Alla P. Gakuba 
Skills Are Transferable from One Industry to Another 
SHORT STORY # 41. Nonfiction series #1 – # 60.

One Friday was my graduation day, I received my doctoral degree, or Ph D. The next day, on Saturday, my then husband, Chrys, a physician, asked me to come to his office and see that is going on there. I was surprise, but went.

He confessed that he is running out of business. All his physicians friends already closed their offices. His accounts receivable had over $700, 000 uncollectable debt. He already took a loan and hired 2 consultants to turn his office from red into black.  But for the last 3 month they produced no solutions, except stating that: “President’s Reagan Administration drastically cut reimbursement to physicians and that is why physicians are running out of business.”

That policy was a common knowledge, one does not need to be a consultant to knew about it.  In 15 minutes I found 3 major problems.  Chrys jumped the ceiling; “Who do you think you are? A super-woman? I have here 2 men consultant. For the last 3 month they could find nothing, and you in just 15 minute found major problems?”

Seeing how desperate he was I did not challenged him. Here, on a spot I made a decision. I must put my career on hold and come to his office and turn it around. I reasoned: our children are attending very expensive schools; I am a woman, flexible, and can work in many jobs. On another side, he is not flexible, he can not work nowhere else, or learn and adjust quickly. The end result was: I turned his office around, and double his revenue.

 And then … I decided that I should not go back to my engineering. Instead, I should go to work in health care industry that is trillions dollars industry, and need my creativity. So, I start working in a big HMO where I created many innovations. My greatest innovation was “Reimbursement from Medicare” that sparked a new industry called “Medicare Advantage.” This industry has hundreds of thousands employees and is receiving from Medicare $120-$140 billion per year. That was my noble innovation.  I received for it zero money, nil.  

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