Nobody is being served adequately by health care in Akron, Summa Health’s new leader said Thursday.
In spite of efforts to provide good service from hospitals across the region, patients still have to jump through hoops to get insurance preauthorization, and they may not know how much their care will cost.
The Health Assurance Transformation Company, known as HATCo, looked at hospitals in five markets to find a test lab for improving the health care experience, Daryl Tol said at an Akron Roundtable event. Summa rose to the top because of its paired insurance company and because it would present a challenge, he said.
Tol, the president and CEO of HATCo and acting president and CEO of Summa Health, said HATCO ultimately chose Akron because it would be more difficult to transform a hospital in a low-growth city — and doing so would capture people’s attention and make HATCO’s efforts harder to overlook.
“People want to dismiss a change they find uncomfortable — so how do you make it as hard as possible for people to ignore the change that’s happening?” Tol said in a lunchtime speech in front of more than 400 people at Quaker Station.
Why did HATCo choose to acquire Summa Health?
Tol said acquiring Summa Health provided the opportunity to make unprecedented changes to health care in a “real American market” — one he described as wildly diverse with a significant set of resources and energy, but also challenges.
The path to building the future of health care is uncertain, he said, but what is clear is that old ways must be rejected.
Innovation requires uncertainty and curiosity, which Tol said have been a priority since HATCo’s venture capital firm parent company, General Catalyst, finalized Summa’s purchase in October.
“The way we think about the future has to be wide open,” he said. “I believe innovation is in the DNA of this community, and it is one of the reasons we’re excited about being here.”
Thinking out of the box
Tol said the world often demands people think in templates, but there are nuances beyond just noble versus evil when it comes to nonprofit and for-profit health care systems.
“By the way, you think in templates about us, and me, and about what HATCo’s about, and you’re probably wrong,” he said. “You use templates, and it makes you unexcited about something we hope you get very excited about.”
He said he believes to change American health care, templates have to be removed, leaving questions and curiosity in their wake.
“I had a front-line seat to dysfunction every day,” Tol said of his career. “Let’s just say health care needs help in America.”
He said this is the first time a venture capital firm has bought a hospital, so there is no past example to draw from. Neither HATCo nor Summa Health have shareholders, meaning there are no short-term pressures impacting what changes take place. Instead, HATCo can focus on creating long-term transformation.
Tol’s goals for Summa Health
Tol said he understands people may have questions about what this transformation means, and what HATCo’s intentions are, but he hopes people will “judge based on our fruits.”
Within the next decade, he hopes to transform Summa Health to better benefit the customer. He also wants to use technology, including artificial intelligence, to mitigate the shortage of doctors and nurses and allow them to “spend more time doing the work of their heart.”
“Those two alone will change everything about how it feels to experience health care in this community,” he said.
He also hopes to create a more organized billing process and a reinvented, single health care interface for managing care.
To work toward these goals, he has many questions, including:
“Why hasn’t anyone solved it?” he asked. “You should demand that your health care leaders work together to make it better.”
Next steps for Summa Health
Tol said HATCO’s headquarters are now local, and he has moved to Hudson. The search for a permanent Summa Health CEO is in progress, and Tol said he is looking for someone with humility and a transformational mindset.
In the meantime, he hopes to build trust within the community. He asked for tolerance and feedback as changes are made, as many will be the first of their kind.
“We’re so used to our leaders saying things that are not true or that don’t come to pass,” he said. “We are making a commitment, and we will be very transparent about that work, and you will see it come to pass.”
Lauren Cohen is a community reporting intern for the Akron Beacon Journal and Signal Akron. The position is funded through a grant from the Knight Foundation.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Acting Summa CEO talks about changes ahead under HATCo ownership
Reporting by Lauren Cohen, Akron Beacon Journal/ Signal Akron / Akron Beacon Journal
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