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Monday, January 19, 2004
Great resume, tough job ahead
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||
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After consulting for giant corporations around the world, Thomas Dunne is tackling his biggest assignment ever in Augusta. Dunne this month assumed leadership of a new state agency charged with bringing universal health care to Maine. As executive director of Dirigo Health, Dunne will oversee the design and marketing of an insurance plan that he says will be affordable to hundreds of Maine's small-business owners, many of whom currently cover only some or none of their employees. Other priorities include launching the Maine Quality Forum, a group that will help develop a state health plan and define quality measures for health care, and hiring 25 or more people to staff the agency's new offices. For all of his time and effort, he's asking for $1 a year. "I'm interested in making a commitment of giving back," said Dunne, a former partner at Accenture, an international management consulting company. "Rarely in life do you get to drive major change, and this is one of those times. For me, this is very gratifying." In a state where tens of thousands of people go without insurance, driving change is no small task. But Dunne is optimistic about the potential impact of the new insurance plan that Dirigo Health likely will offer in partnership with a commercial insurance carrier. The product, to be introduced in July, will be initially targeted at businesses with fewer than 50 employees. "A successful scenario would be having 30,000 contracts covering 50,000 lives within 12 to 18 months," said Dunne, who lives in Cape Elizabeth. He's been in talks with seven insurance carriers in the past several months, and plans to put out a request for proposals in February. He's looking for a company that will be flexible about adding features such as tax-exempt health spending accounts. "These are things that the large employers tend to adapt first," Dunne said. "My personal sense is that oftentimes small businesses are kind of on the tail end of innovation. What we're doing is accelerating the delivery of innovative services to a marketplace that tends to get it late." Skeptics of Dirigo Health say Dunne will have a tough job selling the new insurance plan. Members of the business community and conservative groups have questioned whether the plan will deliver any real savings. "He's got this incredible task ahead of him and he doesn't even have the monetary incentive to be successful," said Tarren Bragdon of the conservative think tank Maine Heritage Policy Center. Bragdon is also the author of a quarterly publication critical of Dirigo Health, called Dirigo Watch. What Dunne does have is drive and business know-how, says Trish Riley, director of the state Office of Health Policy and Finance and the architect behind the Dirigo Health legislation passed last year. "He's worked with insurance companies, he's done start-up companies, he's run his own small business," Riley said. We've got the health policy. He's got the nuts and bolts of how to make a business. It's a perfect marriage." Dunne is a Queens, N.Y., native who holds a master's degree in business administration from Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. After nearly 20 years of globe-trotting for Accenture, he decided to retire while he was still in his 40s. Dunne moved to Maine with his wife last spring because of her "long-standing family ties," and he looked forward to a life of leisure. But golf was fun for only so long, and in the summer Dunne started eyeing volunteer opportunities at the Preble Street Resource Center for Portland's homeless. He also picked up an application for the Peace Corps. Around the same time, he heard about Dirigo Health. Drawn to health care because of past work with the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, Dunne called Riley. Over coffee with Riley, Dunne shared his zeal about joining the Dirigo Health team. Soon after, he was bringing his expertise to Augusta and helping Riley's office develop a business plan, timeline and budget for Dirigo Health. The agency expects to operate on $3.65 million a year, largely covered by insurance premiums paid by enrollees. About $52 million in one-time federal fiscal relief is being used to start the program. Dunne accepted the role of interim agency director in November, while the Dirigo Health board conducted a nationwide search. His plan was to volunteer for whomever the board selected. When the board decided Dunne was the perfect person for the job, he accepted humbly. So many people before him had laid the foundation for Dirigo Health, he said. "This is a big team effort," he said. "I can't reinforce how pleased I am to be able to step up to the plate to make contributions here."
Staff Writer Josie Huang can be contacted at 791-6364 or at: jhuang@pressherald.com
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