Humana Closes Out “Ones to Watch Week

By Jason Brandt

These days, there is no shortage of reasons to be stressed out about the “I word Im talking about insurance, and from rising rates to falling stocks to healthcare reform, its enough to make you up and move to Oman.

But one insurance company dares to go where no insurance company has gone before: into the hearts and minds of its members, “to help them achieve lifelong well-being.

Humana is a Fortune 100 company founded in 1961 to establish nursing homes, and later hospitals, with unprecedented speed and innovative design that brought patients closer to the nursing staff. In 1993, Humana devoted its services to supplying and marketing health insurance products, where it became the successful enterprise it is today, dubbed as one of the Top 5 Most Admired Healthcare Companies in the United States by Fortune Magazine.

So whats so special about Humana? First, lets take a look at their batting average: over 28,000 employees, 10.3 million members, and $30.1 billion annual revenue. Their military healthcare services administers health benefits for active duty and retired military, and Humanas RightSourceRX delivers prescription medication right to their members doors.

Humanas strength, I think, lies in their consumer programs, designed to take on childhood obesity, medical technology, overpriced healthcare, and other issues that deeply affect the medical community and its patients. Greg Matthews heads up Humanas consumer innovation division, which has produced such successful campaigns as The American Horsepower Challenge, in which middle school-aged children were encouraged to get active as they compete via an exercise video game, and The Freewheelin Bike Sharing Program, which provided athletes and spectators at the 2009 Summer National Senior Games with free bicycles, facilitating increased activity in the over-60 crowd and simultaneously reducing their carbon footprints. “The future, Matthews tells the Business Innovation Factory, “is going to be in creating health.

I hope we’ve given you a fair dose of inspiration this week. From the headlines to the hospitals, there are some important waves being made and some innovative ideas being churned out.

What are you doing to be the next “one to watch”?