Solution Care Association

Developing an Integrated CSR

Strategy

Indian Institute Of Management Raipur

Sateesh Panda (14PGP093)

Santosh Kumar S. (14PGP094)
Satvik Jani(14PGP095)
Satyadeo Thakur(14PGP096)
Shantanu(14PGP097)
Shishir Sharma(14PGP098)
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Shrey Mehta(14PGP099)
Vaibhav Bhatia (14PGP100)

Structure
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Case Introduction
Overview of the US healthcare industry
Environmental & Societal Impacts in driving CSR
Solutions Care Association: Business Overview
CSR at SCA: The Implicit Mission Driven Activities
CSR as a platform for SCAs leadership
Corporate Citizenship Management Framework(CCMF)
o Overall Governance
o Products & Services
o Operations
o Community Support
o Opportunities & Challenges in building an Integrated CSR strategy
o Recommendations

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Case Introduction
o Solutions Care Association(SCA) is a US based mid-size nonprofit health
organization
o The company is considered as an emerging leader in environmental area with
its initiatives around:
o Phasing out toxic chemicals
o Investing in clean energy
o Promoting disease prevention

o SCA is deeply involved in numerous community benefit programs, has won

several awards
o But there exists a limited awareness both internally and externally about its
initiatives and their impact on business and society
o In addition, the company does not have a comprehensive way to track and
report its achievements
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Case Introduction
o Pressure mounting on nonprofit health organizations to
demonstrate public benefit
o Top management wants to leverage this opportunity to be a
model of what American health care should look like
o Developing an integrated strategy and becoming more
transparent were critical for maintaining organizations
reputation
o Mission Statement:
To provide our members and all communities with easy, quick and
affordable access to health care services, without sacrificing quality
of care.

Overview of the US healthcare industry

o Healthcare in US provided by the following legal entities:
o Health care facilities(0.82mn Hospitals, doctor offices, emergency care units
etc.)
o Health insurers & Pharmaceutical companies

o Healthcare in US led by for-profit companies

o Federal & State govts. Involved as
o Direct-care provider(Dept. of Veterans Affairs)
o Operator of health insurance(Medicare, Medicaid)
o Provider of various social services

o 45million or 15% Americans still uninsured

o Factors for high health costs:
o Fragmented, multi-payer system
o Zero-sum competition
o Focus on treatment rather than prevention of diseases
o High prices of drugs, outpatient procedures, & medical staff salaries
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Environmental & Societal Impacts in driving CSR

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Health care organization had significant impact on

environment and society

$8.5 billion on energy costs

8% of U.S greenhouse gas emission

Hospitals generated 2 million tons of

solid waste of which 15% was toxic

Hospitals were 4th largest discharger of

mercury

Water contamination with drugs

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Social Responsibility
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Helping the poor, uninsured and underinsured and supporting

universal health coverage
Help build healthy communities and clean environment
How can this be achieved?
o Employee volunteering
o Promoting healthy living
o Socially responsible investing

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Social Responsibility (contd.)

o Worst disclosure records among all industries in 2009
o Pressures for increased transparency and reporting
were growing
o To protect their tax-exempt status
o To demonstrate community benefit beyond
philanthropy
o Nonprofit hospitals accused of building luxury
facilities, charging premiums, reducing services for
poor
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Solutions Care Association: Business

Overview
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Mid-size nonprofit health care provider in the U.S.A

Headquarters in Glenbrook and Nevada
Served 4.3 million members in 5 states
80,000 technical, administrative and clerical employees and 7000
physicians
o Consisted of 4 distinct groups
o Solutions Care Health Plans
o Solutions Care Hospitals
o Solutions Care Medical Groups
o Coalition of Solutions Care Unions
o SCA was the payer as well as the provider of health care services
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CSR at SCA: The Implicit Mission Driven

