Betty Heiman is founder and CEO of Transparent Health Network, a unique health-care access plan that has been credited with benefiting health-care providers and patients alike with access to affordable health care and transparent, prenegotiated fee schedules. Betty is also a founding partner of a medical management company in New York. She has held a variety of posts in the medical marketing and pharmaceutical industries.

I recently had an interesting discussion at a cocktail party for women in leadership roles. We started talking about whether women are being asked to join the table. By the time the evening concluded, we were in agreement that joining the table was not enough. Women need to change the shape of that table. As women, we approach problems in unique ways and with a creative spirit that allows us to see opportunities from a different point of view. However, there are times when it takes real courage to raise your hand and say, “Status quo does not work here. We need to approach this problem in a new way.” Leaders succeed when they encourage creative thinking in others and have the courage to employ new strategies in the marketplace.

Where there is chaos, there is opportunity. Take a look at the health-care industry. It is well established that women are typically the purchasers of health care for their households. Yet these voices are largely absent from the boardrooms of the health-care industry and in the C-suites of insurance companies. As a result, the viewpoint of the health-care consumer is largely ignored. It is vitally important that consumers of health care (primarily women) have a clear understanding of the true cost of health-care and pharmaceutical services. Consumers must have the ability both to access and afford health care. The chaos in health care has allowed my company the ability to create a new platform for access to health care for the uninsured. In creating this platform, we recognized the needs of the true consumers of health care. And we learned that we need to find the entrepreneurial spirit to encourage women to raise their hands.