Heather Kane, UnitedHealthcare

This month’s cover story is about “making the healthcare industry work for Arizonans.” Those of us who work in the industry are increasingly aware of the need to educate our communities to the fact that healthcare requires a holistic approach. Providers, payors, healthcare systems and community organizations all recognize that we cannot treat a person’s physical needs without attending to the social, emotional and mental challenges that are often at the core of medical illness. Eighty percent of health outcomes are influenced by factors far beyond what can be treated in a doctor’s office. 

Social drivers of health such as access to affordable housing, nutritious foods, lack of reliable transportation, social isolation and behavioral health challenges each have a role to play in our community’s overall health and wellness. The healthcare industry has a distinctive role to play in investing back into Arizona communities to positively impact these social drivers of health. At UnitedHealthcare, we are bringing together technology, clinical expertise and strategic community collaborations to help ensure more people have access to the quality care and supportive social services they need. I believe that is how we ensure that the healthcare industry is working for Arizonans. 

I talk about this in this month’s cover story, and I and other healthcare leaders share more about advances and collaborations we’re bringing to Arizonans in innovative approaches working within our own companies and our industry as well as across industries. And for many, it is reshaping healthcare.

The world of investing is also on the cusp of reshaping our lives. As Dean Newton discusses in the Economy feature “The Compelling Case for Impact Investing and Its Potential to Reshape the Future,” there is true opportunity to achieve success for the double bottom line of fiscal performance and social responsibility.

But attention to social responsibility may be a challenging reset for business leaders wanting to take that route. Jon Miller and Lucy Parker delve into the growing focus by businesses on “doing good” in their recently released book The Activist Leader: A New Mindset for Doing Business, a portion of which they adapted for In Business Magazine to use as the Roundtable feature, “How to Stop Corporate Naysaying.”

And, as it does annually, In Business Magazine offers its readers a look at healthcare options during what has become the “open enrollment” period. Special section “Healthcare Decision: An Open Enrollment Guide to Benefits” showcases a few programs and provides multiple categories of healthcare services here in the Valley.

There’s a healthy mix of other business-relevant content in this October edition of In Business Magazine. I hope you enjoy the many informative articles. It has been my pleasure to help bring you this October edition.

Sincerely,

Heather Kane
CEO for Arizona and New Mexico
UnitedHealthcare

Heather Kane is the CEO of Employer & Individual plans for UnitedHealthcare in Arizona and New Mexico. She is based in the company’s Phoenix office. As CEO, Kane manages a team of more than 150 and holds ultimate responsibility for the health coverage and well-being needs of nearly 800,000 UnitedHealthcare commercial members across the state. Her division offers fully insured and self-funded plans, along with wellness and care management programs to employers, with a focus on ensuring better health outcomes, better experience and better cost control for UnitedHealthcare clients.