Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Mack McGee, Chief Marketing Officer at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield

Transcript

Mack McGee, Chief Marketing Officer at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
• 0:02
  Becker's Payer Issues podcast.
• 0:04
  Thrilled today to be joined by Mac McGee,
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  who is the chief marketing officer at CareFirst
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  Blue Cross Blue Shield. Mac, thank you so
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  much for taking the time to be with
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  me on the podcast today.
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  Awesome, Jacob. Thanks so much for having me.
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  Absolutely. Glad you could be with us. And
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  before we dive into everything we wanna talk
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  with you about, can you tell us a
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  little bit more about yourself, your background in
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  health care, and what it is that you're
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  doing today at CareFirst?
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  Sure. So, I'm chief marketing officer at CareFirst
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  Blue Cross Blue Shield. Been here for five
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  years now.
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  This is actually my first full time foray
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  into the health care landscape.
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  Prior to this, really spent a lot of
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  my career on the agency side building brands
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  focused on creating demand, and then ultimately conversions
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  or commerce,
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  for those brands, and certainly worked with companies
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  in the health care space throughout that career,
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  but was excited about the opportunity to come
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  in and, actually joined CareFirst during the height
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  of the pandemic,
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  in July 2020, and I've been here ever
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  since overseeing everything from brand and advertising to
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  insights, experience, analytics, and engagement,
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  as well as our communications function.
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  Fantastic. So one thing that really caught our
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  eye, Mac, about CareFirst recently in the news
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  is the company being named the top performing
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  insurer for customer experience in 2025
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  by Forrester.
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  That was a report that came out earlier
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  this year,
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  this summer. They analyzed insurance companies from all
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  over the country about their their customer experience
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  performance from a variety of metrics.
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  And, you know, as I just mentioned, CareFirst
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  came out on top, across every insurance company
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  or major insurance company in the country. So
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  talk to us about what you think has
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  has led to this, this this acknowledgment that
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  the company is doing so well among among
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  your customers,
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  strategies,
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  initiatives that you really think has contributed to
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  this top ranking and and, ultimately, how you
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  are maintaining this level of performance above
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  all the other insurers.
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  Sure. I think so. First and foremost, without
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  being cliche, it does start with, I think,
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  just the executive leadership team's support of creating
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  a culture around it. And I would say
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  that's something that has been universally true, for
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  five years now at CareFirst. It's just a
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  support and really commitment to this idea of
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  creating that member centricity culture,
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  which I think can feed this in so
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  many different ways. And what I really appreciate
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  about the Forrester
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  program,
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  is the way it looks at not only
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  just brand experience, but then customer experience,
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  and the way these two play off of
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  each other. And it's really fascinating as you
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  get to the data to see that, and
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  I think something that certainly chief marketing officers,
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  chief experience officers,
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  can really appreciate as to how these two
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  move together.
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  And so for us, it's really been about
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  kind of building that foundational
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  culture,
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  to bring everybody to that experience no matter
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  what their day to day job might be,
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  in order to then make sure that as
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  we take on the various tasks that it
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  takes to run a health insurance company,
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  they're really thinking about that and thinking about
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  that member centricity in their approach,
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  because that's really where a lot of it
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  happens. You know? I tell everybody we can
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  build products. We can launch great digital tools,
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  but if the interactions
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  themselves
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  aren't truly trustful at the end of the
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  day and they aren't meaningful to the the
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  customer and the consumer,
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  you're only gonna get so far. And I
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  think that's something we've been really fortunate,
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  as we've been on this journey and continue
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  on this journey,
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  is to have that support and buy in,
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  and a great team that's continuing to find
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  ways to bring that member experience to the
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  forefront no matter what folks at CareFirst may
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  be doing in order to make sure that
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  we're continuing to push ourselves and think about
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  how we continue to be an experience focused
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  culture.
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  Absolutely. It makes a lot of sense. Strong
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  culture, strong leadership, all driving toward this one
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  common goal.
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  I should mention for our audience, Mac, that
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  the that the Forrester report,
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  it it mentioned that customer experience scores across
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  the the broader insurance industry have have worsened
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  over the past few years, and I'm sure
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  that's not a surprise to, many of our
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  our listeners.
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  But, you know, we're we're seeing insurers
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  lag behind in areas like brand experience, customer
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  service, and and that's been backed up by
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  other,
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  customer experience reports we've seen from other groups
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  over the last few months and few years.
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  So
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  more broadly for for the for the leaders
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  listening in, what do you think that other
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  parts of the industry where do you think
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  other parts of the industry are are falling
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  short, and and where do you see opportunities
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  for improvement? Where could other companies,
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  follow the lead of of CareFirst?
