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Not long after he started working at Cruz Azul in the early 1980s, Carlos was put to work on a massive advertising project, given his prior experience in the media industry.
However, as the company made a number of management changes, he was asked to wear several hats and was put in charge of marketing, sales, provider relations, regional offices, group service, advertising and public relations. "At 29, this was a major challenge for me but I agreed to accept it," he said. However, the more involved he became with each of these areas, the more he realized the local health insurance industry needed some major improvements. "The industry was being developed from a poorly managed physician-ruled environment, where most of those involved came from a technical rather tund advice they needed to become more efficient [health insurance] buyers."
This led him to start his own consulting business in 1988, which began to assist large employers, including government agencies, select the right plans for their needs. "I served this niche for 10 years but there were a number of roadblocks," he said. For example, he explained that each time government leadership changed hands, the government agencies he was serving would cancel their contracts and he would have to more or less negotiate all over again. "The other issue had to do with employers and their agents," he said, "although many companies were using agents and brokers who were technically behind on everything going on in the marketplace, there was a bond of loyalty between them that went back many years."
Given these scenarios, Carlos determined he could better serve the health insurance market by going wholesale. |
