Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Simplifying the Digital Health Landscape for Employers with Brian Cheney

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Simplifying the Digital Health Landscape for Employers with Brian Cheney · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the Becker's
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  Payer Issues podcast.
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  Thrilled today to be joined by Brian Chaney,
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  who serves as division senior vice president of
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  sales operations and commercial markets growth at HealthCare
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  Service Corporation.
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  Brian, thank you so much for taking the
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  time to be with me on the podcast
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  today.
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  Happy to be here. Thanks, Jacob.
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  Absolutely. And before we dive into everything we
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  wanna talk with you about today, Brian, can
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  you first tell us a little bit more
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  about yourself
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  and what it is that you do today
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  at HCSC?
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  Happy to. I've, been here at HCFC for
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  for twenty years, which seems either like a
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  short day or a lifetime depending on the
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  day.
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  Always worked in different parts of our commercial
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  or employer space. So I've known small group
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  employers, large,
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  worked with our national customers for five or
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  six years.
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  And for the last about year, I've been
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  in charge of of trying to find solutions
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  for all of them.
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  In the health care space, sometimes we call
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  that a product, we call it an offering,
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  we call it things like, I think we're
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  gonna dive into today.
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  And the summary of those things is, like,
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  what are we doing to solve their health
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  care problems and keep their employees,
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  you know, as best we possibly can. So
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  that's that's why I get up and think
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  about every day if that helps.
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  That is super helpful, and appreciate you giving
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  the audience some background there, Brian.
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  So so we're here today to talk a
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  little bit about
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  HCSC launching a new digital health platform called
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  the Unity Health Hub, and it's aimed at
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  helping employers
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  more easily navigate the currently fragmented
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  digital health landscape.
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  So for for health plans listening in or
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  other employer benefits leaders out there who might
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  not be super familiar with what this is,
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  talk to us about what the problem was
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  that existed before the hub and that that
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  ultimately made this necessary and and how the
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  platform actually works day to day for an
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  employee on the ground or or the employer
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  that needs it.
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  Yeah. Happy to. I I think
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  this concept and and this thing we're launching,
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  like most good things, are are born out
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  of necessity. Necessity. Right? They're born out of
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  truly solving a problem. And
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  what we continue to hear, from employers across
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  the country is is frankly exhaustion
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  out of time,
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  themselves in terms of navigating this landscape that
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  we're gonna go into.
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  Some rough numbers of the thousands of digital
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  point solutions that are out there would would
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  kinda lead you to this point of just
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  fatigue over which is the best, how am
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  I solving employee problems. So that was the
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  thesis. Right? Is can we do that better?
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  And certainly, we you know, HCSC and and
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  all carriers work with some of these digital
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  assets,
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  today.
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  The the trick is how do you create
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  an ecosystem, and that's what we believe we're
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  launching,
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  that allows for optionality,
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  inside of what the employer member can see,
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  letting that digital solution find them at the
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  right place, the right time.
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  And then one of the most important things
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  is how do they know if it actually
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  worked?
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  So in a nutshell, the Unity Health Hub,
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  will allow them to manage these different categories,
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  and that's how they tend to think about
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  it. Like, who's solving my my diabetes issue,
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  my women's health, my weight management, like like,
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  things that are common categories?
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  Who's gonna create an a network, if you
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  will, Jacob, of those solutions?
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  That's the first step, just building the technical
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  integration.
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  Then who's gonna make it consumable by the
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  member?
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  Who's going to create a way, and we
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  can talk a bit more about this, where
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  the member knows where to find that solution
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  based on
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  maybe their particular acuity. Like, are in the
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  weight management category, are they severely overweight, or
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  do they just have some maintenance they'd like
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  to do?
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  Our solution will give them that guidance. It
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  would then give them a hub of reporting
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  and data where they can see all the
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  analytics in one place.
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  And then the most important part, don't lose
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  any of that health care journey out there
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  in the point solution itself. And what I
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  mean there in the fourth point is can
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  you then connect the data and connect that
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  part of their care journey back to everything
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  they're doing. And so that's why we took
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  some time to settle in on on a
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  partner and our approach that we think does
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  all four of of those things.
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  Understood. So you're really trying to tackle that
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  vendor fatigue that everyone in the industry is
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  familiar with, and then ultimately making it easier
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  for for the members to navigate
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  this this complicated space.
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  And, you know, we we we've seen a
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  lot of other insurers across the country launch
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  vendor hubs in the last few years as
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  well.
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  We've we've also heard from health plans from
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  employers
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  ultimately burned by point solutions that don't deliver
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  on on the outcomes that they promise. And
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  so what's the what's the vetting criteria for
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  the solutions that are gonna be offered across
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  the hub,
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  and how does how does HSC plan to
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  handle a vendor that might underperform against,
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  some of the stated benchmarks that they put
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  out?
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  Yeah. Great question. I think there's two two
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  lanes here that are important to the employer.
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  And one is that we have some sort
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  of vetting process to your point.
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  And, really, what they want that to do,
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  what they want us to empower is transparency
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  into the data, which I said,
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  but the actual touch, the the moment where
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  you influenced the member and proven
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  that each and I'll use a word I
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  think is familiar to folks in industry. Each
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  milestone,
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  each point that you said you would move
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  the member to access this reading or this
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  test or this thing
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  is accurately reported on so that they know
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  that it worked.
