Strategies to close the gap to the future of health
Medicare Advantage health
plans continue to integrate digital solutions to better engage current—and
attract new—members. Explore how plans gauge digital strategy success and how
COVID-19 has impacted digital adoption in older adults.
Executive
summary
Before 2020, Deloitte
outlined a vision for the future of health anchored around stronger data
connectivity; interoperable and open, secure platforms; increasing consumer
engagement; and greater price transparency. Many Medicare Advantage (MA) plans
had begun to work toward that vision by adopting digital solutions to engage
with their members. Then, in March 2020, the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19)
put these plans into hyper speed. This period saw even more rapid adoption of
digital solutions for at-home monitoring, care engagement, and communication
regarding benefits and benefit changes. These recent developments, combined
with a regulatory push toward greater interoperability and price transparency,
have many MA plans racing toward the future of health faster than ever.
The Deloitte Center for
Health Solutions spoke with professionals at MA plans and digital innovators
that work closely with them to understand where these trends are headed and
what might accelerate them even more in the future (see “Methodology” under
sidebar “Methodology and definitions”). Generally, the interviewees agreed
that:
·
Digital solutions will be table stakes as member needs
accelerate. Before COVID-19, many MA plans were increasing their adoption
of digital solutions, but some were further ahead than others. The pandemic
accelerated digital delivery—both of benefits (care and medicine) and of
enrollment. This acceleration was partially in response to consumer demand, but
also due to health plan leaders realizing that technology is a good way to keep
their members out of the physician’s office but still cared for.
·
MA plans gauge the success of their digital solutions using
traditional, but measurable, metrics, including:
·
Physician engagement
·
Member stickiness metrics, such as member churn, growth, and net
promoter scores
·
Care and well-being metrics, such as clinical outcomes, quality
measures, star ratings, and gap closure
·
Cost metrics, such as reduction in member costs and operating
costs
·
COVID-19 moved drivers of health (social determinants of
health)—supported in MA by expansion of supplemental benefits flexibility—from
the back seat into the passenger seat. With added flexibility in benefits
begun before COVID-19 and continued through the emergence of the pandemic,
several health plans are offering digitally enabled supplemental benefits, such
as transportation, drug delivery, food and nutrition, and social connector
programs.
·
Challenges exist but MA plans and innovators expect the rapid
adoption that occurred during the pandemic to continue. Many plans are
still struggling with the same issues as always, such as how to leverage the
right data to measure outcomes and ROI of digital investments. But greater
regulatory focus on interoperability and price transparency are pushing MA
plans to develop more robust digital strategies.
As MA plans continue to
refine their digital strategies and integrate technology into their future
benefits products and processes, they should capitalize on the broader trends—consumer
demand, physician engagement, and regulatory changes (e.g., impending
interoperability regulations, telehealth flexibilities, supplemental benefit
changes)—helping support them in this shift. MA plans should also revamp their
marketing and enrollment processes to focus on digital care and communications.
The basis of competition is
changing faster than ever before and creating an uneven playing field based on
these capabilities. Adoption of digital solutions may not be an option but a
requirement for all MA plans in the times to come.
Introduction
Digital technologies have
rapidly penetrated many aspects of consumers’ interactions with health care
organizations, including how they make health care decisions and interact with
their health plan. For example, the average consumer today is much more likely
than in previous years to use fitness trackers, conduct video calls with
doctors, and use home-health devices, and is comfortable even with enrolling in
an insurance plan online.1 And
the same goes for older adults, many of whom are realizing the value of digital
technologies in their health choices. For instance, in our recent survey of
health care consumers, more than 60% of baby boomers said that their use of
digital fitness devices led to a great or a moderate deal of behavior change.
Additionally, more baby boomers expressed interest in using technology to
access care, such as medication reminders and monitoring sensors and devices
compared to previous years. 2 This
trend is one that has led many older consumers to demand changes, both in the
way they interact with their health plans for benefits communication and
enrollment and in the types of technology interactions with clinicians they
expect health plans to pay for.
