HSA4140 Strategic Health Management and Planning
Tiffany Grant
Zoran Mijatovic
Natasha Thomas
Whitney Young
September 28, 2014
St. Petersburg College
Dr. Ellison
Humana Inc. Strategic Plan
Humana Inc. is one of the largest publicly traded health and supplemental benefit organizations in the United States. The company is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky and throughout Delaware. Humana operates through two business divisions: Government and Commercials. Humana has undergone many major changes, all of which have boosted the overall performance. Humana claims that they are always looking for ways to improve their strategies and operations in order to gain a competitive advantage and become more profitable.
Figure 1: Humana Organization
Strengths
A. Humana Inc. has a great organizational structure that is known for their growth in membership enrollment. It is organized in a multi-divisional structure (M-form), which is compromised of seven divisions divided in two broad segments. The first segment is government, which includes: Humana Military Healthcare Service, Humana Medicare plans. The second segment is commercially driven by: Humana Dental, Humana One, Humana Pharmacy Solutions, Humana One Dental, Humana Ventures (See Figure 1) (Gilday, 2010).
B. Humana operates in 50 states but their current focus is on 18 of those states. Through acquisitions, Humana can greatly increase its presence in their existing states (Gilday, 2010). Humana’s strength also lies in the fact they tend to focus more on Medicaid, Medicare, and Military plans, which gives them a greater advantage against those larger MCOs that do not market those types of plans.
C. Having a diverse set of health care plans available for individuals, employer groups, and government-sponsored programs is what makes Humana a leader in the health care provider market. Through government-sponsored programs, Humana offers: State- and federally- funded Medicaid, the federally funded Medicare Advantage, and TRICARE, which is a program for armed services personnel (Gilday, 2010).
D. Humana offers plans that cover medical, dental, vision, and life insurance policies as well as offering many different services programs such as, pharmacy solutions, primary care services, integrated wellness services, and home care services (Gilday, 2010).
E. Humana is the one of the few insurance companies on the market with government contracts, which is why the company is sure to make a profit. A significant portion of Humana’s income comes directly from federal and state government sponsored health care programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare programs. As of December 2011, Humana has approximately 11.2 million members in its medical benefits plans, furthermore, 7.3 million members in specialty programs (Reuters, 2014).
F. Humana has the ability to increase its senior citizen segment by aggressively marketing to that demographic. Humana is known for having great employees that are highly skillful in sales and marketing, which is one of the main prides of Humana. The diverse set of medical plans that Humana offers, complement both its sale force and marketing segment are targeted for the population in need.
G. Having amazing, skillful sale forces, Humana is able to strategically make its way into new markets. Humana has been doing acquisitions at a rate that is said to be the best in its class, and relies on their management to find the right way to enter each new market, that is available to them. Humana has proven to obtain those resources that are necessary for expansion, which has validated their way that has resulted in an increase in their membership levels (Gilday, 2010).
H. Use Of Technology In R & D To Create Market Specific Products:
Humana’s research and development efforts have increased Humana’s innovation center. They have upgraded their techniques by incorporating a refined analytics program, which is a