Keenan & Associates Advisory Board Formed to Help Guide Public Sector Strategy Initiatives; Stanfords Health Policy Expert Alain C. Enthoven, PhD, Spearheads Board Appointments

Torrance, CA --December 3, 2003 -- Keenan & Associates, the largest privately held brokerage firm in California, announced today the appointment of Alain C. Enthoven, PhD, to the Companys newly formed Advisory Board of thought leaders to bolster its strategy and provide insight into the public sector marketplace.

Torrance, CA (PRWEB) December 16, 2003 -- Keenan & Associates, the largest privately held brokerage firm in California, announced today the appointment of Alain C. Enthoven, PhD, to the Companys newly formed Advisory Board of thought leaders to bolster its strategy and provide insight into the public sector marketplace.   

Sean Smith, CEO of Keenan & Associates, says. It is a privilege to welcome as our first Advisory Board member Alain C. Enthoven, PhD," the Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Public and Private Management (Emeritus) in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1973.

Henry Loubet, chief strategy officer for Keenan & Associates, says, Alains keen vision for the future will help Keenan embrace the challenges of our Public Sector Initiative, and ultimately help bring innovative products to market more swiftly."

On his appointment, Dr. Enthoven says, I am thrilled about the opportunity to join with Keenan and become involved in its public sector programs. Keenan has been one of the pioneers in California in creating employee and consumer choice and quality as the key determinants in health plan selection. Keenans launch of the innovative California Public Employer Pool is a clear example of their forward thinking approach to health care delivery."

Dr. Enthoven has been called the father of managed competition -- the theory that appropriately managed competition among health care provider organizations can lead to lower costs and higher-quality care for consumers.
Explains Smith, Dr. Enthoven is a pioneer in the economics of health care and he is among the most revered thought leaders in business today." The Stanford health policy expert is a co-author of a plan to create a system of health insurance 'exchanges, each offering a choice of plans, and to build a new federal agency to monitor them. An exchange would be created when an employer, or any other public or private organization, offers people a choice among several competing health care plans. Since consumers would be able to pick between plans -- each with its own price tag -- the resulting competition would give health plans an incentive to lower their premiums to attract more members.
Dr. Enthoven is a former assistant secretary of defense who served under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. His interest in the health care industry dates back to 1969, when he joined Litton Industries as vice president for economic planning. He then became president of Litton Medical Products. Dr. Enthoven first proposed "regulated competition" in a "consumer-choice health plan" in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1978. He coined the term "managed competition" a decade later.

Dr. Enthoven designed and proposed the Consumer Choice Health Plan, a plan for universal health insurance based on managed competition in the private sector, while serving as a consultant to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Califano and the Carter administration in 1977. He is a consultant to Kaiser Permanente and former chairman of the Health Benefits Advisory Council for CalPERS (California State employees' medical and hospital care plans). He is also a director of The Integrated Healthcare Association and RxIntelligence, a non-profit research group dedicated to providing physicians and consumers with balanced evaluations of drugs. And serves as chairman of Stanford Universitys Committee on Faculty/Staff Human Resources.

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About Keenan & Associates
Keenan & Associates is a full-service brokerage and consulting firm serving the western region of the U.S. Keenan offers a complete range of services to the healthcare industry and California public schools, including insurance, risk management, third-party claims administration, integrated disability, and consulting. Keenan's corporate office is located in Torrance, with field offices located in the California cities of Oakland, Rancho Cordova, San Jose, Riverside, Westlake Village, and San Clemente. Founded in 1972, Keenan & Associates is the 24th largest insurance brokerage firm in the United States, and the largest independent broker in California. For more information, call 1.800.645.8102, or visit www.keenanassoc.com.

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Peggy C. Frank, MBA
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