On top of these existing
trends, the COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgency to adopt digital
technologies for many organizations. There is a focus on engaging one of the
most vulnerable populations in this pandemic—older adults—as health care
organizations strive to keep this population healthy and safe in their homes.
This has created huge opportunities for digital solutions to enable care in the
home.
Many new MA health plan
start-ups have built their business models around leveraging digital
technologies to engage their members—solutions for digital health, digital
medicine, and digital services and communications (see “Defining digital
solutions” under sidebar “Methodology and definitions”). To understand more
about MA plans’ digital solution adoption trends, the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on these trends, and the path forward, we interviewed leaders from
health plans with significant MA business. In addition, we also interviewed the
digital health innovators that partner with these health plans to provide the
digital solutions (see sidebar, “Methodology and definitions”).
Methodology
and definitions
Methodology
The Deloitte Center for
Health Solutions interviewed leaders from MA plans, including several digital
start-ups, and digital innovators working with MA plans from April–May 2020.
Interviews focused on understanding what plans consider to be table stakes when
it comes to digital solutions (see definition below), what measures they use to
gauge success with digital adoption, how flexibility from the US Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) around supplemental benefits and more
recently telehealth have changed their strategy, and what impact COVID-19 has
on the speed of adoption of digital solutions.
Defining
digital solutions
We divided digital
solutions into three broad buckets:
·
Digital medicine that
delivers evidence-based software and hardware products. Examples include
digital therapeutics, digital diagnostics, biomarkers, and digital companions
and devices.
·
Digital care, which includes
technologies and solutions that engage consumers for lifestyle, wellness, and
care purposes. Examples include telehealth, lifestyle apps, fitness trackers,
personal health records (PHRs), medication reminder apps, etc.
·
Digital services and communications, which
are tools and technologies that are used for marketing to, enrolling,
onboarding, and communicating with consumers on matters related to benefits and
plans.
Findings
Digital
solutions will be table stakes as member needs accelerate
Deloitte’s vision for the
future of health is that by 2040, health care will shift to a focus on health,
driven by stronger data connectivity; interoperable and open, secure platforms;
increasing consumer engagement; and greater price transparency. As that future
unfolds, we already see health care organizations, including MA organizations,
accelerating their adoption of digital solutions.
“COVID has been a game changer. None of this was table stakes six
months ago. As we go into the next open enrollment, if you don’t have
telemedicine, you’re going to hurt.” —Medicare sales lead at
an MA plan
In March 2020, the United
States began putting in place precautions to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Health care organizations across the country shut down many elective procedures
and shifted many services—including primary and specialty care and enrollment
and benefits communication—to digital solutions. As that happened, many health
plans offered consumers more flexibility with regard to telehealth options and
moved to digital solutions for benefits communication and enrollment. They did
this partially in response to consumer demand, but also due to health plan
leaders’ realization that technology is a good way to keep their members out of
the physician’s office but still under their care.
Indeed, COVID-19
accelerated the use of digital solutions for engaging with clinicians. As one
example, Deloitte’s COVID-19 survey showed that as of April 2020, more MA
enrollees used telehealth or virtual health in the first part of the year than
in all of 2019 (figure 1).3
Keeping
track: Measuring the success of digital solutions
MA plans gauge the success
of their digital solution initiatives using traditional, but measurable,
metrics, including member satisfaction and stickiness, clinical outcomes, total
costs, stars and gap closure, and net promoter score. The interviewees consider
their digital initiatives a success if they can move the needle on:
Physician engagement
Physicians are key
stakeholders for MA plans’ digital solutions. Digital solutions may fail if
they are not onboard or do not remain engaged. Health plans have aimed in
recent years to provide physicians with members’ claims and utilization, and
data from wearables and remote monitoring devices that members receive as a
part of their benefits. This has helped physicians remain engaged with their members.
“We have a primary care provider-centric view of technology.
