Leadership
Staying power
How Marty Hauser built SummaCare for the long haul with good decisions, clear communications and a little bit of risk
By Matt McClellan
Smart Business Akron/Canton | August 2008
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To hear him tell it, the beginning of Marty Hauser’s tenure withSummaCare Inc. was mostly a case of being in the right place atthe right time.
Before there was such a thing as the Summa Health System, agroup of physicians from the Akron City Health System was frustrated from dealing with the complexities of managed care organizations and insurance companies. The doctors wanted to createan organization that could provide health care and health careinsurance from an integrated delivery system.
During the legal wrangling that surrounds the birth of all corporations, the lawyers told the physicians that someone needed to beaccountable for filing legal documents.
“One of the doctors said, ‘Maybe we should name Marty Hauserpresident because he doesn’t do anything besides sit around allday reading about insurance companies.’ That was the vote of confidence that set me on my way,” he says, laughing.
Don’t let his humility fool you, though. Hauser began his careerin health care at Akron City Hospital 28 years ago, and his experience dealing with managed care organizations and insurance companies made him an integral part of the creation of the Akron CityHealth System and, eventually, SummaCare. That expertise madehim the perfect choice to be president of the fledgling company.
Hauser has grown SummaCare into a health plan with more than100,000 members, nearly 50 hospitals and 7,000 physicians undercontract, and more than $300 million in annual revenue.SummaCare’s growth has landed the 270-employee company onthe Weatherhead 100 as one of the top places to work for sevenstraight years, and it has expanded its plans to become a nationalinsurer.
“I always say if somebody had told us in 1990 — myself and thephysicians who put this together — that, by the year 2000, wewould be building a five-story building on corner of Main andMarket in the heart of downtown Akron and becoming a linchpinin what our mayor has said is the gateway to downtown Akron, weprobably would have told them that they were out of their mind,”Hauser says.
“But here we are right on this corner in a five-story building, andit’s kind of a symbol that SummaCare is real and legitimate. One ofthe things you often run into in the health insurance industry isthat a lot of times people don’t think the provider can succeed longterm. It’s been kind of a statement for us to put bricks and mortaron a corner and say, ‘This building’s going to be here for 30 to 40years, and so are we.’”
Hauser says the keys to creating this kind of staying power is bymaking good decisions, communicating clearly and taking risks.
