Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Rona Li & Rob Scruggs of SCAN Group

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Rona Li & Rob Scruggs of SCAN Group · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

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Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
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Becker's Payer Issues podcast. Thrilled today to be
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joined by two special guests.
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Rona Lee is SCAN Group's chief development officer,
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and Rob Scruggs is SCAN Group's chief digital
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officer. Rona, Rob, thank you so much for
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taking the time to be with me on
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the podcast today.
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Well, thanks for having us. Thank you for
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having us. Yeah. And before we dive into
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everything we wanna talk with you both about,
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Rona, can you tell us a little bit
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more about yourself, your background in health care,
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and what it is that you're doing today
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at SCAN Group?
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Yeah. Sure.
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I currently serve as the chief corporate development
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officer here at SCAN,
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where I oversee our portfolio of diversified assets,
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as well as investments, joint ventures, and other
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partnerships that we might do.
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I like to joke that I started my
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health career when the first episode of Grey's
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Anatomy came out and ended in my high
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school chemistry class.
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But, truthfully, it started when my grandfather was
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diagnosed with liver cancer, and it made me
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wonder how I could make an impact in
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the future to make someone else's
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family's life a little bit better through either
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preventative care or early diagnosis
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or otherwise. And so that took the shape
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of Rold and Finance to start and eventually
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evolved to venture building and investing over time
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before joining SCAN.
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Thanks, Rona and Rob. How about you?
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Thanks, Jacob.
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Yeah. I
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serve as the chief digital officer here at
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Scan. And I think in simplest terms,
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I characterize it as I oversee our digital
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strategy and road map, really driving consumer like
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experiences
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that we use to leverage,
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you know,
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in leading technologies and enhancing our member journey
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to streamlining
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operational efficiencies and driving organizational growth through this
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channel, really leaning into this channel in new
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and differentiated ways that we haven't in the
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past as both a lever for our business
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as well as for driving
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better member experiences and and
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have about 20,
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in the channel leading digital transformation efforts across
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different industries like financial services and retail,
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consulting and entertainment.
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Like Rona, my journey was a little personal
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to arrive at health care with that type
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of experience.
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My passion was really trying to apply
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what I could from a a digital standpoint
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to helping fix health care.
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Fantastic. Well, we both we really appreciate you
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both taking the time to sit down with
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us. And I wanted to get started by
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talking about Scan Group making its tenth investment
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into the league platform, which, as I understand,
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is going to help the company and the
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health plan digitize and personalize
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member experiences.
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And that includes the launch of the Scan
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member portal this coming spring and then followed
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by a new member app this coming summer.
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So, Rob, what were some of the specific
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member needs or pain points that you have
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been seeing, are seeing across across your members
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that you're really hoping to address through this
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mobile first experience?
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And how does the League platform
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help to meet those
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goals? Yeah. Thanks, Jacob. I I look. I'd
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start with
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you know, Scan has partnered with League to
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help us take,
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at a high level,
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a more connected
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ecosystem approach in delivering against our digital engagement
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strategy and moving to a more consumer like
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experience. And with respect to solving for those
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member pain points, I'd say there's three key
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areas of focus for us,
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personalization,
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access, and self-service.
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So, you know, it's our intent to
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drive a much more personalized member experience,
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also provide easier access to critical care information
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and relative educational content,
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and also really amplifying,
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more easy to use self-service
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features that help manage a member's care journey.
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Ultimately, though, we're looking to drive better outcomes
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with an experience that improves member satisfaction
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with,
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you know, through this channel that better supports
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members throughout their care journey.
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It improves in member education around health conditions
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and overall benefits usage. It should make it
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easier for members to access the services and
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support that they so
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critically need from SCAN with things like easier
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navigation,
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more intuitive,
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content, and more meaningful
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benefits explanations, and, you know, and we also
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provide content in multiple languages.
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So we're we're trying to make it easier
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for members to engage and stay connected throughout
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this process, throughout their their their journey, their
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health care journey.
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And, also, we provide opportunities for them to
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connect, more seamlessly with our member service teams.
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You know, this is an omnichannel experience,
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and so we wanna make it easy on
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the member when they may have a higher
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touch support need.
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Our objective is really to drive a better
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experience that connects these touch points more seamlessly
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across the omni omnichannel health experience
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because it is omnichannel,
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and provides a more holistic view into the
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member's overall health journey, but focus squarely on
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that support and access for them.
