Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Sheri Johnson, Vice President, Member Enrollment and Billing, UCare

Transcript

Sheri Johnson, Vice President, Member Enrollment and Billing, UCare · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

• 0:00
  Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless
• 0:02
  innovation to create world class pharmacy, care, and
• 0:05
  benefit solutions.
• 0:07
  Barriers to care can lead to gaps in
• 0:08
  care, which can drive up the total cost
• 0:10
  of care. Our capabilities work seamlessly together to
• 0:13
  create innovative pharmacy care and benefit solutions for
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  today and tomorrow.
• 0:18
  Our connected health services make the treatment, prediction,
• 0:21
  and prevention of health care's most complex conditions
• 0:24
  easier and more accessible as we drive organizations
• 0:27
  and people forward.
• 0:29
  This is Haley Recker with the Becker's Payer
• 0:31
  podcast, and we are recording live at the
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  Becker's third annual spring pair issues roundtable.
• 0:36
  I am thrilled today to be joined by
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  Sherry Johnson,
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  vice president of member enrollment and billing at
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  UCare.
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  Sherry, thank you so much for being here
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  with me today. Can you go ahead and
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  tell us a little bit about yourself and
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  your background? Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks, Hailey. I'm so
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  excited to be here on my very first
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  podcast.
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  So let me tell you a little bit
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  about UCare. UCare, we are a nonprofit
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  regional health plan based out of Minneapolis,
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  Minnesota.
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  We have around 600,000
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  members, and our lines of business include Medicare,
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  Medicaid,
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  and marketplace.
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  And my role at UCare is leading what
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  I like to call front end operations. So
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  the member enrollment and premium billing teams are
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  the teams that report to me.
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  Well, awesome. Thank you so much for introducing
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  that to us.
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  So today, I wanna have a discussion about
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  member satisfaction, which is essential to thrive in
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  today's competitive health care landscape.
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  So what experience or engagement strategies have proven
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  effective for your organization, and how are you
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  measuring success?
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  Thanks for that question.
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  Being in front end operations,
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  it's really challenging
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  because we are not in a space
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  where we necessarily
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  can positively
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  impact the member experience. When someone enrolls, they
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  expect that to go well.
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  When they get their premium bill, they expect
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  that to be right. So, sadly,
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  oftentimes,
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  we are in a position where we can
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  negatively
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  impact the experience
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  more so than positively.
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  So we have to look for different ways
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  to listen to our members and take into
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  consideration
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  the things that they are asking for. And
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  what I found has been most impactful
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  is in the area
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  of payment types.
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  So we found a few years ago that
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  our members really wanted to pay their premium
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  by credit card, and they wanted to use
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  American Express, which we didn't take at the
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  time.
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  I live in Minneapolis.
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  That's a Delta hub. People wanted their Delta
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  miles. And so we took that information, and
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  we decided to offer American Express as a
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  payment type.
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  And in order to measure was that effective,
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  we were able to look at how many
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  people actually use that credit card, and it
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  was not surprising, very high as people had
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  asked for that. So that was a really
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  nice,
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  benefit.
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  We also had a situation
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  where people would call into customer service maybe
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  the day their premium was due
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  and ask to pay by phone. We did
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  not have that option available for people.
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  So we talked about it. We worked with
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  our bank, and we implemented
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  a pay by phone solution.
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  And, again, we measured that by looking at
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  how many people actually
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  utilize that payment method.
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  And we thought it would be quite small
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  because the technology was a little clunky where
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  you had to enter
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  the credit card number and your member number
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  and all of that. You had to enter
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  it using the keypad. It didn't have a
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  voice response option.
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  But,
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  surprisingly,
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  people use that pay by phone option
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  like you couldn't believe, especially as it got
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  close to the time the payment was due.
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  So that was another example of how the
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  member feedback
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  really changed what we did. And then the
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  final thing I'll say is we implemented some
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  new technology
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  for our marketplace line of business.
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  And using the portal, our members were able
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  to do recurring payments with their credit card.
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  Again, something we didn't have,
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  but something members had asked for. And upon
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  implementation,
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  it was wildly successful.
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  And now we have quite a significant
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  part of our population who actually has all
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  of their
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  payments
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  prescheduled.
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  Well, thank you so much for going into
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  such great detail and sharing your experience with
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  us.
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  Once again, this is Haley Recker with the
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  Becker's Payer podcast recorded live at the Becker's
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  third annual spring payer issues roundtable.
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  Sherry, thank you so much. Thank you.