There is a copy of my resume attached, for those who are interested in such things. The story of Howe Healthcare Consulting isn’t quite told by the resume, however.
While I was still employed in Little Rock, I began to consider the future and saw that one of the pathways open to me was consulting. As I looked forward to my eventual return to somewhere in Northern California or Southern Oregon, I took stock of what I had done in my career, and realized that I had a portfolio of experiences, of perspectives, that might be valuable to others who were trying to solve problems related to healthcare. Those experiences included:
- One year as commanding officer of the medical services offered on a small post in central Alaska;
- One year as commanding officer of what was essentially a MASH unit (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) attached to an infantry brigade garrisoned at another post in central Alaska;
- Over 20 years of rural primary care medical practice including some surgery and obstetrics;
- Acting as sole proprietor and eventually leader of my practice as it grew to five providers;
- Negotiator for my group as we merged with three other primary care practices;
- Major player in the formation of a multi-county primary care group in the far-northern counties of California;
- Major player in the formation of a primary care alliance covering all of California north of San Francisco and Sacramento;
- Filled every office and chaired every committee on my hospital’s medical staff; sat in Board of Trustees meetings at the hospital for some time;
- Delegate to the CMA House of Delegates for 20 years;
- Member of the Board of the CMA for 8 years;
- Secretary of the CMA for 4 years;
- Received a Certificate in Medical Management followed by the Master of Medical Management degree (Tulane University, 1997) after a rigorous course of study.
- Worked for 2½ years for a physician-owned HMO based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana;
- Worked for over 3 years as Vice President of Medical Affairs for a large (150 physicians) multispecialty medical group in Modesto, CA;
- Worked for almost 8 months for an HMO in Arizona;
- Worked for 7½ years for a hospital-founded non-profit HMO based in Little Rock, Arkansas, as the Vice President for Medical Affairs.
So, both to promote my books and to promote myself, I got this website built. Initially, we did a fair amount to adjust it, but my web manager moved on to other things and so did I, and so the website languished and so did my career as a consultant. The website you are looking at is a complete rebuild of what was built in 2004 (or so), massively repurposed to be primarily a site for communication.
When I finally retired, I was still interested in “giving back” to my community from what I had learned in all those years. But I was busy, and self-promotion, while it was something I would undertake if necessary, seemed pretty dreary compared to the other things that were going on in my life, “on the farm.” I have done three small chores as a “consultant,” and requested to be paid for none of them. I am still doing the third – I sit on the Board of Directors of Rogue Community Health, a local FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Clinic).
So, the bottom line is that I am not “seeking” work as a consultant. Nonetheless, my experiences and skills have not left me. I have negotiating skills. I have sat on both sides of most of the negotiating tables I have encountered. I know accounting and finance. I know a lot about how hospitals and doctors bill and how insurance companies pay and what the insurance company rules are and why they are likely to be there. I listen well; I am willing to challenge “common understanding;” I know how to hold up a mirror to operations. To the extent that these skills are of interest, to the extent my various perspectives are interesting, to the extent that I have time to do so, I am still willing to help.
Give me a shout. Or don’t. If you ask and I accept, I promise to do my very best to help. If you don’t ask, I won’t.