Nelson Communications Group

    A Professional Public Relations Firm
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Pacific Care Health Systems, Inc.
Crisis Communications

Situation Analysis:

On Saturday, January 18, 1992, an article about Peggy Maley, a PacifiCare member and victim of breast cancer, appeared in the Chino Daily Bulletin. Peggy had been told that PacifiCare would not pay for a bone marrow transplant to treat her condition, since this procedure is regarded as experimental for breast cancer and is therefore not covered by the plan.

A few days later, the local television station, KTTV, picked up the story. Then PacifiCare got a call from Sam Donaldson, who was planning to interview Peggy Maley as part of a report on health insurance for "Prime Time Live," a national network show.

At 10:00 p.m. on January 29, 1992, the vice president for corporate communications for PacifiCare Health Systems called her Nelson Communications Group account manager at home. By noon the following day, she had received a detailed document giving her a step-by-step approach to dealing with this crisis.

Goals.

Prepare Pacificare spokespersons for interview with Sam Donaldson, build a case which supported the organization's approach to the Maley case.

Tactics.

Nelson Communications offered counsel based on five strategies: (1) gather the facts; (2) hold a crisis team meeting and develop an official statement and question and answer document; (3) identify spokespeople and media-train them; (4) determine which audiences to alert to the possibility of the show airing; and (5) determine follow-up if the segment airs.

The chief executive officer, chief operating officer and medical director of PacifiCare Health Systems were media-trained and briefed on the Q & A document. When Sam Donaldson interviewed them, they were ready for his questions.

Results.

The extensive preparation clearly paid off. Sam Donaldson did not air PacifiCare's interview.

Clearly, the reasoned answers of the PacifiCare senior team were not suitable for the show. Instead, two other insurance companies were featured.

PacifiCare also settled with Peggy Maley, and she received the transplant despite its experimental nature.

Nelson Communications advised follow-up action so that a similar situation did not occur again; for example, that a form letter not be used in advising a patient with a life-threatening disease that a certain type of treatment has been denied.

Alan Hoops, COO, told the vice president of corporate communications that the Q&A documents were an excellent and extremely useful tool for the company in a time of crisis.

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