When Georganne Chapin took over the reins at Hudson Health Plan, there was a Bush in the White House. Nearly 20 years later, there”™s another Bush in the White House, but Chapin is still president and CEO of her organization.
Talk about longevity in an industry known for its lightning-rod qualities.
She must be doing something right, like growing the organization and addressing the needs of the insured. Chapin”™s organization provides state-subsidized health insurance programs to 70,000 people in the Hudson Valley region who, for lack of money or the ability to access the system, might be otherwise deprived.
HHP has come far from those days that Chapin recalled as being the Wild West. Prior to the formation of the health plan, it was “widely recognized that Medicaid didn”™t provide access and quality that people needed and it didn”™t contain costs.” Federal regulators along with state health departments and social service agencies called for the startup of insurance plans like HHP.
In those early days of Medicaid managed care, the decision-makers were not your traditional health care business types, she said. Women and minorities were making the decisions on health care. It was not a prestigious industry. “Ten years later, the room changed; white guys started showing up.”
Back then, revenue for HHP was $350,000. The projected revenue for this year is $215 million, up from $178 million in 2007.
The organization today takes up the 49,000 square feet that represent the entire third floor at 303 S. Broadway in Tarrytown, overlooking the Hudson River and Tappan Zee Bridge. Some 300 workers are on the payroll. There are 259 at the headquarters and the remainder sprinkled among the offices in New Windsor, Monticello, Poughkeepsie, New Rochelle and Mount Vernon.
Her commitment to grow the organization helped propel Chapin to winning this year”™s Women in Business award from The Business Council of Westchester and land her in the 2008 Business Hall of Fame.
Hudson Health Plan has five other competitors ”“ Affinity Health Plan, Fidelis Care New York, GHI HMO, Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield and HIP of Greater New York ”“ but HHP has a 55 percent share of the market.
“I think managed care gets a bad rap. A lot of it is people are frustrated with the health system.”
She said one big obstacle she has faced is from people who blame managed care for “our truly crazy, fragmented and ineffective health-care system.”
However, “Hudson Health Plan ”“ a not-for-profit, government funded organization that improves access and quality, pays doctors fairly, streamlines systems and reduces bureaucracy ”“ is becoming widely recognized as a great model of health care for everybody.”
She describes the health care in the nation as “disorganized, non-sustainable, non-health care system.”
“There are too many options and few work,” she said. “We need to lead the way to a more sensible health care system. I like to think of ourselves as a replaceable model.”
Born in Texas, Chapin spent kindergarten through second grade in Hawaii, followed by three years in New Mexico, three in Kentucky and then landing in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She makes trips back to Hawaii where her mom still lives.
Barnard College led Chapin to New York City where she earned her bachelor”™s degree in anthropology and a Master of Philosophy degree in sociomedical sciences from Columbia University. During college, she spent six months in Mexico. Her love of art, especially ethnic art, is represented from paintings to sculptures in her office. She is a proponent of art in the workplace, and dozens of examples hang on the walls throughout the third floor of the headquarters.
Chapin credits her staff with building the organization. She said mentoring and things such as personal-empowerment seminars are important to bringing any new employee along; and she can cite numerous examples of employees who have grown in the organization.
“You try to create a culture where anyone can succeed,” she said. “I”™ve had the opportunity to see dozens of people come in and change themselves; sometimes find a new life.”
Taking her own advice, a couple years back she added to her resume when she received her law degree from Pace University.
Not letting the organization just lope along and fall into that realm of mediocrity, in 2004 she founded Hudson Center for Health Equity & Quality, better known as Hcheq.
Hcheq is an independent, not-for-profit organization that promotes “the delivery of high quality health care for all people, through education, advocacy, and the development of information technologies for improving the quality, safety and efficiency of health care.” Its activities are funded through grants and revenue from the sale and support of streamlining software.
Community outreach offices are now complemented via COVs ”“ community outreach vehicles. The four bus-like vehicles are mobile offices, affording workers the ability to take information onto laptops and then wirelessly send the info to the home office.
As for being noted for her hard work and innovative ideas, Chapin said, “To be recognized as a legitimate business is cool.
“Not-for-profits are businesses. We make huge contributions to the well-being of communities. My staff is thrilled about the award. We”™re all celebrating.”
