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Regina Herzlinger  

Economist / Authority on Healthcare / Author

Dubbed by Money magazine as the "godmother of consumer-driven healthcare," Regina E. Herzlinger is known for her pioneering research, analyses, and predictions in the areas of managed care, consumer-driven healthcare and healthcare focused factories – two terms that she coined. Also the first woman ever to be tenured and chaired at Harvard Business School, she is the university's Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration.

The author of numerous best-selling books on healthcare, Herzlinger's latest, Who Killed Health Care?, was selected by the US Chamber of Commerce as one of the ten books that "changed the debate in 2008" and was profiled in The Economist. For her preceding book, Consumer-Driven Health Care: Implications for Providers, Payers, and Policymakers, she received the American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award for History and Public Policy, and was featured in The Wall Street Journal and Managed Health Care Executive. Herzlinger also wrote the acclaimed Market Driven Health Care, and penned "Let's Put Consumers in Charge of Health Care," an article for the Harvard Business Review.

Herzlinger has been recognized with several awards and honors, including: Consumers for Health Care Choices Pioneer in Health Economics Award; American College of Healthcare Executives' Hamilton Book of the Year Award (twice); Healthcare Financial Management Association's Board of Directors Award; and Management Accounting's Research Prize. She was recognized as one of the "100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare" by Modern Healthcare and named one of "Healthcare's Top Ten Thinkers" by Managed Healthcare. Herzlinger was inducted by the American College of Physician Executives as an honorary fellow and, in recognition of her work in the nonprofit sector, was named the first Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh. She was chosen by Harvard students as an Outstanding Instructor of the Business School's MBA Program.

Seen as one of the country's most articulate experts on healthcare, Herzlinger continues to address healthcare organizations and businesses nationwide. She has been a board member of several firms in the consumer-driven healthcare arena and has served on the Scientific Advisory Group to the US Secretary of the Air Force. Herzlinger received her bachelor's degree from MIT and her doctorate from the Harvard Business School.

Speech Topics


The Impact of Entrepreneurs on Consumer-Driven Healthcare

Now What? Implementing Healthcare Reform

Who Killed Health Care?

Consumer Driven Health Care.

What if health care was run like retail? Herzlinger examines the benefits of putting decisions firmly in the hands of citizens through an open-market system where hospitals, doctors, and insurers would compete for patient-consumers.

Health Care Policy and Reform.

How did we get here? Based on research and insights from her bestselling book Who Killed Health Care, Regina Herzlinger untangles the motives and methods of the insurance, hospital, governmental, employment and academic sectors.

From the Inside:Washingtons Current Health Care Agenda

Named as the godmother of consumer-driven health care, Regina Herzlinger has been and continues to be an active participant in helping shape the implementation of health care reform. The White House, senior members of Congress and the medical community all call on her to provide insight, recommendations and forecasts on how changes to the system will play out. Often compared in stature on the topic to Hillary Clinton, Herzlinger has a tremendous amount of power and influence in helping shape and reform the U.S. health care system. One of the most accomplished and articulate experts on the health care system, Herzlinger provides a deep inside knowledge about what lies ahead for America now that extensive reform has passed.

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The Inevitable Consumer Driven Health Care Cure

With Congress passing health care reform and having finally achieved universal coverage, reform efforts to the health care system are just beginning. The country now faces a stark choice: should we continue down the government-centric path of the health care reform legislation or one that gives consumers greater control and choice? Either choice means monumental change in health care financing and delivery. Author of three best-selling books on health care, Regina Herzlinger is considered the leading advocate of consumer-driven health care and is widely recognized for the groundbreaking role she has played in pointing the way toward a bold new health care plan. In this compelling presentation tailored for the audiencebe it comprised of health care service providers, technology companies, insurers or buyersHerzlinger shares her insights on:

  • What else needs to happen to fulfill the goal of the reform legislation

  • What the reform legislation will mean for consumers and how they access the system

  • Proposed innovations that do good and do well

  • Whether this is just the beginning of more sweeping health care reforms

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