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  Yeah. It's been interesting, Jacob, in talking with,
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  both folks inside of industry and outside of
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  industry and whether it's been chief marketing officers,
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  with other companies or chief experience officers. You
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  know, we we talk about this a lot
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  and this idea of you really gotta look
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  at what's happening in outside consumer interactions and
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  how that's influencing
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  experience expectations. And so I think when you
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  see what came out from Forrester
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  in an industry like ours that was admittedly
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  had a lot of opportunity in front of
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  it it many years ago as it related
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  to, you know, the opportunities to optimize and
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  improve things like customer member experience,
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  you have to continue to pay attention to
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  these outside forces.
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  And I go back, you know, my time
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  in the agency world. We used to talk
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  about what happened with Google search when autofill
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  came in and just what what that did
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  for for the consumer around being able to
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  not have to even complete a search query
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  to ultimately get results.
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  And then you look certainly,
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  you know, it would be lost without mentioning
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  just the impact of what AI and AI
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  type interactions are
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  doing, to consumer experience. And so I think
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  what you're really continuing to see is this
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  ongoing rebaselining
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  of consumer expectations and the industry not moving
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  fast enough and already being behind,
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  that's really being a detriment to to a
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  lot of what is the customer or member
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  experience in this case. And so you think
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  about what things you'll see in in in
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  Forrester studies and hear from experienced professionals.
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  Right? This this starts ultimately,
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  at trust, and and so much of trust
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  is tied to personalization. And we've seen this
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  in our internal studies as well as the
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  external measurement programs as to how personalization
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  and trust move together.
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  Right? And members or consumers really know, like,
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  does the brand know who I am? It's
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  really just a a simple starting point of
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  the interactions they have. And so, you know,
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  thinking about what's happening in that space, and
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  then thinking about frictionless. Right? And I think
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  this is, again, two main areas that AI
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  is really continuing to push, not just in
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  terms of what the AI technology is, how
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  you're seeing it present itself in terms of
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  online commerce and ordering from day to day
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  things consumers are interacting with, as well as
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  other industries, quite frankly, hospitality
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  and the finance industry doing a lot of
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  leading work in this space. And so you
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  look then back at ours and you go,
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  okay. Well, frictionless,
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  where where do we create friction? Right? And
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  you think about things like prior auth, and
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  you're seeing the industry even now come together
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  in 2025 and go, we've gotta create some
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  standardizations
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  here because we're doing these things too independently
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  at the detriment of the consumer.
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  And so we've gotta make wider sweeping changes
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  there in order for that to happen. There's
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  no doubt, obviously, since the events in December
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  '24,
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  the stories around claim denials. Right? And so
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  these things represent friction.
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  And I think as we think about experience
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  today and what consumers expect,
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  they don't care about your business processes and
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  practices.
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  If those need to be in place, they
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  didn't happen in the background. Right? And so
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  simple things like single sign on, you know,
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  and really making sure that you're creating a
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  frictionless
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  environment
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  and interaction for the consumers. And so I
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  think we're just seeing ongoing rebaselining and the
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  expectations just growing and growing from consumers on
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  what they want. And it's incumbent on us
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  to meet that challenge. And I think we
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  admit that we got a lot of opportunity
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  in this industry,
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  with our abilities to inject this in. We
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  have to be cautious as we think about
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  opportunities in that space around AI and automation.
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  But there's a lot of opportunity here that
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  I think is gonna go a long way
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  in just helping consumers with what I think
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  is some relatively basic expectations
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  around being able to self serve at greater
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  capacities in this industry and meet, you know,
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  industry wide benchmarks. And at the same time,
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  just being able to do the things they
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  need to do to navigate the health care
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  experience easier.
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  Definitely. And it's interesting you say that the
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  industry needs to look more externally because we've
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  we've heard that before from from leaders all
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  over the country in terms of wanting to
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  emulate more the airline industry or or or
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  what you mentioned, the hospitality industry and make
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  things so much easier
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  for customers. And and one thing one challenge
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  we always hear is that it's just it's
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  such a everyone's working in different spaces and
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  silos, and and it's such a complex industry.
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  It's so difficult to to change things for
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  the better. And I think, you know, that's
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  I think that's a pretty fair thing to
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  say towards someone in your role as working
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  as a as a chief marketing officer in
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  this space is that it's it's a very
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  difficult industry. It's it's very complex. It's very
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  emotional from the member side of things. And
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  and what we've just talked about, the customer
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  expectations are so quickly evolving in what can
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  be a very rigid space. So
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  with all that being said, Mac, from your
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  experience now at CareFirst,
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  what do you think is key to successfully
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  navigating all these challenges and really achieving that
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  sustained
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  success that we've now seen CareFirst,
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  be able to do?