That’s our tech strategy. We arm our PCPs with as much tech as possible. The
best product or tool to engage the seniors are the PCPs.” —Chief
technology officer at an MA plan
Member stickiness
In general, health plans
consider member growth and retention a key measure of success. It isn’t any
different for their digital initiatives. One of the most common metrics is the
correlation between the older adults who used their digital solutions and their
remaining enrolled in a given plan—member stickiness. Some MA plans are using
advanced analytics to better understand this correlation. For instance, many
look at the likelihood of continued enrollment among older adults using their
digital solutions regularly vs. those who used them just once or twice. They
also measure net promoter scores—members’ ratings of their health plans—and
usually find that the scores given by the highly digitally engaged members were
higher than those who did not adopt digital tools.
Improved quality of health
For digital innovators,
improvement in their health plan partners' member outcomes is a key goal. For
instance, interviewees revealed that they gave their members access to digital
companions and devices and fitness trackers to monitor their health. With
continuous monitoring at home, older adults, especially those with chronic care
needs, do not have to step out of their homes. Based on data from connected
digital devices, members find virtual conversations with their physicians both
convenient and beneficial to their overall health.
In addition, MA plans have
placed emphasis on closing care gaps—which, in turn, helps improve their
Medicare star rating. They do this by using analytics, digital interventions,
and communication through digital bots, automated outreach, and self-scheduling
options for members. For MA plans, gap closure is a key indicator of success of
such initiatives for quality of care of their members.
Reduced costs
Reducing member costs,
particularly for members with chronic diseases such as diabetes, is one of the
key metrics for both the digital innovators and health plans. Members with
diabetes have disproportionately higher costs, and digital interventions have
resulted in cost reductions of 20%, according to one of the digital innovator
interviewees. Digital technologies are helping health plans keep members out of
physician offices, and over time, reducing the cost of care. For instance, health
plans are creating special digital programs for members with chronic diseases
such as diabetes. Such programs include continuous digital monitoring of
diabetes members’ blood glucose levels, and digital interventions through
virtual well-being coaches, or their physicians.
COVID-19
moved drivers of health from the back seat into the passenger seat
Almost all MA health plans
offer supplemental coverage—benefits above traditional services offered to
fee-for-service beneficiaries. In 2019 and 2020, CMS expanded the definition of
these benefits to include nonhealth benefits that may impact health, such as
in-home support services, meal delivery, and nutritional food.4 The
uptake of these new benefits has been low but growing among MA health plans.
While only 1% of MA health plans included in-home support services for the 2019
benefit year, more than 240 MA plans offered special supplemental benefits for
the chronically ill (SSBCI), including pest control, transportation, meals, and
even pet support in 2020.5
As the COVID-19 pandemic
disproportionately impacts older adults, there has been an even larger focus on
using this benefit flexibility to address drivers of health in recent months.
In a rare move, in April, CMS allowed MA plans to make changes to their supplemental
benefits midyear due to the pandemic. For instance, MA plans are now able to
provide smartphones or other video devices to facilitate telehealth as a
supplemental benefit.6 This
is helpful for members’ access to telehealth benefits, especially for those who
are not able to afford smartphones.7
“When you think about food security—the statistics were that
5%–10% of the MA patients we visit had a food security issue before COVID.
COVID put that food in the car for the first time instead of just giving them
phone number.” —Chief growth officer at a digital innovator that works with MA
plans
When asked about the impact
of the current crisis on the supplemental benefit offerings for the coming
years, there was a consensus among the interviewees that health plans are and
will increasingly offer digitally enabled supplemental benefits to tackle drivers
of health. The most common ones they discussed were:
·
Transportation: Partnering
with app-based cab companies to provide convenient transportation options for
their members
·
Drug deliveries: Doorstep
deliveries of drugs from local pharmacies via digital and phone options
·
Food and nutrition: Partnering
with food banks and other catering providers to ensure food and nutrition
support for postdischarge, long-term, and even routine needs of their members
through phones or digital apps
·
Social connector programs: Regular
virtual outreach and engagement programs to ensure their members do not feel
socially isolated, especially as social distancing measures for COVID-19 are in
place
In addition to the above
benefits, some health plans are also experimenting with need-based benefits
such as broadband support, air conditioners for certain patient types, such as
those suffering from COPD, and even spa and salon services. Many interviewees,
however, noted taking a measured approach to adopting these new benefits, based
on factors such as market size, population mix, and competition.
