHIP meeting here in Chicago. This morning, I had the opportunity to facilitate a panel which included three speakers on the topic of communicating with members:

Stan Nowak, CEO of Silverlink Communications
Marc Palmer, CEO of ConnectYourCare
Dennis Barnes, CEO of Marketing Direct

It was a great discussion with strong attendance. I think [...]

Mental Health

I meant to post this during Mental Health Week (Oct 7-13), but I obviously missed the window.  This was from an American Airlines magazine (Hemispheres) that I read a few weeks ago. 
“Many physical conditions are a result of mental issues, for instance, sleeping too much or too little and having low energy.”
Obviously, this is a [...]

AHIP Business Forum 2007

Are you going to the AHIP Business Forum in Chicago - November 12-14th?  If yes, let me know or look me up. 

ConnectYourCare Acquired by Express Scripts

I was glad to see my former employer - Express Scripts - jump into the CDHC space with an acquisition.  They bought ConnectYourCare which is a fairly new company that had jumped into the market over the past few years with money from RevolutionHealth.  It provides online tools and a card for managing your HSA [...]

Indu Subiaya with Health 2.0 quotes

Matthew Holt commented about his partner in the Health 2.0 conference - Indu Subaiya, MD.  I haven’t talked with her, but I didn’t want to ignore her.
Here is a link to her blog with a video summarizing some of the best quotes from their recent conference. 

People are the new algorhithm
P&G knows more about my laundry [...]

iGuard Offering and Drug Safety Webcast

I always enjoy getting e-mails from readers promoting new ideas or suggesting sites or events to look at.  I received an e-mail the other day about iGuard which is a new company which is focused on delivering patient information about drugs as new information is identified. 
It is interesting although I am not sure how much [...]