Co-authored with Kristin Carey.

Competitive markets drive innovations in business efficiency and strategy. Twenty-five years ago, Big Pharma companies did little outsourcing. Fortified by robust cash flows and high profit margins, they exercised near-total control over drug discovery, testing, approvals, manufacturing and distribution.

Last Friday was supposed to be the shootout at the healthcare corral where Republican gunslingers were going to take the first major step toward repealing Obamacare. Instead legislators retreated to their offices with no shots fired.

Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the vote on the controversial American Health Care Act (AHCA) as moderate and conservative Republican Representatives pulled their support in droves.

In late January, I participated in an Oxford-style debate regarding whether healthcare is a commodity. The debate was the featured event at Tata Memorial Centre’s Platinum Jubilee Conference in Mumbai, India.

A packed auditorium of over a thousand attendees buzzed with excitement as Professor Antonio “Tito” Fojo (my opponent) and I walked on-stage. The conference theme, “HEALTHCARE: A Commodity or Basic Human Need?” put the spotlight on our contest. We were midway through the 3-day conference, and it was show-time.

Co-authored with Jake Crampton

Market forces demand constant performance improvement and optimization of resources and assets. In today’s complex healthcare marketplace, agility, efficiency and quality are the new drivers of success. To successfully compete, healthcare systems will need to overcome their preferences for "owning" sub-optimal business functions and align with strategic partners that can deliver superior products and services.

Co-authored with Richard A. Kimball, Jr.

Professional football has long since surpassed baseball as America’s most popular sport. The NFL’s Super Bowl is a national party. Super Bowls represent 19 of America’s 20 most-watched TV broadcasts.

115 million people tuned in for 2015’s thrilling New England Patriots-Seattle Seahawks contest. By contrast, only 40 million watch the historic deciding game of last year’s World Series when the hapless Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians for their first championship since 1908 (any team can have a bad century).

President-Elect Donald Trump ran his campaign on a promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. His recent appointment of Rep. Tom Price, author of the “Empowering Patients First Act”[1], as HHS secretary indicates that he is serious.[2] Price's proposal is a market-based approach that reduces government spending, narrows the range of care that insurers are mandated to cover, offsets premium increases for older, sicker patients with tax credits, caps the employer-tax exclusion, and reverses Medicaid expansion. 

The results are in. The National Retail Federation (NRF) just released their survey results for post-Thanksgiving shopping. The numbers were strong. 154 million consumers shopped this holiday weekend, up 2% from 2015 and up 15% from 2014.

Seven score and thirteen years ago this month (November 19, 1863), Abraham Lincoln delivered his renowned Gettysburg Address at the dedication for the Soldiers National Cemetery. With the ravages of the ferocious July battle still evident, President Lincoln’s two-minute address redefined American democracy and its “Union” of states within the context of the nation’s bloody sectarian battle over slavery.

Two weeks ago, I distributed a 5-Point healthcare plan for presumed President-elect Hillary Clinton. That was then. In a remarkable and unprecedented election surprise, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton and will become the 45th President of the United States.