Challenges
exist but MA plans and innovators expect pandemic-level rapid adoption to
continue over time
Many MA plans are currently
working to address some of the challenges that still exist in leveraging
digital solutions more effectively.
According to previous research, many plans still struggle
to connect the data they collect (from devices to reporting systems such as
quality/STARS data, care management, and risk adjustment) and align it to
better inform their care improvement strategy. Some organizations are
optimizing their data strategies and enhancing their processes around gleaning
insights from this data to inform member engagement and investments in digital
solutions. Two ways in which plans are doing this include using an
enterprisewide strategy (including risk adjustment, quality/stars, and care
management) to coordinate data and processes at the relevant functions and
automating some aspects of data collection and reporting using tools such as
robotic processing automation, natural language processing, and artificial
intelligence. Recent interoperability and price transparency rules that require
even greater data aggregation and sharing with consumers will likely push plans
to focus on developing solutions to these problems.
Interviewees agreed that
the industry may see long-lasting change past the COVID-19 pandemic. They
expect consumers’ and physicians’ attitudes toward and preference for virtual
health will continue to mature and give health plans an impetus to adopt and
improvise on digital solutions to deliver benefits.
Implications
Pay
attention to shifting consumer priorities, especially among the future member
population
Even before the COVID-19
pandemic, consumer interest in using digital solutions to engage with their
clinicians was on the rise. As a result, many plans are finding new ways to
provide these technologies as part of their benefits and care management
programs and to connect the data from these sources back to the clinician for
more informed decision-making. Deloitte’s 2020 US Health Care Consumer Survey found
that 42% of all consumers have used digital technology to track fitness and
health improvement goals, and 28% have used technology to monitor health issues
(up from 17% and 15%, respectively, since 2013). Moreover, we also see higher
demand among the younger Medicare population (ages 65–75) and the future age-in
population (ages 55–64). Trailing-edge boomers, the age-in population that will
enroll over the next 10 years, appears to be even more willing than
leading-edge boomers to use technology to access care outside of the usual
setting, such as the home, and will likely demand more digital solutions
(figure 2).
The strategies MA plans use
to both attract younger boomers and retain older ones should be viewed through
a digital lens. In addition to considering changes to future products to add more
digital care and medicine solutions, MA plans should consider revamping their
communication, marketing, and enrollment processes. People who are enrolling
for the first time, or who are seeking to switch plans, might want the ability
to shop for coverage and enroll virtually. Messaging should emphasize the
ability to access care from home and virtually. And, as care becomes more
digitized, MA plans may also need to consider the extended care team, including
unpaid caregivers, such as family and friends.
Bring
physicians and provider organizations into the fold, especially around virtual
health
Consumers are not the only
ones getting on board with digitizing care. Physicians and health care provider
leaders also believe that this is the way of the future.
Deloitte’s biennial
physician survey, fielded before COVID-19 was impacting
the country, found that physicians were gradually increasing their use of
virtual health. For example, physician-to-physician consultations increased
from 17% in 2018 to 22% in early 2020 and virtual visits from 14% in 2018 to
19%. COVID-19 has dramatically reshaped the landscape: Data from the spring of
2020 shows more physicians are using virtual health (with some practices
reporting a 50%–70% increase in use). Moreover, in a survey of executives from hospitals and health
systems, health plans, medical device and technology companies, and
virtual-health vendors, 50% thought at least a quarter of all outpatient care,
preventive care, long-term care, and well-being services would move to virtual
delivery by 2040.
The health plan leaders we
spoke to said that physician engagement is a critical factor for the success of
digital care and medicine programs. However, digital solutions need to be
integrated into clinicians’ workflows to drive adoption. Health plans can help
by supporting data integration, ensuring that data from virtual visits and
other virtual solutions are seamlessly integrated into physicians’ current
systems.