Activities
o Values-based social purpose organization
o CSR engraved into business model
o Commitment of improving peoples health via quality care
o CSR Sponsor Group and Environmental Stewardship Sponsor Group
providing guidance and direction
o CSR Workgroup and Environmental Stewardship Workgroup in charge of
implementing strategy
o Community Benefit focused on developing and disseminating knowledge
o Leader in environmental stewardship, strategy to minimize
environmental impacts and promote sustainability
o Won various awards, launched nation-wide initiative
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CSR As a Platform For Leadership In 21st

Century
o Responsibility and opportunity to be a model of
American Health Care

o Addressing key social and environmental problems

o Powerful tool in assessing risks and opportunities and

implementing an integrated and aligned strategy for
becoming leader in social justice

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Responsibility and Opportunity to be a Model

Reducing
Climate
Change
Impacts

Phasing
out Toxic
chemicals

Strengthe
n
Leadershi
p position

Culturally
sensitive
and
supportive
environme
nt

Affordable
Healthcare

Employees

Patients

Suppliers
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Corporate Citizenship Management

Framework
o To manage corporate citizenship as an integral part of the business
o To assess its current understanding, organizational readiness and
performance in CSR
o Involved assessing and managing business practices in 4 interrelated domains:o Overall governance- Values, mission, principles and policies:
Embedding corporate citizenship in the governance and management structure
of the company
o Community support- Addressing social challenges: Mobilizing the
companys assets to address social issues and support social well-being beyond
creating jobs and paying taxes.
o Operations- Responsible business practices: Utilizing responsible business
practices to minimize potential negative impact on employees, environment
and society and maximize positive impacts
o Products and services- Market Strategy: Addressing societal needs with
marketplace solutions that return a profit to the company.
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Corporate Citizenship Management Framework

(CCMF)
Overall Governance
Value, mission, principles and
policies
How a companys core values, mission, vision
and governance structures support or prevent
the company from understanding and
managing corporate citizenship.

Operations
Responsible business practices
How a company manages a broad range of
operational issues, from business ethics to
health & safety, sustainable environmental
practices & human rights in the supply chain.

Community Support
Addressing social challenges
This can range from simple philanthropy to
participation in multi-stakeholder social issue
partnerships, engaging a range of corporate
resources.

Products and Services

Market Strategy
This can range from adaptation of existing
products and services to be more eco-friendly
or socially beneficial, to a fundamental
reinvention of a companys product line,
services, marketing & delivery.
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Assessment of CSR
Management and
Performance

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Overall Governance : Values, mission, principles and

policies
o The four groups were not always aligned in their goals and priorities. The
environmental Stewardship Executive Committee & the CSR Executive Committee
were linked to the groups at the regional levels.
o The association had a history of supporting public health reforms, including the
proposal for expanded healthcare coverage in California.
o The association had been successful in working with various stakeholders- suppliers,
NGOs, community organizations, government, customers and other healthcare
organizations.
o Public polling had demonstrated increased positive news coverage, that was an
indicator of the organizations brand strength and good reputation.
o Internal and external communication was identified as the key weakness of the
organization.
o The main barrier to the successful execution of CSR strategies was the difficulty in
defining the business case or how CSR helped avoid liabilities, save money,
differentiate the brand and retain customers.
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Products and Services

o Objective Of product and services
o Support Uninsured and underinsured people
o Affordable health services for society
o Minimise carbon and toxicity footprint in environment
o Minimise negative and social impact
o Maximize community benefit
o Integration of all 4 parts of the business
o Focus on prevention of diseases instead of treatment

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Products and Services (contd.)

o Implementation
o Introducing product and services to integrated 4 business
units
o 250 researchers published their research work in public
o Implementation of electronic records system
o Tracking water contaminants in pharaceuticals which was
in compliance with Clean Water Act

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Products and Services (contd.)

o Issues
o Time taken for the research and implementation was high
o Cost for implementation prevention methods for chronic disease was
high
o Perception of people about affordable product with low quality
o High cost as it functioned only in 5 state hence economies of scale
was hard to achieve

