CEO Stories: Navigating the Consumer Health Care Experience
After studying macroeconomic issues through the lens of Marxist theory, Trott found herself leading market research projects for Fortune 500 companies, graduating law school, and working as a healthcare consultant for a leading Midwest law firm before founding Quantum Health. Managing more than $7 billion a year in claims, Quantum Health helps client companies and their employees save time and money.
Kara Trott, founder and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based Quantum Health, does well for her clients – employers looking to lower worker healthcare costs – and her clients' employees, who are trying to navigate the healthcare maze. Care coordinators, known inside Quantum as healthcare warriors, simplify and clarify the healthcare journey for patients. Clients see markedly lower healthcare costs – reductions of around 5% in the first year –and patients have a more positive experience, with lower out-of-pocket expenses.
Marxist Theory and Entrepreneurship
While a degree is Marxist theory might appear to be an unlikely foundation for an entrepreneur, Kara Trott, a firm believer in the free market system, says it helped influence the way she runs her company. She doesn’t believe in command and control management, and says that as president and CEO, she views herself as at the bottom of an inverted pyramid, supporting the rest of the company.
A Different Approach to Healthcare
Her first job out of college was in market research, analyzing consumer behavior to help companies rethink their store layouts, and their marketing, distribution, and merchandising strategies. From there she went to law school, and eventually led the healthcare consulting practice at prestigious law firm Bricker & Eckler. Combining the strategies she learned in market research with her knowledge of healthcare, Trott sought to redefine the consumer’s experience with the healthcare system. She has placed consumers at the center of the map, a contrast to the traditional approach of looking at providers and their inefficiencies and challenges.
Explosive Growth
Trott believes there’s the opportunity to extract as much as 20% of unnecessary costs in healthcare by reducing duplication and waste. Clients see the potential: Annual client growth has been 30% to 40%. Quantum is one of a handful of companies to land a spot on Inc. Magazine’s list of the fastest-growing small companies for more than 10 consecutive years.