Last week I introduced a concept of understanding the political landscape around you in order to successfully navigate the politics of healthcare. (Note: If you missed the discussion last week, you can find it here.) This week, I’m going to focus on another element of your political landscape—key players.
For purposes of discussion, I generically define “key players” as participants in your organization’s market who shape how healthcare services are delivered in that market. More specifically, a key player could be another healthcare provider who is a business partner or competitor of your organization. For example, let’s say you are the compliance officer for XYZ Orthopedics, P.C. (XYZ). A key player could be the local hospitals that XYZ is contracted with to provide orthopedic services, or even other competing physician practices. A key player could also be the payers that XYZ is contracted with as a network provider.
Similar to identifying key leaders, you will have to define a “key player” for yourself based on your surroundings. Since defining a key player is subjective in nature, let’s take a look at some objective ways to go about approaching this endeavor.
Identifying Key Players.
At the outset, note that identifying key players is a fluid process you’ll engage in throughout your time with the organization. That is because people move onto new positions and new key players come into the picture. Additionally, as your organization evolves, service lines change and business relationships with other market participants also change. That said, some basic questions you can research to help identify your key players include:
Which organizations are business partners to your organization?
Which organizations are competitors in your market?
Who are the key physicians in your market?
Who are other key healthcare professionals in your market?
Which payers have a presence in your market, and which ones are contracted with your organization?
Who are the legislators in your market (federal and state)?
Which legislators control healthcare legislation?
Who are your community leaders (e.g., mayor, city council, planning committee)?
Which government health programs operate in your market?
Why Identifying your Key Players is Important?
Knowing who your key players are is important for a couple reasons. First, identifying key players increases your peripheral vision of your organization and its operations. More specifically, it helps identify external pressure points that may be motivating the business decisions of your key leaders.
Additionally, having this knowledge can help you anticipate compliance-related questions or concerns your leaders may be raising related to their business decisions. This puts you in a better position to proactively develop a solution to address them.
Finally, having this information expands your knowledge of your organization’s market. This knowledge helps you establish rapport with your leaders and develop a stronger business relationship with them.
Pulling it All Together.
Similar to identifying the key leaders in your organization, knowing who the key players are outside the organization is a crucial element of understanding the political landscape around you. Once you have identified the key players in your market, you need to continually be mindful of the relationships these individuals have with your organization as you are working on newly identified compliance matters. Taking this approach will cause your leaders to see you more like a business partner, and less like an obstacle, which helps you in navigating the politics of healthcare.
Now that we have covered key leaders and key players, next week, we’ll cover another crucial component of your political landscape—developing and maintaining a sense of political awareness.