The grandson of Pennsylvania coal miners, Mike Moran learned early the vital importance of healthcare for labor union workers.
I spent most of my career working in the health space with labor unions and organizations that employ union members, which include Taft Hartley plans and federal employee health plans. My grandparents were coal miners from northeastern Pennsylvania and they were union members. I’d go up to Pennsylvania to see my grandparents and aunts and uncles, and many of them would have three fingers on one hand or black lung from working in the mines. My dad was born with asthma, so he couldn’t work in the coal mines. He got a job running the elevator at the mine workers’ union, and moved to Washington, D.C. where I was born.
After a short stint in politics working for a Congressman on labor-related issues, Mike spent decades in the health insurance field focused on Taft-Hartley and federal employee funds. Through that work, he found his “sweet spot.”
In the market where I spent most of my career, health benefits and vendors are determined by both the management side and the union side. I learned an important lesson from my father early on: if you can help both sides, that’s a great spot to be in – right in the middle.
So I’ve always focused on: what can I do that will help the management side reduce the cost of care by managing it more efficiently, but also do things where union members can benefit from staying healthy, having affordable health benefits, and potentially better benefits. If you manage healthcare costs effectively, then you keep insurance more affordable for workers, and drive costs down so the plan can maintain or even increase benefits for members.
In SkinIO, Mike has found that “good for members + good for management” middle ground.
The SkinIO program is great for both sides. Many people don’t know that skin cancer is now the most common form of cancer, but it can be effectively treated or cured if identified early. Many union members are in the building trades, they may be electricians or roofers or iron workers or others – they work out in the sun all day long and are much more susceptible to developing skin cancer. The opportunity to identify skin cancer early, treat it, and keep members healthy, that’s a really a great thing for the union side. On the other side, if someone doesn’t identify skin cancer early, the health plan could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars if it develops into a major Melanoma. So this solution is right up my alley: good for the unions, good for the employer, and everyone benefits.
The most compelling part about SkinIO for Mike? The connection to care that comes after the technology flags a problem.
Not only is the product well-designed to help people identify skin cancer early, it also has the ability to get them to talk to a dermatologist and get in to see one to get situation handled. No one else has solved both those problems: early identification plus access to a dermatologist who can help them. It’s really democratizing healthcare.
I was listening to Rachel Maddow a few weeks ago and she told a very personal story about finding skin cancer on her neck. Her partner noticed a mole, her hairdresser confirmed that it had changed, so she immediately goes in to see a dermatologist – because she’s Rachel Maddow! And she was so grateful that she caught it early and got in to see a doctor who cured it. But not everybody is Rachel Maddow, who can call her dermatologist and get in tomorrow. With SkinIO, everyone can quickly determine if they have a problem and can quickly get in to see a doctor who can take care of it for them.
