Mr. Alkire joined Premier in 2003 and has served as COO since 2011. He brings more than 20 years of healthcare experience to the table, with previous positions at Deloitte & Touche and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.
Premier, a healthcare group purchasing and solutions organization, works with approximately 3,600 hospitals and 120,000 other providers. In addition to leveraging contracts for its providers, Premier maintains a clinical database containing data on purchasing, clinical transactions and discharges.
Here, Mr. Alkire talks about Premier’s biggest challenges, his parents as role models and the last memorable things he read.
Question: What sparked your interest in healthcare?
Michael Alkire: I came from a family where there were a lot of healthcare practitioners — both of my uncles were physicians. There was a lot of healthcare and medicine that surrounded me, which pushed me down a path of focus on healthcare and wellness. My parents also got me into athletics at an early age. They were very busy and always a little ahead of the curve with their interests in eating well and keeping fit.
When I joined Deloitte, we worked on support for the Medicaid program for Arizona back in the late 80s. In the mid-90s, when healthcare reform was talked about, I became more aware of the need to look at how we could transform it for my generation and for my kids. All of that led me to where I am today.
Q: Who is a person you consider a role model in your life and why?
MA: I have to start with my folks. Both of them grew up lower-middle class. One of my grandfathers was a coal miner, and the other worked in factories. My folks were the first educated generation in their households.
They have a passion to try new things and adapt to the environment. They’re still healthy, they ride bikes and they just came back from Hungary. When my mom — who’s 80 years old — was visiting me [recently], she was asking me to help download applications on her iPhone. My parents taught all of us about discipline, passion, artwork and accountability. We were always taught to work hard and persevere, and good things will happen.
My second group of role models is the executives at Premier member healthcare systems. I work with the most passionate, innovative people. They’re doing remarkable things in terms of providing care to their communities but at the same time, looking for new innovations that can be life-altering, like genomics and precision medicine. I’m honored to work with them every day.
Q: What inspires you?
MA: The first area of inspiration is my family, who supports me and what I do. They understand that with a role like mine, it takes a lot of travel and time away.
My kids are at various stages in their lives. As I watched them graduate high school and go on to college, I began to understand that they’re no longer those little guys running around the house. They’ve got fantastic thoughts and motivation for learning. My oldest son swam in college, my middle daughter was a high-level gymnast and my youngest is a tennis player.
Innovation inspires me, as do new technologies that can bring down the overall cost of healthcare. My team members at Premier inspire me as well. The last thing that inspires me is our ability to help our healthcare systems perform.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge for Premier in the past year, and how is Premier overcoming it?
MA: Everything our healthcare systems are dealing with somehow flows down to our organization. Our members are still challenged as they move from a fee-for-service to a value-based care delivery model. There’s a lot of technology and services they need to change the way they’re providing care.
There’s also the background on wellness. How can our systems keep populations healthy? They get paid for taking care of sick patients, not for keeping people healthy. Our healthcare systems have to pay the bills. With declining reimbursement models, they have to figure out how they will afford those life-changing therapies and the most effective ways to utilize care.
Q: What is the last memorable thing you read?
MA: The most memorable thing I read recently was about University Hospitals in Cleveland. It was in The Washington Post, but I got it out of The Dallas Morning News. The article is about high-cost drugs and University Hospitals’ implementation of a Zagat-like system.
Also, my daughter is a freshman at the University of Seattle, and her application essays were just awesome. She was a very recognized gymnast and won the state of Texas tournament a couple times. In her essay on personal achievement, she talked about how she overcame fear, persevered and always had a focus on the end game. Reading it showed me how quickly your kids mature and grow up.
Finally, my brother pushed me to read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. That was provocative.
