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A management training program at an insurance company was supposed to be an alternative job until Carlos Cuban joined the Secret Service, realizing his dreams of working in law enforcement.
Instead, Cubia has stepped into the C-suite at some of the largest healthcare companies in the country, including Walgreens.
In his latest role, Copia returns to his home in Michigan to lead diversity and inclusion efforts at the state’s largest health system, BHSH—a tentative name for the newly incorporated system that grew out of a merger between Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health earlier this year.
He is the first to hold the executive title of the newly formed organization that has a large presence in Michigan with 22 hospitals and one million health plan members.
Healthcare Center Dive met with Cubaia to discuss how he plans to handle his role as CEO of diversity, a position he says has evolved significantly in recent decades. Organizations now view it as an essential role to lead the overall strategy and are starting to add it to the executive suite.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Diving into healthcare: I joined an organization that is steeped in caregiving. BHSH has a health plan and hospital operations, how does that change the way you work?
Kobe: They are the stakeholders I most need to engage with, but the basic principles of business don’t change because it’s all about people.
You’ve probably heard this many times: employees are our most important asset. Every CEO says it, I don’t care how big or small it is.
If that’s really the case, and they think so, what resources do they devote to developing, retaining, and engaging their employees? So [diversity, equity and inclusion] Work does not change because its roots are all about treating people with dignity and respect.
I can sum up my work in these two words. If the people I interact with leave at the end of the day and say, “My employer makes me feel respected and included.” Then this is the win [diversity, equity and inclusion].
You have a long request. You are tasked with transformative and innovative system-wide inclusion, transforming the health of communities, improving health equity and promoting a culture of belonging. Where do you start?
Kobe: When people talk to me about this very long title, I say my role is to make people feel important. To understand, celebrate and appreciate the differences we all have. This organization consists of 64,000 people. We are a microcosm of society.
The things you want are no different from the things I want. We may start to have it differently, but we all want the same things in life. We want opportunities to succeed. We want to live a healthy and happy life.
We want to make sure that we communicate and give back to the community we deal with. what does that mean? This means that there are opportunities to award contracts to small businesses, minorities and women, to help them build economic impact so that they can build the communities in which they live.
Your role is twofold. How can you change the culture and address inequalities inside and outside the organization?
Kobe: There is inequality in health care. There is enough data and research to fill in the Library of Congress that there is inequality in the way health care is delivered. So what we’re trying to do is remove those disparities and bring them to the fore so that clinicians and patients and caregivers understand.
People want personal care. If demographics are changing, our approach to dealing with those demographics must change as well.
So we have to keep up with the market. We have to keep up with the changes in the market and we have to connect with the communities we are trying to deal with.
Can you explain what data you care about most and where you want to move the needle?
Kobe: Without hesitation, I can tell you that data will be key to the success of anything I put up.
One of the first things I asked when I got here was a data person so we could dive into the numbers. What is our starting point? What do we measure against? We will use this data to inform our strategy and then report on it because I think transparency is key.
We look at all dimensions of diversity.
It may not just be about our workforce but how we work with the community. How much money do we spend with diversified owned businesses?
One of the things I want to do is dive deep into the diversity of our suppliers, and be very intentional about where we spend the money.
I think my talents can come here and help us start taking a look at the whole organization and making sure that [diversity, equity and inclusion] An integral part of every decision we make.
from San Jose News Bulletin https://sjnewsbulletin.com/how-a-former-walgreens-executive-handles-health-equity-in-michigans-largest-health-system/
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