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Health
Care Visionary
By Pam Droog
Davina Lane
President and CEO
Group Health Plan, Inc.
(A Coventry Company)
Davina Lane says she considered becoming a doctor, until she took
pre-med courses in college. She quickly realized “chemistry and
I were not going to work,” she says. She became a teacher, but ended
up in health care anyway, when she answered a health plan’s ad for
someone who spoke Spanish. “It was a summer job, and when it was
time to go back to teaching, I just didn’t go,” Lane says.
Instead, she remained in health care, specifically in health maintenance
organizations. Today she’s president and CEO of Group Health Plan,
Inc., the area’s second-largest HMO, serving more than 260,000 members
in Missouri and Illinois.
Lane considers herself lucky to have become involved with HMOs when
they were relatively new. “I come from California where so much
of that concept originated,” she says. “I got to try out things
and be an innovator.”
After her first lucky break, answering the ad, Lane worked for several
HMO organizations in government affairs, marketing, planning and
development. In 1990 she established her own health management-consulting
firm, which merged with a larger corporation two years later.
In 1993, she became vice president of marketing and contracting
at Healthcare Practice Enhancement Network, Inc., a health care
consulting firm. There she took a temporary assignment, interviewing
candidates for the position of CEO for HealthCare USA of Missouri.
“I became very attached to the plan and the people. I was impressed
with what they were doing,” Lane says. She ended up taking the position
herself as CEO and moved to St. Louis in August 1996. Less than
three years later, Coventry Health Plan, Inc., the parent company,
asked Lane to assume her current position at GHP, another of its
subsidiaries.
Arriving at GHP, Lane says she “tried not to undo, but re-do.” She
explains, “GHP was a very good company, nearly 25 years old then.
But it was time to ask, ‘Is this the right thing to do now?’“
Such a re-evaluation was particularly crucial to a health care organization.
Lane points out, HMOs have led to tremendous changes in health care
for members, especially in preventive care. “There’s been a real
improvement in covered benefits,” she says. “Now members are encouraged
to remain healthy, to have screenings, stop smoking and exercise.”
Unfortunately, however, “there’s been a lot of negative publicity,
which is very upsetting to us and to members who like our plan and
other health plans,” Lane says. “These occasional high-profile cases
give a distorted view of managed care, but there’s not a lot of
discussion about the millions of cases around the U.S. where someone’s
health plan made a real difference.” She adds, “Our goal is to consistently
do the right thing for people in the right place at the right time.”
Helping Lane achieve that goal are 300 area employees. A “consensus
manager,” Lane meets with them regularly, because she believes,
“You can only bring about long-term change when people share the
vision.” At quarterly, all-employee meetings, she stresses “what
it is to work for GHP and the importance of the service we provide
to our members, providers, partners and each other,” she says. “In
my experience, this is unique. It’s a way to make sure we don’t
get too far removed from what we’re supposed to do.”
At the moment, Lane is busy administering GHP’s recent acquisition
of 60,000 Health Partners of the Midwest members. More recently,
GHP has become the replacement carrier for Aetna’s St. Louis HMO
members. GHP also is involved with several e-business initiatives,
such as Benefit Express, an on-line information and quote service
for insurance brokers, and Web M.D., an electronic claims service
for providers. GHP’s member website also is being expanded to offer
information on health care products, disease management and more.
Outside the office, Lane serves on the board of the Arthritis Foundation
and the executive council of the Boy Scouts of America–Greater St.
Louis Area Council. Through GHP, she also participates in Heart
Association and Special Olympics activities.
Coming from California, Lane found St. Louis to be a culturally
rich city, and the most avid sports community she’s ever been in.
“I know more about baseball than I ever thought I’d know!” she says.
“I read the sports page and really impress my kids.”
Lane’s “kids” are age 32, 34 and 36, and her grandkids are age 8
and 12. They all live in the West and Lane enjoys visiting them
with her husband, Roy, who’s an architectural designer, artist and
writer. The couple frequently attends shows and rallies in their
British automobile, a Morgan, and Lane likes to read and garden.
“I don’t want to be boring!” she says.
That’s hardly possible, given the imagination and flexibility required
to run a health plan. “There’s no typical day in our business,”
Lane says. “We don’t make a product. We serve our members and that
means every issue is a people issue.”
Pam Droog is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer. |
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