Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Amy Jordan, Vice President of Consumer Digital Engagement at UnitedHealthcare

Transcript

Amy Jordan, Vice President of Consumer Digital Engagement at UnitedHealthcare · 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 Amy Jordan, who's the vice president
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  of consumer experience within UnitedHealthcare's
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  commercial business. Amy, 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, thank you so much for having me.
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  I'm excited to be here.
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  Absolutely. And, before we dive into everything we
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  wanna talk with you about, Amy, can you
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  tell us a little bit more about yourself
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  and what it is that you do today
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  at UnitedHealthcare?
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  Perfect. Yeah. Happy to. So, yes, I am,
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  in charge of all things digital and consumer
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  experience for UnitedHealthcare.
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  I've been with the organization for about six
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  years.
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  And so I'm really focused on our digital
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  experiences with UnitedHealthcare
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  app and our,
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  web experience, my uhc.com. And then I also
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  lead our rewards and incentive programs for the
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  commercial business and really focus on supporting,
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  our teams out in the field to make
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  sure that they are talking,
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  about the great tools that we feel like
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  we're building here at UnitedHealthcare to support our
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  members.
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  Fantastic. Well, let's talk about one of those
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  tools, Amy. As as you know, UnitedHealthcare
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  recently launched a data driven enhancement to its
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  provider search quality,
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  that aims to help people more easily connect
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  with care based on their personal needs, their
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  their health plan benefits,
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  and their own preferences. So talk to us
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  a little bit about this. What is Smart
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  Choice, and who is it available to?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. It's,
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  we're very excited about it. It launched about
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  six to eight weeks ago now,
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  and we did a a slow rollout, and
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  it's broadly available now to a large portion
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  of our commercial business. We have a few
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  separate health plans that are on on different
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  and distinct tools, but the majority of our
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  commercial business now has access
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  to this tool.
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  I think it really starts with our overarching
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  strategy around really trying to simplify the health
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  health care system
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  for our members, particularly around guidance and navigation.
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  We're all aware of how complex the health
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  care system can be, and we have a
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  really broad network, which is great. It provides
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  a lot of choice for our members, but
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  sometimes can be hard to figure out who
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  should I see and when should I see,
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  which resource and for what problem. And so
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  our goal is to really create simple tools,
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  and Smart Choice is kind of the first
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  example
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  of that that we've launched recently to really
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  kind of help drill down into some of
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  that data and really bring it forward in
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  an easy to understand way. So it's a
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  proprietary scoring methodology that we created here that's
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  across those five capabilities
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  of quality,
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  benefits,
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  personal fit,
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  convenience factors,
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  and then ultimately that provider data quality component,
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  which we know is a is a challenge
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  to make sure that we're keeping that information
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  up to date, as members are coming in
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  and searching the tools. So we're trying to
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  be as transparent as possible about when we
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  last validated that provider information.
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  So that's kind of the core of what
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  it is, and we score those providers across
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  that algorithm zero to 100
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  and then match that up to what the
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  member is searching for to try to provide
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  the best fit for that member, to help
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  them make that smart choice.
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  Sure. Understood. So this is all about simplifying
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  access to high quality care. I wonder if
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  you could expand a bit for us, Amy,
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  in terms of specific member pain points or
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  unmet needs,
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  that really prompted the development of Smart Choice
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  and how the platform's
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  personalization engine improves the care navigation experience compared
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  to,
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  previous search tools.
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  So I think it's great. You know, for
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  us, it was really focused on how how
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  we can bring forward this information in an
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  easy to ingest way. And some people want
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  a lot of information, and some people don't
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  necessarily need all of the nuts and bolts.
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  And, you know, that changes from person to
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  person. Maybe if I'm just going to search
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  for a primary care physician, maybe a little
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  less invested. But if I'm going out and
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  I'm getting a knee procedure done or something
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  that's a little bit more extensive, I I'm
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  gonna do more research.
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  And so we're trying to balance,
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  how much information we're providing to not overwhelm
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  our members because not all of them are,
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  you know, as invested in this as maybe
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  we all are and those of you listening
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  on the podcast to truly understand some of
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  the nuts and bolts. And so it's really
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  around creating that easy to understand score and
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  then allowing for those double clicks in to
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  really understand for those members that maybe want
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  a little bit more information.
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  So when they go into the experience, they
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  can see the score. You can take that
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  at at face value and make your decision,
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  or you can click in and you can
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  really read up on some of these providers.
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  We have all of the the biography information,
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  cost information,
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  you know, location,
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  quality metric information that's in there. But then
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  you can really understand how they rate at
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  that quality component to make up the score,
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  how they rate across your benefits. Am I
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  maximizing all of the benefits available to me
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  as a member? And then those convenience factors.
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  Do they have nights and weekends available? Do
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  they offer online scheduling? Do they offer virtual
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  visits? All of that is built into this
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  as well. And then finally, that personal fit
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  profile, which is really a key part of
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  that personalization
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  strategy you mentioned.
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  It's it's really bringing forward the member's own
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  preferences
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  combined with what we all know in this
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  industry from a quality data metrics perspective and
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  really marrying the two together. So you're taking
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  the best of both worlds, if you will.
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  So you're not losing the steerage to quality.
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  But when things are equal from a quality
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  and benefit maximization perfection
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  perspective,
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  it's really around how then we look at
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  what matters most to you as the member,
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  gender of a provider, language of that provider
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  spoken,
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  board certifications or not. Those are the types
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  of factors we can layer in with that
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  personal fit profile.
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  Absolutely. No. This this sounds very, very beneficial
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  from the member's perspective.
