Dave Oliker, MVP’s CEO from its inception in 1982 until the end of 2012, will be retiring next month. This is his final blog post for “Health Care Perspectives.” Denise Gonick is the company’s new President and CEO. Oliker plans always to be associated with MVP: as he puts it, “It’s not ‘goodbye,’ it’s ‘see you around.’”
When I started in the business 30 years ago, American health care was undergoing a major transition. A big new law, passed a few years before, promised major changes in the health insurance industry, but no one knew exactly what those changes were going to look like. Opinions and prognostications came thick and fast, while follow-up regulations came frustratingly slow. In the meantime, doctors, hospitals, employers and insurers were all on edge.
Sound familiar?
Now, as I prepare to leave it, the health care business has entered a similar era of change. Now, instead of the HMO Act of 1973, we’ve got the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. But the sense of upheaval and anxiety is the same.
And so is the opportunity for innovation and fresh thinking.
When MVP started, it was a humble operation, with limited, local aspirations. But we saw each change as an opportunity to build and expand. I learned not to fear change, but to embrace it. Not to be wary of change, but to be wary of those in an organization who can’t, or won’t, adjust. A new law always contains not just new prohibitions but also new possibilities. It’s our job to figure out how to turn those possibilities into reality.
And the first step is just that: take a first step. It doesn’t even matter if it’s not exactly in the “right” direction. The important thing is not to stand still with fear over where to go next.
That’s what I plan to do as I retire from MVP. And it makes me proud to know that the company I grew up with will embrace its future as well.
Good Luck Dave!!! Thanks for all your hard work and dedication thru the years. See you around!!! God Bless!
Thank you for the wonderful years of service
Thank you, Dave! Even before I came to MVP, I enjoyed your articles about the industry. You helped get me excited about the possibility of being here. Good luck with your next steps, and thanks for making such a great place for all of us to find our own opportunities!
I just wanted to wish you a very happy, healthy, and enjoyable retirement. The best to you. Thank you.
congrat’s on your retirement! Wishing you all the best. I’m going to miss your blogs.
Congratulations on your retirement Dave. I have enjoyed your blogs a great deal.
Dave, I have truly enjoyed these emails regarding Health Care and the laws. I will miss them. I wish you all the best as you entire retirement.
David, enjoy “Act III.”
Dave has been the important personality in the health sector and we do feel that as an important CEO he has done a great deal of work and brought all along a great motivation to the people directly. Thanks Dave for his retiring words. I think he is not leaving but a turnabout from the company.