Stay Informed!

By Sean Luechtefeld on 03/12/2010 @ 12:27 PM

Tags: Innovation, Innovators, Events

With all of the excitement to report that’s been going on here at innovation@cfed, we’ve been unable to keep up with our Featured Innovator blog series! Today we’re bringing the series back with the first set of Top Takeaways from one of our Innovative Idea Engineers, Mark Rukavina.

Mark is in the process of developing an effective approach to help people negotiate significant reductions in medical debt to promote financial survival and recovery from unexpected and uninsured medical crises. Mark’s innovative approach is especially exciting at a time when the health care debate has taken center stage.

Mark shared with us his top takeaways from the 2009 Innovation Summit. Here is some of what he had to say:

1. The interconnectedness of various issues. In many conversations with people working on asset building and savings, medical debt (my area of interest and expertise) was seen as a factor by many. Groups involved in arranging small business loans for budding entrepreneurs also said they regularly see medical accounts on credit reports creating problems for clients.
2. Innovation is risky – This theme came up several times during the day. It resonated with me since the issue area I work on is at the intersection of health care and financial services. While funders describe their desire to work across silos or narrow issue areas, I have found that doing work that jumps across issues makes it difficult for funders to place in the context of specific program initiatives.
3. Networking is invigorating – You created a safe and stimulating environment where creative, committed, smart people could come together to discuss ideas. It was a very supportive environment where the framework was one of problem solving constructive advice. Thanks!
4. I want to thank you for a hosting a thoughtful and though-inspiring event yesterday. I truly enjoyed my time at the summit and hope to be included in future events. I am sorry to have missed the Gala but trust that all went well there, too.

Yesterday’s conversations confirmed for me, once again, just how disruptive medical debt can be to the savings/asset building process. So many of the innovators, when I asked about medical debt, knew that it was a problem for their clients. I hope that CFED continues to examine the various constraints to asset building and I look forward to working with you in the future.

All of us at innovation@cfed want to extend great thanks to Mark for sharing his insights with us! Check back next week as we feature another exciting innovator!

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