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Operations Responsible business practices

o Strongest of all the four domains of CCMF
o Key initiatives in this domain include:
o Greening its facilities
o Environment friendly products
o Diversity
o Work-force development
o Sustainability initiative of 2007
o Health and safety of employees
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Greening its facilities

o

Provided strong leadership on greening its operations

among its peers and others by:
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Improving energy efficiency

Eliminating DEHP containing products

Using renewable energy

Concern:
o

No clear approach to such environmental issues articulated

organisation-wide

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Environment friendly products

o Promoted the development of environment friendly
products
o Examples: eliminating mercury, DEHP and other toxic chemicals
from products
o Able to influence suppliers through this initiative

o Concerns:
o Expensive products
o Intellectual property concerns (manufacturers)

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Diversity
o Good communication on diversity goals, initiatives and
achievements across all four domains

o Value proposition clearly defined and strongly

supported

o Included employees, suppliers and customers

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Work-force development
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Highly unionized work-force

Good labour-management collaboration

Strong commitment to work-force development

Workshops, seminars and team-building exercises

Provided its employees with job security

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Sustainability initiative of 2007

o Healthy People-Healthy Planet-Healthy Workers

o Moved the entire industry towards greater environmental

stewardship

o SCA taken a leadership role because of this

o Concern:
o Little awareness and insufficient support for it from other domains

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Health and safety of employees

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Put a strong emphasis on health and safety

Developed safety plan as a part of its Quality plan

Reflected goals of :
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Safe culture, safe care, safe staff, safe support systems, safe
place and safe patients

Concerns:
o

Health profile of workers still poor

High health insurance costs

So, SCA should focus on cutting costs

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o Hence, there were good measures in place in area of

operations

o Had an unprecedented management of Compliance

o SCA had voluntarily implemented Sarbanes-Oxley Act

as well

o Had no instances of fraud or non-compliance with its

internal policies
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Community Support
o Key area: Supporting the communities
o Managed by Community Benefit Group

o Main activities
o Programmes to support access to health care for uninsured and
underinsured.
o Programmes designed to support community health
o Public policy initiatives

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Community Benefit Programme

o Importance
o Protected tax-exempt status
o Delivering on its mission

o Concern:
o Though It was getting stronger still much of the work was not
recorded and communicated

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Community Benefit Programme (contd.)

o Volunteering is a significant aspect of medical group
o Many employees and physicians volunteered

o Concern:
o Great work in volunteering was not successfully advertised
o No system to record initiatives by employees of CBD and SCA

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Community Benefit Programme (contd.)

o Medicaid: most significant contribution
o Helped uninsured and low-income people
o Lot of spending in services to Medicaid Patients and
uninsured

o Concern:
o Link between SCA mission and Medicaid
o Medicaid: to be communicated effectively
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Community Benefit Programme (contd.)

o SCA was strong in
o Granting access to various community clinics
o Its eagerness to share its best practices

o Concern: In the time of demand for transparency and

growing need to protect non-profit status of SCA, CB was
o Taken for granted
o Not addressed more consistently

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Strengths & Weaknesses

o Key Strengths
o Powerful social mission
o An integrated delivery system from insurance to patient care
o Healthy lifestyle programs for members
o Strong commitment and leadership in supporting environmental stewardship
o A strong medical history database and medical research programs
o Good brand reputation
o Key Weaknesses
o Poor awareness, communication and coordination- both internally and
externally
o Lack of alignment or knowledge between the groups at Solution Care- about all
social and environmental initiatives undertaken
o Shrinking lead in providing affordable insurance products
o Greater focus on measuring inputs rather than outputs

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Challenges & Recommendations

o Poor external communication
o Public awareness of CSR initiatives
o Empower customers- Promoting education and disease prevention (exhibit 6)
o Empower customers- How and Why Solution Care Association is different from other
health care providers
o Poor internal communication and coordination
o Emphasize on inter-region and inter-group communication through campaigns (exhibit
2)
o Empower employees- awareness of importance of CSR activities

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