As Point32Health’s executive vice president of corporate strategy and strategic partnerships, Jeff Weiss works with providers and other strategic partners to jointly define innovative solutions to improving health care affordability, access and outcomes for everyone across the health care system. Read more from Jeff on the opportunities and trends he’s paying attention to that will help to develop long-lasting partnerships in health care.

Q: As someone new to Point32Health, what does it mean to you to serve in a leadership role at a not-for-profit health plan?

Jeff Weiss: It is a privilege. I have spent much of my career advocating for plans and providers to break down the self-fabricated divide between them. I now have the opportunity — and goal — with other highly talented colleagues within Point32Health of helping to “change the game” and find new ways to innovate with providers and to increasingly do so jointly, as partners. To improve access, outcomes and affordability, we need to bring health care delivery and financing closer together, and we need to find new ways to tackle the very real challenges in health care today. As an independent regional plan, we have the flexibility to think differently, take risks and act.  

I also deeply appreciate the chance to work across Point32Health to enhance our focus on how we strategically select, manage and grow other kinds of industry partners — something I think will be key to our future strategy and success.

 

Q: You’ve spent your career helping organizations navigate transformation. What strategic opportunities do you see for Point32Health to innovate in partnership with providers?

JW: While we continue to transform ourselves, we need to do the same in how we work with providers. To do this, we need to get on the same side of the table, starting with building a deep understanding of each other’s businesses, goals and concerns. If we can build from there to then innovating together on the cost, provision and management of care, I think we have a real ability — even if gradually — to solve some big problems together for the benefit of patients, members and customers. With this, we also need to stay deeply connected to the communities we serve together throughout New England. All of this is core to fulfilling our mission at Point32Health — guiding and empowering healthier lives — and to developing joint strategies with providers that best serve the communities in which they operate. There is no shortage of strategic problems to solve and with a joint focus on what is best for patients/members and employers, I am confident we can work in partnership to develop new solutions to improve wellness, care and cost.

 

Q: What principles guide your approach to building meaningful, long‑term partnerships in health care?

JW: A constant commitment to interest-based negotiation, joint problem-solving and delivering on commitments to build and sustain trust. I seek to stay consistently open to differing views and new ideas, leading with questions and careful listening and challenging embedded assumptions that might no longer be valid. All this rests on my mentor Roger Fisher’s sage advice: Be soft (always respectful) of the people and hard of the problem.

I also believe that the strongest partnerships are built with intention, a clear need to address, goals defined and with complimentary capabilities brought together between the partners. The development of any partnership must begin with a very clear definition of the value we seek to jointly produce — for example: improved affordability, care navigation, outcomes, management of risk, interoperability, administrative efficiency or member experience — and how that value will be perceived and realized by the “end customer.” There are many questions, of course, to explore thereafter, but we must start with the clear value proposition for what the partnership seeks to produce, often seeking early and direct feedback from those the partnership aims to serve. 

There is no shortage of opportunities for partnerships to explore, and we must focus on engaging partnerships as a means of fulfilling an important strategy or goal, not as an end in and of themselves. For the partnerships we choose to build, the value for the people and communities we serve must be clear, substantial and measurable. We and our partner also must be fully aligned on that intended value and how we will deliver it together.

 

Q: As health care continues to evolve, what trends do you believe will most influence Point32Health’s long-term strategy?

JW: There are many, but among the most significant are the escalating cost of care, the advancement of what AI will allow all of us in health care to do and ongoing innovation in how clinical treatments — including pharma therapeutics — are developed and delivered.

At the same time, there’s an important growing focus on how factors beyond clinical care — such as social and environmental conditions — play a critical role in health outcomes. We’re also beginning to see a broader shift toward prevention and keeping people healthy, rather than focusing solely on treating illness. Demographic changes, longer life expectancies, ongoing challenges with (and opportunities for) managing chronic illness and the expansion of care in outpatient settings and within the home will also continue to influence where and how care is delivered and how we at Point32Health will focus on how best to meet evolving needs.

 

Q: What excites you most about the opportunity to shape Point32Health’s long-term role in transforming health care affordability and access?

JW: There are three top things for me right now:

  1. Working across the organization with incredible colleagues filled with diverse expertise, experiences, perspectives and ideas. Diversity is the fuel of innovation, if engaged and put to work.
  2. The ability to help shape a truly different way of working with providers. This will be critical to address the challenges and to fully leverage the many exciting positive innovations and advancements mentioned above.
  3. Our collective ability as an organization to improve the lives of people throughout New England. Every day, we must rise to the challenge of making care for members and customers less costly and complex, improving access and outcomes and increasingly focusing on keeping people healthy. This is our job, as much as it is the job of providers, and to accomplish this, we need all the courage and creativity we can muster both within Point32Health and with our partners.