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  And and the thing that you and I
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  would hear in industry a lot is in
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  that vetting, are you making sure that nobody's
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  counting the same dollar twice? Right? And and
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  so that the real true way to do
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  that is to be able to see how
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  they move through apps, how they move through
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  the selection process.
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  And, frankly,
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  in time, these point solutions themselves will probably
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  come in and out of those care categories
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  as they have to prove it
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  in a way that is, the digital touch
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  point, not some of the older school things
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  like how many mailers did you send to
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  their home, or did you send them a
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  text message? Those things are valid,
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  but it's really like, did you actually move
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  the needle through the site of care, the
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  application of care? That's kind of lane one.
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  Lane two is some of these, especially larger
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  employers say, like, I've already vetted.
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  I've done some identification of one that I
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  think hits my population need. And what I
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  want you to really do, which we can
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  through Unity Health Hub, is simply enable it
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  very quickly for me so that I can
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  test and I can validate. So we'll do
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  both, Jacob. We'll have a more curated set
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  of things where we provide proof points and
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  data, and then we will allow the larger,
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  more custom employers to say, I've already picked
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  four or five. Can you do it quickly
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  for me? So I can get it to
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  market and find out if it works.
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  Understood. So so,
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  a deep vetting process, but then getting this
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  up quickly for these employers. So, yeah, that
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  makes sense.
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  And, you know, we we've also heard you
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  you mentioned this earlier, Brian, but we've heard
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  from, health plans over the years as well
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  of
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  building, acquiring digital health infrastructure.
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  It's it it's complicated, and it takes time.
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  Mhmm. And some companies have seen mixed results.
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  So,
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  ultimately, what is the Unity Health Hub do
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  for the self insured employer for the large
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  corporation,
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  that has a good benefits consultant?
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  What does the Unity Health Hub do,
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  differently than what that employer maybe could have
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  pieced together on their own in the past?
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  Yeah. I I think I think speed is
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  the biggest thing that we held true there.
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  And what I mean by speed and and
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  scalability
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  is,
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  when you do those direct integrations
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  with carriers, whether that's HCSC or anybody,
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  it's IT work. Right? And it's big, and
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  it can be cumbersome and feel costly in
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  long timelines.
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  By going with a solution like Unity Health
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  Hub, you you pick a specialist type thing
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  and have it get really good at doing
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  that quickly and efficiently,
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  sharing data standards where you don't have to
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  do everything as a total custom one off
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  because you've built a process that is just
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  hyper efficient
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  in just that piece of the ecosystem.
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  And that is a solve that, especially as
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  you said, upmarket, we hear all the time.
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  I I wanna try it on my own.
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  I wanna do this, but that shouldn't take,
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  you know, an eight to ten month
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  three party,
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  IT project to get off the ground. Should
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  it? It's a question they ask. So we
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  we think this solves a big part of
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  that problem.
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  Absolutely. So trying to remove that that big
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  IT barrier that a lot of employers
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  often face, the the investment time and and
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  money. It's funny by selling it with another
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  IT company. Right? But one that Yeah. Focuses.
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  Sure. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
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  Brian, what else are we missing here? Anything
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  we haven't touched on about the Unity Health
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  Hub or anything else you wanna mention while
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  you've got the ears of a a lot
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  of other health plan colleagues from around the
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  country?
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  Yeah. I think the part we maybe didn't
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  hit as much yet is, like, what is
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  that gonna feel like to the member, to
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  the employee?
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  And so if you picture, you know, their
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  willingness to step into a carrier's digital app
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  in the first place,
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  Once they're there, the Unity Health Hub becomes
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  a layer that lets them either questionnaire based
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  or based on something we might know about
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  them.
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  The member sees, oh, I could go click
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  into each of these point solutions now in
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  one unified journey.
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  When that Jacob becomes
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  a separate app or a separate connection,
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  we find that we lose the member. Right?
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  They they don't make that leap to go
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  pull up a different thing and continue their
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  digital journey there.
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  So as we roll this out, that's been
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  a big part of the focus is how
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  do you keep the member engaged,
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  seeing this as just a simple extension of
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  the benefits their employer offers,
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  and then wanting to to continue to click
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  through things. So that's the one piece I
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  would really want people to understand the vision
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  of.
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  Yeah. No. And definitely appreciate appreciate you adding
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  that on there. Very important to for audience
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  to know ultimately how the member is impacted
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  by this on the ground at the end
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  of the day.
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  Brian, I really appreciate you taking the time
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  to chat with us about this and and
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  looking forward, to hearing how this all goes
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  for you,
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  as this continues to roll out. Really appreciate
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  it. Yeah. Happy to do it. Maybe we
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  get back together when, when it's got some
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  miles on it and talk about some successes.
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  That would be great. So Absolutely. Door's open
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  anytime. Thanks for chatting with us.
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  Thank you. And to our listeners, if you'd
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  like to listen to more podcasts from Becker's
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  HealthCare, you can visit beckershospitalreview.com.