Sales to Self-Funded Insurance Plans?: 6 Tips for Healthcare Innovators

The secret to this part of healthcare is caring about health.

One of my favorite terms that would never survive a surgical operating room (OR), culturally, is “Go-To-Market Motion.” This is followed by “Product-Market Fit.” All physicians in the US complete surgical rotations as part of our medical training, and in the OR, we use straightforward language. Things need to “work.” If they don’t work, we let colleagues know, with varying degrees of deference and humility, that they didn’t. But no one gets out of surgery, as a surgical team member, with a patient gushing blood on the table and casually calling it a day.

Getting a product to market in healthcare for some customers is similar to surgery. It has got to work. People need to be helped. It can’t be just a good idea. But, much like in surgery, traction is essential. That is a bad joke; I’m sorry.

Health Technology Futurists—nerds, if you will, have had a difficult time bringing their products to market. “We save money!” That sounds like a great sales pitch… Until you actually underst…