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Case Study

Between a rock and a hard place at RWH

By Arnaud Chevallier

4 pages

August 2020

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Reference: IMD-7-2186

In the US, before performing surgery on a patient, a doctor first requests the patient’s insurance provider to approve the cost of surgery. To do so, the insurance company asks an expert to decide whether the surgery is necessary (make a “go/no-go decision”). Sandra is the CEO of RW Health (RWH), a startup that brokers a product (decisions on whether to authorize medical procedures) between suppliers (professors at partner medical schools) and clients (insurance companies). The demand for RWH’s service is growing rapidly, and Sandra’s biggest challenge is to deliver enough decisions. To increase its capacity, RWH recently signed an agreement with Major Medical School. However, last night, the director of MMS, informed Sandra that MMS would not be able to provide what it had contractually agreed to. What should Sandra do?

Learning Objective

Structure the decision process
Identify a better overarching question for the decision
Generate innovative options
Identify appropriate criteria to evaluate the options

Keywords

Decision Making, Problem Solving, Strategic Thinking, Medical Diagnostics, Demand Growth, Contract Renegotiation, Evaluating Options, Strategy, Medical Diagnosis

Settings

United States of America
Healthcare, Health and Medical Services, Finance and Insurance, Insurance

Type

Generalized Experience

Available Languages

English

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