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Absolutely. And then, Rob, you mentioned this is
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all about making and improving,
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members' health outcomes. So can you expand a
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bit on some of the key features of
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the new scan member app and and how
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they are going to be aiming to improve
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those outcomes for your members, particularly when it
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comes to what you mentioned with better health
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engagement and managing their benefits.
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Sure. Sure. And we've really taken the time
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to shape the experience around
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the most frequently used tasks and behaviors that
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we see from members to ensure that we're
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solving for those top use cases. And so
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both the, you know, the portal and the
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app have been designed to drive stickiness and
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pull folks into that ecosystem and drive more
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engagement with the member through things like health
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journeys and the health journeys experience that we're
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launching, which is an orchestrated
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series of next best actions, including scans health
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risk assessment
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that users can,
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leverage to shape their specific health journey. For
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example, you know, here, a health journey is
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a series of data driven, you know, data
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driven preventative actions
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that SCAN determines for each member based on
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the data we have
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for them, which is an you know, an
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experience presents in a more engaging way based
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on that data and how we're using that
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to translate,
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you know, an experience more personalized for them
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and the goal being to to to drive
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an experience in a more personalized way that
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meets the most important needs for that particular
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member to help close those identified care gaps.
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And, you know, we're using data to motivate
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users in a way that's relevant to them,
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focusing on what's meaningful or important to them
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in their particular health journey, like tying health
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outcomes to leading a more active lifestyle with
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friends and family.
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I think understanding your benefits is also key
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to driving more successful outcomes, and we're providing
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easier access to navigate a member's benefits with
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a more simplified view of cost and coverage
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details.
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We've added key self-service features that include
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easier access to ID card management and access
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to key documents anywhere like EOB statements and
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bills. We also offer, you know, prescription management
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where members can more easily track their prescriptions
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and medication adherence status.
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We're also looking at, you know,
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providing a health dashboard
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where members can capture key key health metrics
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around personal health data for things like blood
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pressure or BMI or other health attributes and
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track those in a consolidated view, consolidated
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dashboard.
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We also have, you know, what we're calling
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a get care feature,
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which enables members to access and interact directly
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with their care and support teams to better
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understand
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and give them confidence in what their care
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options are.
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Wow. So it sounds like based off everything
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you just said, Rob, this is going to
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be a very transformative
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offering
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Rona Skin has made several strategic investments in
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innovative tech companies in the last few years.
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So how does this partnership with League specifically
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fit into the company's broader vision for using
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tech to improve health care for for your
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members?
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Yeah. That's a great question.
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I think SCAN's partnership with League really is
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rooted in our commitment to listening to our
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members and adapting to their evolving preferences.
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I mean, we've been doing that since our
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inception.
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We
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are proud of having translated these tailored patient
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needs into population specific health plans. We launched
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the industry's first semi product for women and
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the LGBTQ
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plus population.
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We've also had a fantastic cohort of seniors
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in the community join us as peer advocates
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to support their peers navigating the MA and
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aging journey along the way.
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And this partnership with League is just a
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reflection of
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how we believe that, you know, keeping the
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member at the center of the mission is
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critical to everything that we do every day,
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and this is just enabling us to do
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it in a more digital first and personalized
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way.
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I mean, I'm sure these statistics aren't new
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to people, but smartphone adoption among older adults
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have doubled in the past ten years, and
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66%
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of older adults are using technology in all
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different sorts of ways to simplify their daily
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life.
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This is very different from the MA population
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a decade ago. And so
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being able to work with the league are
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allowing is allowing us to meet seniors where
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they are by delivering a mobile first and
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personalized healthcare experience that they're expecting from healthcare
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payers today.
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And at the same time, this allows us
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to remain more focused on the human touch
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and empowering our teams at every touch point
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with these seniors to build more meaningful connections
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to support their health and independence.
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And such a good point that you just
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mentioned there, Rona, that digital engagement amongst seniors
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has really grown exponentially
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over the last decade. I think the natural
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follow-up question there is, how do you see
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the role of the portal and the app
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then evolving
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over the next few years?
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So that was a big question.
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Rob,
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I'm sure you have thoughts too. And we're
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we're used to not being able to read
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perfectly into a crystal ball, but,
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I think that the
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the the only thing constant in health care
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and consumer preferences is change.
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I think that the more that we can
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get to an n of one to understand
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what people need and,
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you know, what exactly
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their health care needs are,
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how they want us to engage with them,
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how do we empower our agents and people
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with the next best action to actually
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preempt
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what consumers actually may need in this situation.