Get up to
speed on changing regulatory requirements, especially around interoperability
and price transparency
Beginning January 1, 2021,
health plans administering government-sponsored programs (i.e., MA, Medicaid
managed care, and the health insurance exchanges) will have to provide their
members with two open-source application programming interfaces (APIs), or apps
that allow different applications to talk to each other): patient access APIs
and provider directory APIs. Using these APIs on devices such as smartphones,
members would be able to get real-time claims and encounters information,
comparison of costs of treatments (i.e., price transparency), and other
clinical information through third parties.
This has ramifications for
health plans at two levels. In the more immediate term, they may need to
enhance their digital and interoperability initiatives to meet the deadline. In
the longer term, members will expect nothing short of the highest standards of
transparency and convenience as they become savvier users of digital health
care tools. Health plans that fail to get on board with a comprehensive digital
and interoperability road map may risk
falling behind the competition and losing business.
Revamp
marketing, enrollment, and member engagement processes to focus on digital care
and communications
Health plans have the
opportunity now to create a more effective digital consumer experience by
investing in direct-to-consumer capabilities and solutions that span across the
member journey and address members’ needs. Modern digital marketing
technologies can change the way older adults engage in the full cycle of shop,
buy, and enroll.
Due to the current
situation surrounding COVID-19, many prospective and current members might want
digital health and digital medicine benefits to be part of their coverage.
Besides, MA plans are increasingly relying on virtual modalities for presales,
enrollment, and postenrollment processes. Plans should ensure processes are
seamless and convenient both for new enrollees and renewals. In their marketing
and communications, they may want to emphasize the value and benefits of
digital health and medicine, including accessing care from home and virtually,
use of digital monitoring devices, and digital companions.
Conclusion
Leading MA health plans, in
conjunction with digital health innovators and large disrupters, have gained a
head-start on educating, acquiring, and retaining members in new and impactful
ways through digital solutions. However, others, including some of the largest
companies, are still operating in traditional ways or just beginning to invest
in solutions. MA plans seeking to devise their digital solution strategies
should consider three elements as they look toward the future of health:
Member-centric. Embrace a
consumer-centric mentality across all operations to fundamentally change how
older adults receive care and sustain health and well-being.
Key actions to consider:
·
Make the health and wellness needs of older adults a priority.
Build their trust, so that members view their health plan as a partner in
helping them optimize their health.
·
Deliver personalized and relevant information to members on their
terms. Engage members in personalized ways through moments that matter and
drive behavior change to deliver better outcomes for all stakeholders.
Digital capabilities. Become
a true digitally enabled organization by investing in digital front-end
capabilities for member engagement, as well as digital core and digital
enterprise capabilities to power it.
Key actions to consider:
·
Optimize existing business processes with new digital methods.
Embrace a fail-fast, agile mindset using rapid prototyping, testing, and
piloting.
·
Implement a use case–driven mentality and focus on delivering
value early and often. Define lagging and leading key performance metrics to
measure progress.
Fully integrated. Break
down organizational silos across the entire organization, strategically making
build/buy/partner decisions to fully integrate digital solutions.
Key actions to consider:
·
Craft a digital health ecosystem that allows for seamless
integration of best-in-class enterprise and partner developed capabilities.
Build flexibility into operations and systems to allow for rapid on- and
off-boarding of ecosystem partners.
·
Build an integrated digital platform with a data fabric that
underpins organizational transformation and data interoperability.
The basis of competition is
changing faster than ever before and creating an uneven playing field based on
these capabilities. Adoption of digital solutions may not be an option but a
requirement for all MA plans.
Deloitte’s
Life Sciences and Health Care Consulting Services
Innovation starts with
insight and seeing challenges in a new way. Amid unprecedented uncertainty and
change across the industry, stakeholders are looking for new ways to transform
the journey of care. Deloitte’s US Life Sciences and 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. Find out more
at https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/industries/life-sciences-and-health-care.html.
Get in touch
·
Leslie Read, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP
·
lread@deloitte.com
+1 617 519 6040
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/health-care/medicare-advantage-telehealth.html
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