"You can't assume that you actually know the struggles that your members face," Healthfirst CEO Pat Wang shared with Becker's July 26. "I think intellectually, we were aware of the food insecurity and other social determinants of health challenges that they face. But during the pandemic, I think one of the things that we learned was how quickly the safety net falls apart."
It's one of several lessons Ms. Wang has learned as she leads Healthfirst through the COVID-19 maze. Founded in 1993, the New York City-based company is the state's largest nonprofit insurer, with 1.6 million members and 4,500 employees.
Though the payer, which serves primarily low-income populations, was able to adapt well to a remote environment, Ms. Wang questions the scope of telemedicine.
"Healthcare is not a digital event," she said. "The good elements of telehealth will continue, but what we have found is a lot of members actually want to see their doctors."
Navigating decisions regarding what the company's workplace will look like as the pandemic wanes has not been without its challenges.
"It's sort of two steps forward, one step backward. You try to steer the best course for the company with the deepest respect and listen to your employees, but I think we're experiencing what a lot of companies are experiencing," she said. "Some folks don't want to be remote. Some folks who say they're unvaccinated think that that's going to be a ticket to staying remote. It's not. It's just really really complicated. I just think there's a lot of anxiety because we're not even through this thing yet. It's still going on."
As for the future of value-based care models like Healthfirst, Ms. Wang remains optimistic.
"I think that there will be challenges, but I think there's the immediate term and then there's the long term. I think that many providers in the short term are going to be focused on more fee-for-service kinds of services, but when things start to settle down again, they will return their focus to value-based payments," she said. "It's going to be a little rough for us, but we've been around for quite a long time."