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Those are all things that we can we
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see very applicable
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ways this to evolve in the next few
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years.
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Yeah. And I I'll I'll just
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echo that and and build that. Look. There
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there's no question that we are dealing with
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the incredibly engaged digitally engaged audience. I mean,
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when you think about
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the the generation that created the Internet is
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now our audience.
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Right? So I I would say at SCAN,
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we are always looking at what's next in
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terms of innovation. We've gotta get the basics
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right, but we're also looking around the corner
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and making sure that we're prepared, you know,
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for for what they need from us in
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this channel when they need it. And we're
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considering several impactful enhancements and upcoming releases, things
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like,
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you know,
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caregiver access and, you know, a caregiver tailored
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experience
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specific to those caregivers,
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or, you know, for our members,
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continuing to enhance those self-service capabilities and, you
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know, even some of the basics around better
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ID card management,
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replacement of cards, and digital IDs, you know,
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online,
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the ability to submit, you know, com
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claims more easily online and change providers or
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plans more easily online.
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I could see more experiences around gamification and
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rewards, incentivizing members to complete health care actions
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to drive those outcomes
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that we both wanna see through rewards and
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gamification
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experiences,
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additional supplemental benefits integration. When you think of
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a more seamless integrated experience around things like
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dental and transportation and other types of
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supplemental benefits to give folks easier access to
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those.
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And, of course, we have to talk about
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AI. Right? And and think about benefits AI
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or an AI enabled
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service that simplifies complex benefits and really breaks
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down that information to enable members to find
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answers
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quickly and more easily and complete tasks faster,
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or an AI driven care finder to better
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guide folks through you know, in determining the
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right providers at and facilities at the moment
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of need and the ability to schedule with
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those providers more easily. And lastly, I'd probably
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say I I could see a role for
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immersive experiences as you think about
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the continued sort of evolution and innovation with,
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you know, payers and providers leveraging virtual or
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augmented reality to deliver services or capabilities
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in a way that drives more interactive experiences
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with members at the point of need and
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on demand.
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Absolutely. Well, clearly, a lot of exciting things
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on the horizon from these offerings. So hope
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you will keep us updated as as these
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products continue to evolve.
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But before we go, Rona, we've got a
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lot of health plan leaders listening in from
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all over the country.
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Any final thoughts or final bits of advice
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you wanna offer them?
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There's so many things, but I think
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oftentimes in as complicated of an industry as
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health care, it's it's very easy to lose
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sight of
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what we're what how what got us into
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the industry to begin with, you know, and
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between Rob and I with personal experiences that
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landed us here, I'm sure that resonates with
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a lot of people listening in. And so
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I think
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this sounds so simple, but we need to
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just stop thinking of pace patients as
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a statistic or a data point as a
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case and start seeing them as people with
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unique needs and expectations.
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That's how you really understand and can be
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in their shoes of how do they actually
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want to engage with you and what you're
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trying to help them with.
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I think as Rob has probably seen in
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financial services and hospitality and transportation, etcetera, and
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myself with other industries,
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other industries have set the bar for what
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people are expecting from us in terms of
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convenience and delight.
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Technology can help us get there in closing
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the gap, but it's not the whole answer.
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So I hope,
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everyone sees
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technology and the speed of innovation as just
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a tool in our toolkit to empower collaboration
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between stakeholders,
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particularly between pairs and providers at this point,
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to really amplify the human touch and not
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replace it.
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Fantastic. And, Rob, how about you? Your concluding
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thoughts for us?
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I would just echo,
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you know, Rona said it very well, and
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I just say it's gonna be a a
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a balance of finding the right balance. This
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is for the you know, in our lifetime,
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gonna always be an omnichannel
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high touch experience. And,
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you know, being the digital person, I will
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never say there digital is always the answer.
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And so I think there is a a
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thoughtful means and way to incorporate it into
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that end to end health journey that, you
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know, complete holistic
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experience in a way that's thoughtful and meaningful
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and complements the experience. And so
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I think as long as we look at
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it from that point of view and use
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it as a service, you know, to an
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end for the member and their benefit,
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that, you know, that's gonna be the successful
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path forward and drive the outcomes we wanna
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see.
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Wonderful. Well, Rona, Rob, thank you both so
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much for taking the time to sit down
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with us and for sharing your insights with
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our listeners. We really appreciate it.
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Thank you, Jacob. For having us.
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If you'd like to listen to more podcasts
16:13
from Becker's Health Care, you can visit beckershospitalreview.com.