COVID-19 has accelerated the need for digital transformation in healthcare.
Payers and providers alike are generally behind other industries in offering engaging and integrated digital experiences and are rushing to catch up.
During a June virtual roundtable hosted by Becker's Hospital Review and sponsored by League, moderator Mike Serbinis, co-founder and CEO of League, and Michael Palmer, CEO of Exhale Advisors and former chief innovation and digital officer at Aetna, discussed how next-generation digital experiences can engage members and drive more value for payers.
Five key takeaways:
1. An engaging and integrated online experience drives value. Today's online healthcare experience is typically complex, fragmented and outdated, with consumers having to navigate multiple logins for different provider and payer portals. As a result, individuals are not engaging more than is absolutely necessary. As new businesses enter the digital healthcare space, including some major consumer brands, payers need to provide simple, engaging and integrated experiences members see as valuable. "Make sure people feel like they're getting something for their money," Mr. Palmer said.
2. To drive margins, payers need to think about engaging with healthy members. Engaging younger, healthier members helps retain these profitable customers, enabling commercial insurers to cover the costs of members who use more healthcare services. Data from wearable fitness trackers like Apple Watch or Fitbit can be used to provide rewards for healthy living. Members can be encouraged to visit and spend time in the payer portal not just to track claims, but to participate in fun activities like quizzes, shop for items or even read or watch targeted healthcare content.
3. Customer data enables personalization, which increases value to the member. "The more you know [about a patient], the more you have the opportunity to drive impact, which should lead to better outcomes, cost of care, satisfaction, retention, even potential growth and the ability to reach new people," Mr. Serbinis said. Payers need to personalize experiences to individual members, leveraging claims data, data from EHRs, demographic data and even consumer data. Members can even be encouraged to provide information via an online profile that can help improve content and recommendations.
4. A digital infrastructure should be focused on business priorities; partners can help create and maintain this infrastructure. Payers may develop digital solutions in-house, outsource development to a partner or purchase and integrate best-of-breed solutions. Regardless of how payers approach development, they need to focus on building an infrastructure that addresses their business needs, functionality, cost and time to market. Regardless of who designs this infrastructure, once it is in place, partners can help payers maintain and improve their digital offering. "Choose great partners who are willing to have their success based on your success," Mr. Palmer advised.
5. Competitive differentiators need to be embedded in the digital transformation. Throughout healthcare, competition is increasing and diversifying. "You have all these competitors chomping at your heels," Mr. Palmer said. Payers need to understand their competitive differentiators in the markets they serve and use those differentiators to help define their business and digital transformation strategy.
News From Our Partners