Question is :Your boss, the Orlberg CEO, needs a preliminary list of potential problems for an upcoming executive committee meeting.

Orlberg Memorial Hospital is a 200-bed, not-very-profitable local hospital serving a small Oregon town and its rural surroundings. You are a mid-level manager at Orlberg. Orlberg is negotiating its first managed care contract with Aetna in this not-heavily-capitated area. The hospital board of directors needs to be informed about the pros and cons of entering into such an agreement. There is a Costco in a nearby big-city suburb, many of whose employees live in this town and use Orlberg Memorial Hospital. The Orlberg CEO , who knows that you helped your son when he took a job at Costco, has asked you to examine both the Costco Aetna health plan and the proposed Orlberg Aetna provider agreement to see what crossover issues there may be. The CEO needs a preliminary list of potential problems for an upcoming executive committee meeting.

You are asked to provide a list of four issues that you feel the Orlberg board and administration should carefully consider/research/consult upon before agreeing to a contract. These can just be items that you find puzzling, areas of concern, or things that you are sure are red flags. Make sure to explain what concerns you have about each item on the list, but don't exceed the word count for the whole assignment. At this point, you need not KNOW that the issue is a problemonly suspect it. In other words, what do you see, at this point, as issues someone will need to spend some extra research or discussion time on? These can include some things you see as missing from the contract. This exercise is simply to note the potential red flagsbased on your reading so far and, perhaps, on your experience. Your boss knows you are not a managed care or contract expert, but feels that your having examined the contract before and the start of your work on your MHA degree makes you a good person to highlight issues that need attention.

In some cases, you may feel you just need more information that is not provided. In this case, specify what kind of information you would need and where that might be found. You need not seek it out; explain. For example, you might feel it advisable to know more about Aetna as a company. The end point of this assignment is essentially an annotated list of four items you find puzzling. You are not expected to be an expert on such things (yet), so do not be shy about listing items you don't understand. You may wish to consult other sources beyond those provided in the course. If necessary, see the MHA program definition of outside and peer-reviewed sources inMHA Information and Resources.