Healthways, Inc formerly known as American Healthways, Inc is a health facility established over 25years ago. It provides primary and specialized health care programs which include management of diseases and high-risk care management aimed at helping people to improve their health at lower costs. The programs are designed to help people live better and healthier lives by making sure that they follow their doctor’s instructions, comply with the medication given and they learn the early warning signs of a disease so that they can seek help at the earliest chance possible.
Its product line is all inclusive of people suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, asthma, COPD, stomach ulcers and coronary artery disease. Its market which spreads across all the fifty U. S State include health plans, governments, employers and hospitals. The main business strategy adopted by Healthways, Inc is meant to primarily create value for its customers through the health care programs by use of state-of-art care enhancement centers, health care information and high technological know-how to provide high quality services and compete favorably in the health care industry.
Macro environment analysis. Macro economic analysis is meant to identify the possible opportunities and threats facing a certain organization which are beyond its control and predict whether such factors are likely to cause growth, stability or decline in the development of that particular company. This involves the analysis of the economic, political, technological, legal, social-cultural and demographic trends and their impact on the organization (Royer, 2005).
Economic trends;- the financial conditions for Healthways, Inc are subject to some threats in that its operations depend wholly on the revenue earned from their customers and thus any cost reduction is bound to adversely affect it operations. In the current market trends, the health-care industry faces the risk of cost reduction pressures as a result of constrains on the public and private revenue sources and according to the company’s annual report, this pressures are bound to increase with time.
Political trends;- With the oncoming U. S elections, the health and care industry is bound to improve for the better if the new government puts in the much needed amendments to enhance fair competition and reduce the pressure on cost reduction. Technological trends;- The company has mastered a way of effectively using information technology and it plans to continue updating their technology which is bound to give it a competitive advantage over its competitors.
Legal trends;- In the course of business, the company is likely to face some law suits which may require large costs for defense. Although it has a liability insurance cover, there is no sureity that such a claim will be covered by the insurance and this is likely to cause huge losses to the organization. Social-cultural trends;- With the continued beliefs of the society in the services offered by Healthways, Inc, the organization is likely to get more and more customers in the near future.
Demographic factors;- In U. S and other parts of the world, people are opting to have fewer children and the population increase has been on a decline compared to the way it was some years back. This may have a negative effect on the company in terms of the number of customers it is likely to get in the future.