Click here for Part I & Part II

Improving access to premium health care solutions for everyone

John Palumbo is the CEO of HealthRight. With offices in Philadelphia, Tampa, and San Francisco, HealthRight offers a membership program intended to improve patients’ access to health care, as well as provide significant savings on services such as imaging, on-demand doctor visits, lab tests, prescriptions, wellness programs, and more. John has held leadership positions in the health care field since 1986. Before joining HealthRight, he was a founding member of Healthworks Alliance, executive vice president and COO of AllScripts, president of I-trax, and senior vice president at AmerisourceBergen Corporation. He is also a senior fellow at the Jefferson School of Population Health and, in 2010, became a senior advisor of Bryant Park Capital, an investment banking firm based in New York and Philadelphia.

John Palumbo spoke with Reid Blynn, executive managing director of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, for this interview.

REID BLYNN: Was there a vision for HealthRight before you started acquiring companies in the consumer health care space, or did the acquisitions come before HealthRight?

JOHN PALUMBO: The way HealthRight came to be was because we were always consumer-centric compared to some of the first generation telemedicine companies that really have their roots embedded in the employer market. We always knew that we had to have a consumer health engagement capability that had to be far superior than what these first generation telemedicine companies did. The metric you often hear and talk about is how many people utilize the telemedicine program in a specific employer. The industry still runs in single digits today. Not too many people know about this, and our vision in building HealthRight really came from similar programs and disease management. Most people don’t know that they have specific coaches around managing chronic care diseases. They just don’t use them for whatever the reason. Now we have the ability to reach, educate, profile and then ultimately engage consumers in ways we didn’t have 10, 15, or 20 years ago when disease management was really becoming prevalent in the insurance and employer markets. Our vision always was we had to be able to educate, engage, and ultimately get utilization from this member of one of our programs. We tried to do it ourselves over the years, and what I and the leadership team and my partners came to realize was that it’s a science in and of itself—just like being a health care provider is a unique science, just like being an IT company or a high-tech company is a unique capability. We were very fortunate to meet two now of our current partners and presidents of two of our divisions, and found a consumer health marketer that had really what we call built the secret sauce of how do we have a proprietary platform that can reach, educate, and engage a consumer—whether that consumer comes to us directly through the web or the media programs that we put out there, or whether they come to us from a sponsor, whether that be an employer, an affinity group or an insurer. Bringing that intellectual capacity and intellectual capital into our company was mission critical for us from day one. We just happened to be fortunate to meet who we think is some of the best consumer marketers out there, and that’s the genesis of our San Francisco office and our Florida office, which is how we now have the three locations.

Connect with John on LinkedIn

ABOUT NEWMARK GRUBB KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NGKF’s 12,800 professionals operate from more than 370 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NGKF’s strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NGKF’s full-service platform comprises BGC’s real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NGKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

Reid Blynn, Executive Managing Director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF), has been a leader in Philadelphia’s commercial real estate brokerage community for nearly 30 years. Reid has completed over 1000 transactions representing over eight million square feet.

Today Reid devotes his full attention to his corporate real estate and tenant representation services practice. He has represented many Philadelphia-based corporations for corporate headquarters requirements. By concentrating his practice in representing tenant and corporate clients, Reid is able to avoid potential conflicts with the region’s property owners, thus ensuring his clients receive the full benefit of his advocacy.

Reid has close ties to the venture capital community and has represented many growing venture backed companies in the health care, IT and life sciences sectors. Long term relationships have enabled him to work outside of Philadelphia as his clients grow outside of the region. Presently, multi-market corporate work is the fastest growing sector of Reid’s practice.

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

Connect on LinkedIn