The CEO of Hawaii's largest insurer also holds the title of the state's winningest high school basketball coach.
Mark Mugiishi, MD, is the CEO of Hawaii Medical Service Association, the Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate in Hawaii. He was previously a surgeon and founded some of Hawaii's first ambulatory surgical centers. Dr. Mugiishi became CEO of HMSA in 2020, after previously serving as its chief medical officer.
Dr. Mugiishi told Becker's he has always been a curious person, and that curiosity led him from practicing surgery, to managing ASCs and finally to HMSA.
"It led me to the realization that there was a way to take my curiosity, my desire to improve the health of Hawaii, to a place where you could do that at a population level," he said. "That's what got me moving from my individual practice to a big payer."
His experience as a surgeon means addressing "the quadruple aim" — patient experience, costs, population health and provider satisfaction — is in his DNA, Dr. Mugiishi said. One of his first priorities when he assumed the executive role was to implement a value-based payment system for primary care physicians, and his physician experience made it easier to sell providers on the new model.
For physicians considering the move from practice to a payer, finding an organization that aligns with their values is key, Dr. Mugiishi said.
"For me, being interested in community health, it was really critical that I went to an organization that was a local Blue plan, that had the same value. In their DNA was the ideal that we're trying to achieve this quadruple aim," he said.
While his physician background prepared him for success in many aspects of the job, there's a lot to learn when leading an insurer with 2,000 employees that isn't taught in medical school, Mr. Mugiishi said.
Dr. Mugiishi said though he doesn't have an MBA, he built his leadership skills through several different endeavors — including by coaching high school basketball.
Managing a large organization takes a lot more persuasion and organization than working one-on-one with patients as a surgeon, Dr. Muguiishi said.
"There's a lot more, differing opinions. Those aren't the kind of things you learn in medical school. You really do have to learn how to change your leadership style," he said.
Leading an insurer requires coordinating providers, patients, governments and communities. Dr. Mugiishi learned about juggling multiple competing interests, coaching high school basketball, and being part of the production team of a Broadway musical.
Born in Hawaii, Dr. Mugiishi attended Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. When he returned to Hawaii to practice surgery, he also returned to his alma mater, the 'Iolani School in Honolulu, to coach basketball.
Over 20 years with the team, he led the school to seven state championships, and earned the title of the winningest basketball coach in Hawaii history. The experience continues to shape his leadership style, Dr. Mugiishi said.
In addition to his coaching experience, Dr. Mugiishi was also a producer of the musical Allegiance, which ran from 2015 to 2016.
On a June episode of leadership podcast the Daily Coach, Dr. Mugiishi said his coaching days define who he is as a leader today.
"To be able to wrap all of that together and take all of the different perspectives and put them into one vision that pushes the whole thing forward, that's actually what you're doing when you're coaching a team sport," Dr. Mugiishi said.
Though leading Hawaii's largest insurer has a different set of challenges than coaching basketball and running an operating room, Dr. Mugiishi said he has no regrets about his career move.
"When I was a surgeon, everybody in the room was trying to help me, nobody from outside of the room was bothering me, and there was a beginning and an end. I don't have any of that now," he said. "But the opportunity I have to help the state that I live in makes it all worth it."