Most health plans have traditionally played a limited role in the provider and patient care experience, but this is changing rapidly. Increasing medical costs coupled with competition from disruptive players are causing many providers to rethink their care models, sources for data, and insights. These pressures are also causing health plans to rethink their growth strategies and the nature of their provider relationships. Health plans' M&A, partnership, and investment activities are shifting from horizontal to vertical, as they join forces with health care providers, retail pharmacies, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).1 Some employers are experimenting with direct provider contracting and offering employees their own primary care, altogether bypassing traditional insurers.2 New entrants bring a commitment to customer experience, a track record of reducing costs, and unparalleled analytics expertise, promising to reinvent the customer experience in health care.3
As health plans consider how to compete for the customer, (i.e., the member, patient, caregiver), collaborating with health care practitioners on the frontlines of delivering care can be a way to create a superior member and patient experience, improve outcomes, and lower costs.
Are health care practitioners interested in working with health plans and are they willing to adopt the solutions health plans might offer to improve patient care? The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions conducted a study to help answer this question. Explore the results here.
Leslie Read is a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, and leader of our Health Plans Customer Transformation Solutions.
Sarah Thomas is the managing director of the Center for Health Solutions, part of Deloitte LLP's Life Sciences & Health Care practice.
Innovation starts with insight and seeing challenges in a new way. Amid unprecedented uncertainty and change across the health care industry, stakeholders are looking for new ways to transform the journey of care. Our US Health Care practice helps clients transform uncertainty into possibility and rapid change into lasting progress. Comprehensive audit, advisory, consulting, and tax capabilities can deliver value at every step, from insight to strategy to action. Our people know how to anticipate, collaborate, innovate, and create opportunity from even the unforeseen obstacle.
Learn more at http://www.deloitte.com/us/providers.