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  And and as I understand it, UnitedHealthcare actually
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  made over 400 digital enhancements
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  last year alone.
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  So so how does SmartChoice fit into that
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  broader digital transformation strategy? And I wonder, Amy,
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  what lessons would you share with the other
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  insurers or employers
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  listening in, who could take,
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  take lessons from your investment in consumer facing
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  tech?
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  Yeah. For sure. We have done a a
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  lot of work to really improve our digital
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  experiences. You know? We're really proud of the
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  fact that we are the number one payer
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  app out there right now in the Apple
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  and Google Store, and we've received a lot
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  of positive feedback from our consultant partners in
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  the industry and our employer partners
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  really around the investments we've made and how
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  far we've taken some of the digital capabilities
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  we've brought forward.
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  For us, that smart choice is one of
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  the first kind of cornerstones of our retail
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  focus strategy. And what I mean by that
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  is how do we really simplify the health
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  care experience
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  to really allow for that that true kind
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  of shopping
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  component
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  that you get with most other things within
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  your daily life except health care. Oftentimes, health
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  care is decisions are made for us, whether
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  that's in the provider's office or due to,
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  you know, an emergency and having to to
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  find the closest care, and it's not necessarily
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  something that you shop for historically.
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  And with this tool, among a few others
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  that we have planned as part of a
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  broader strategy
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  around making this more retail focused and retail
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  friendly, we're really trying to empower our consumers
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  to really allow them to shop, to compare,
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  to make the best decision that fits their
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  needs in that moment, and then bring that
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  forward and and hopefully help improve their health
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  overall
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  with these tools there to really guide them
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  appropriately and to help them maximize their dollars,
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  which we know are increasingly becoming less and
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  less.
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  And so really trying to just provide our
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  members with as much information as possible
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  to make health care, while challenging,
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  a simpler experience.
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  Absolutely.
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  Well, I mean, if we're talking about the
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  bigger context here as well, we know that
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  67
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  of employers today are collecting and analyzing
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  employee health data in-depth.
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  So how do you think the tools like
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  Smart Choice will,
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  evolve as part of a broader shift towards
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  more data driven health plan design and and
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  value based care?
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  Yeah. I certainly think the data is a
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  key part in bringing forward that personalized approach
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  to health care. And, certainly, we've seen that
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  evolution over the past, you know, few years.
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  Particularly, we certainly have been focused on it
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  in the six years that I've been here
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  and increasingly investing more and more there. But
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  the more data that we have on an
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  individual member or the more data we are
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  given,
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  for ourselves to make informed decisions, we're really
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  able to unlock, you know, key differences that
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  are gonna matter most to me based off
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  of my health care needs, and maybe they'll
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  shift from year to year,
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  to really bring forward plan designs that are
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  going to be able to address those better.
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  And so the more that we can ingest
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  data, medical data,
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  and bring that forward in a way that's
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  that's,
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  helpful to the members as they're making decisions,
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  whether that's upfront when they're deciding on their
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  benefit plan design or throughout the year as
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  they're figuring out how to best utilize those
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  plans, we're really gonna be able to unlock
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  for them a lot of key opportunities to
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  not only improve their health,
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  save themselves some money, but ultimately plan better
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  for the future as they're thinking about those
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  next
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  steps or phases of their life, whether they
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  know they're planning, you know,
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  to try and, you know, build a family
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  in the years to come or whatnot. By
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  giving them that information and kind of ingesting
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  that and then returning that to them in
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  a way that's really easy to understand,
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  and and make decisions off of, we're hoping
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  that we're really gonna be able to build
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  out something that provides for that more consumer
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  choice,
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  and the evolution of health care as we
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  look ahead.
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  Wonderful. Well, Amy, what else are we missing?
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  Are there any final thoughts that you'd like
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  to share with our listeners today?
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  I think for us, you know, the biggest
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  thing, as I said, is really, right, how
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  can we put the consumer at everything that
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  we do? And that's been a a shift
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  for us over the past couple of years.
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  We certainly have always been consumer focused,
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  but our leadership has really challenged us to
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  think about that consumer experience. And we've increasingly
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  see that come up as we're talking to
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  our employers and clients around how we're better
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  engaging consumers. And so as we think about
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  all of the tools that we're building out,
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  they're great. We hope that they are going
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  to be,
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  effective in helping people make better health care
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  decisions. But if they aren't aware of them,
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  we can build as many tools as we
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  want, and it's not gonna do anything. So
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  for us, in parallel with building out these
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  tools, we're really focused on how we can
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  drive engagement and utilizing them.
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  And so there's a lot of strategies that
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  we're building out and trying to,
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  employ as part of this or alongside,
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  you know, the digital work that we're doing
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  to really make people aware of some of
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  the great capabilities. But then also with that
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  data that we have,
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  bring that back to them in a way
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  that will say, hey. Are you aware of
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  this opportunity to save money by switching from
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  a thirty to ninety day supply for a
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  drug? Or,
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  we see that you have had some, recent
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  ER visits. Are you aware that you can
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  use virtual care instead for some of these?
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  So mostly, it's a lack of awareness sometimes,
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  and bringing that forward to members in a
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  way that really feels,
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  relevant and contextual to how they're engaging with
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  us is another key part of what we're
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  thinking about as we're building out these tools
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  and capabilities, but engaging them in them as
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  well.
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  Fantastic. Well, Amy, thank you so much for
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  taking the time to be with me here
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  on the podcast and for sharing your insights
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  with our listeners. We really appreciate it.
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  Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.
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  This is great. And to our listeners, if
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  you'd like to listen to more podcasts from
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  Becker's Healthcare, you can visit beckershospitalreview.com.