The rise of a public health manager expert : John Adlesich on healthcare industry trends: Expand the market while improving community health. New entrants can be a force multiplier and increase the overall market for health services. Look for opportunities where your services could have a significant impact on community health and partner intentionally. For example, about half of women age 40 and older do not get screening mammograms. If mammography services provided by a large retailer were successful in motivating this population, the majority of women receiving in-store mammograms would not need follow-up care. However, many would require referrals for follow-up diagnostic exams and, possibly, treatment. Establishing a two-way relationship with that new entrant — sharing data and providing easy access to hospitals or health systems — could open the door to a potentially significant flow of new referrals.

John Adlesich about behavior therapy in 2021: VB is another Skinnerian theory that has evolved from ABA that helps children understand how and why we use language. The focus is on using language rather than on the rote learning of words. Use of language to achieve a desired goal is rewarded, even if the word and/or gesture produced is not exact. According to AutismSpeaks.org, VB therapy: Is better suited to encouraging desired behaviors/language rather than eliminating undesired ones Encourages understanding language and communication in order to meet the child’s needs and wants Can be implemented by trained psychologists, speech therapists, teachers, and parents Involves about 30 hours of scheduled therapy weekly but is likely to be more effective when reinforced in all the child’s learning and living domains Uses shaping as a technique, which means that close approximations of the desired behaviors are rewarded and, as those are mastered, the demand for accuracy increases.

John Adlesich on healthcare industry trends: The California versus Texas case came to the Supreme Court from a federal appeals court. If the Supreme Court affirms the appeals court ruling, the case will go back to the federal district court to decide on the issue of severability of the individual mandate from the rest of the ACA. At the November 2020 oral argument, it looked like the Supreme Court, including one or more of the new justices, was inclined to honor the doctrine of severability, making it less likely the ACA will face complete repeal. Additionally, the new slim Democratic majority in the Senate (thanks to the Georgia runoff) makes it likely that Congress would fix the constitutional problem by reinstating the mandate with a nominal penalty. John Adlesich currently works as administrator at Marquis Companies. His latest healthcare industry experience includes positions as executive director at Powerback Rehabilitation Lafayette (Genesis Healthcare) between Aug 2020 – Jan 2021, administrator at Mesa Vista of Boulder between Mar 2019 – Aug 2020, chief executive officer at Sedgwick County Memorial Hospital between Jul 2018 – Feb 2019, interim chief operating officer at Toiyabe Indian Health Project between Mar 2018 – Jun 2018.

John Adlesich thinks that 2021 is a defining year for the healthcare industry. History gives us many reasons to doubt predictions. In 1916, Charlie Chaplin famously called the motion pictures “a fad.” In 1932, Albert Einstein said that nuclear power was not possible. In 2008, Steve Ballmer predicted the iPhone would be a flop. As these cases show, smart people may see the facts, but not the environmental factors that can shift the entire landscape. This was particularly true in 2020, a year that redefined “normal” and altered our world in ways we are only beginning to understand. In this environment, the hard job of accurately predicting future trends became that much more difficult. When I look back at my own predictions last year, almost none of them played out as I thought due to the pandemic and the complete upending of the national health care agenda. But now 10 months in, the pandemic’s true impact is starting to be understood. For 2021, job number one for the nation will be moving ahead with the largest mass vaccination program in our history, as well as improving our rapid testing capabilities and therapeutic treatments for COVID-19, in order to build our herd immunity and allow us to safely reopen and repair our badly damaged economy. This backdrop will permeate all our decisions this year, and directional trends will largely be influenced by how quickly we make progress in these areas.