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  Yeah. I think first is we've gotta throw
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  that storyline out. Right? I think for too
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  long, we've existed on the idea. These things
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  are too complex. Right? And there's too much
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  around it, whether it's regulation and product design,
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  benefit design. And and so we've gotta challenge
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  ourselves that that excuse
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  isn't going to be tolerated anymore. And you've
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  seen it, in the startup world as things
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  come in and try and really challenge the
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  systems in place. And what it's often doing
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  is nothing more than simplifying. And so, you
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  know, one of the things culturally we've really
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  established as we think about experience strategy,
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  and journey mapping for our members is this
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  idea of moments of truth.
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  When you identify those moments of truth, how
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  do you look at those and really challenge
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  on what makes for a better consumer experience
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  today than what we're offering? And so you
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  think about, you know, when people buy products
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  upfront.
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  And this is like a very basic interaction
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  for us, but it's something that we've really
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  gotta think about of what are we doing
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  to educate that member in that capacity. And
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  for so long, we accepted things like providing
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  a glossary of our own terminology as a
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  way of educating,
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  consumers around buying. That's not good enough. Right?
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  The fact that we even have to offer
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  the glossary, I think, should tell us something,
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  right, about what we're doing. But thinking about
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  people buying, people buying for me or people
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  buying for us, right, which is often happening
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  in our world, and how do you create
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  better education, better shopping experiences that account for
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  that. And we've seen a big lift there
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  just in in the way in which we
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  talk with our members or potential members during
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  that purchase process,
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  and really trying to work now with our
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  partners,
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  on how we scale those efforts to bring
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  that experience to members as they purchase knowing
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  that that's at the very outset of our
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  relationship gonna start things off. And then looking
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  at those other moments of truth when people
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  are calling in to try and estimate costs
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  for various procedures,
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  when they receive an EOB. What does that
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  EOB look like? What is the language we
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  use in it? And really trying to think
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  about those pieces,
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  and adopting this idea of being simple, clear,
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  and human and challenging ourselves
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  across the journey as to anywhere where we're
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  not living up to that and how we
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  might challenge those
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  interactions to meet that opportunity to be simple,
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  clear, and human is something we're really taking
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  on internally
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  in so much of what we're doing, as
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  well as the folks that are ultimately answering
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  the phone at the end of the day.
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  And our and our folks do a phenomenal
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  job of this, and I'd argue that so
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  much of the success you're seeing right now
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  is those interactions
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  that we see from people that do have
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  to call in and are looking for guidance
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  and help. And what can be a really
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  vulnerable moment in their life, whether they're dealing
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  with something health related, but also is inevitably
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  something financially related and and having someone they
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  feel like they can trust to talk to.
• 11:57
  Absolutely. So throwing out that old playbook of,
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  you know, things are too complex, too rigid
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  for change, to occur. It's it's fascinating to
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  hear you say that, Mac.
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  Before we go, what else are we missing?
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  You've got the ears of a lot of
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  other health plan leaders from all over the
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  country. What else do you wanna share with
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  them?
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  I think that really interesting thing to me
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  in in looking at this year's results in
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  this particular study, but something we've really been
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  trying to look at for a while now,
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  is is just the relationship and play between
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  brand and experience. Right? And I think we
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  we we talk about this a lot as
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  to, you know, the brand that shows up
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  in your respective market versus the experience your
• 12:36
  current customers have and how much daylight is
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  there between those two things. And so I
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  think what what I'd encourage other leaders to
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  look at, whether you look at the results
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  of your own performance in a study like
• 12:46
  this or at least just conceptually what this
• 12:48
  third party research and and a company like
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  Forrester is showing is just how much play
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  there is between these two places and the
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  way you've gotta really look at them together
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  as to how experience is an extension of
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  brand and brand is an extension of experience.
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  And I think you've gotta think about that
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  strategy holistically
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  and pay attention to both what your customers
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  are telling you today in that as well
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  as what is the market saying. And if
• 13:13
  your ultimate goal, like many, is growth and
• 13:15
  and retention certainly is looking at how are
• 13:18
  we able to engage that audience and what
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  are the challenges ahead of us as we
• 13:22
  try and generate new growth and really understand
• 13:25
  what our challenges are in that space, what
• 13:27
  our opportunities to lean into that space, but
• 13:29
  how these things connect together. And I think
• 13:31
  this is something that, marketing leaders and experienced
• 13:34
  leaders have talked about for quite some time,
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  but there's gotta be really tight connectivity between
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  these functions if you are going to be
• 13:41
  successful
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  as you endeavor on this journey. And I
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  think that's a real opportunity for everybody to
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  lean into.
• 13:48
  Fantastic. It's great. Last bits of advice. Mac,
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  I wanna thank you for taking the time
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  to chat with us and for sharing your
• 13:54
  insights with our listeners. We really appreciate it.
• 13:58
  Thanks so much for having me, Jacob. Really
• 13:59
  appreciate the opportunity. Yeah. Absolutely. And to our
• 14:02
  listeners, if you wanna listen to more podcasts
• 14:04
  from Becker's HealthCare, you can visit beckershospitalreview.com.