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Cybersecurity is a constantly evolving threat with the potential for massive risk and impact. HealthEdge is always on guard against cyber threats with a security blueprint and technology stack. The main HealthEdge cybersecurity pillars are:

1. Prevention

Prevention is a critical component of cybersecurity. HealthEdge secures the network infrastructure with segmentation and network traffic controls. We commit to continuous vulnerability and patch management, as well as security for incoming and outgoing data management with data loss prevention controls, Internet proxies for secure browsing, and email security controls to protect users from malicious attachments, links, and phishing. Endpoint devices are secured on and off the network, including mobile devices to ensure secure collaboration and sharing. HealthEdge ensures our team is regularly trained on information security through our robust Security Awareness For Everyone (SAFE) program. Targeted training is conducted for secure coding, which ensures security by design.

2. Access Control

Identity and access management controls allow authorized user access to the corporate network. Security controls are configured for remote access using VPN and multi-factor authentication.

3. Operations Management

Security Operations and Compliance work in tandem to monitor and enforce policy for cloud-based applications. Security data from across the environment is ingested and normalized into our Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool in real-time. Using the correlated data, the Security Operations team can quickly respond to security events using our Security Orchestration Automation Response (SOAR) tool.

4. Securing Applications & Validating Controls

HealthEdge continuously tests our website, and applications for code vulnerabilities. We protect web applications from malicious attackers using our Web Application Firewall (WAF) and monitor third-party risk using public information to profile a company’s security behavior. These controls are validated through governance risk and compliance with penetration testing and continuous auditing to ensure the company is meeting compliance and risk standards.

5. Intelligence

In addition to security controls managed internally, HealthEdge has a robust threat intelligence program through partnerships with healthcare industry peers and cybersecurity experts. Alerts and reports are continuously assessed, and security controls are regularly adjusted in accordance with intelligence findings and applicability.

6. Response

Because the threat is always evolving, HealthEdge must be positioned to immediately respond to security incidents.  This response is a coordinated effort in which we collect data and correlate behavior to achieve comprehensive understanding during the investigation process. eDiscovery ensures data is collected, and integrity is maintained, for legal matters. Response strategies include Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Disaster Recovery (DR), and controls to support redundancy and availability, which are regularly evaluated for improvements.

HealthEdge understands what it means to be a good steward of customer data and we take this responsibility seriously. Our teams work around the clock to ensure maturity when it comes to pillars of security. Follow us next month when we dive into industry trends and top threats.

Is it possible?  Can competitors also collaborate?  Do they already?  When is it acceptable?  When does it push reasonable boundaries and when does it cross the line?  This post will cover those thoughts and others surrounding the value of ‘collaborative competition’.

In a recent in-person discussion with multiple customers, some competing for market share within the same geographic region, we were told, admonished really, that we (the ‘vendor partner’) worry more about their competition than they do – and they would find value and appreciate the opportunity to collaborate more.

I’ve been in the health plan business since 1990 and reflecting on the 90s when managed Medicare was beginning to grow, then regulated by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), a predecessor to CMS, fierce competition quickly followed.  Health plans offering Medicare coverage within the same geographic region became strong competitors.  At the time, competition was based on the variety of benefits offered, co-pays and co-insurance, and most apparent, the premiums.

Very shortly afterwards, premiums dropped dramatically, and zero premium plans surfaced and became commonplace.  No longer was competition based on premium – shifting to benefits and member/beneficiary out-of-pocket cost.  This has remained a competitive factor for the past almost 30 years, and in more recent history, individualized customer care/service, predictability of cost, and quality (effectively, “The Triple Aim”), sometimes now Quadruple or Quintuple (often adding staff satisfaction and equity).

Competition in the markets of Medicare as well as Medicaid and Commercial remain a focus for health plans today.  This was confirmed earlier in 2022 when HealthEdge commissioned an independent study of over 300 health insurance executives on a variety of topics.  Competitive pressure was selected as a top challenge by 35% of executives responding, ranking fifth.  Competition also showed up regarding member acquisition, with 23% of respondents listing this as a top concern.  However, when reviewing the responses regarding technology, competition did not appear in the results.  Instead, investments in technology and alignment of business and IT were consistently the top two technology goals – with 53% of executives confirming.  An opportunity for collaboration exists here.

All health plans must efficiently operationalize in essentially the same manner – and utilize similar internal processes.  Some developing processes, for example, the approach to handling value-based care, remain competitive.  During the past couple decades, competition has increased within the health plan marketing environment – with various marketing solutions offering competitive advantages for capturing increased market share.  Typically, marketing is managed separately from the core operations within a health plan.  Does this make operational collaboration more reasonable?  Many would say yes.

Take provider data as an example.  It’s not unreasonable to conclude that 100% of health plans have some challenges in managing their provider data.  Health plans within the same geographic region often have very labor-intensive processes surrounding activities such as credentialing.  Some geographic regions, even some entire States, have established a variety of credential verification services – a “one-stop-shopping” approach, per se, to ease credentialing for everyone.  This is a collaborative solution that benefits everyone in the region yet does nothing to inhibit competition.

Often, health plans have built-in trust issues with their software vendors.  Time and effort are required to establish an effective partnership based on mutual understanding and common goals.  While this trust and partnership is being established and built, health plans can find common ground with one another.  As with any challenge in life, we all know that we’re rarely the first to experience something – and the collective experience of others can help to address any challenge.  Customers with common solutions can share experiences, tips and tricks, hacks.  And we all know everyone hates to open a ticket.  How nice to address an issue without that.  Do you contact Apple® support for questions regarding your iPhone®?  More than likely, you find the nearest teenager!  Health plans, even competitive ones, can commiserate, communicate, and collaborate as they have the same challenges.  There is strength in numbers – solving a challenge together is more effective that going it alone.  Networking with others within our small world also has many unintentional benefits.

My answers to the initial questions posed…  Is it possible to collaborate in a competitive marketplace?  Yes, it is possible!  Yes, competitors can also collaborate (sometimes)!  And yes, some already are!  When is it acceptable?  More often than some think!  When does it push the reasonable boundaries and/or cross the line?  When using similar solutions, far less frequently and rarely crosses any inappropriate lines.

A way to begin to establish new collaborative relationships is also through customer user groups.  If you’re not already connected to your HealthEdge product user group, use this link to register for the user groups of your choice.  If you are already a HealthEdge customer, feel free to also contact your HealthEdge Account Executive who can guide you as needed.  Go forth and collaborate!

Long term technology success hinges on the last step of HealthEdge’s Transform Methodology, Execution

Transform Methodology’s Last Step: Execution

Traditionally technology implementations involved simply building on a firm’s operational competencies and short term needs by adding a product.

Instead, transform methodology is the insurance industry’s long term approach to change management. It requires working together with vendor’s expertise and software to align and achieve long term goals while transforming businesses from the inside out.

Transform methodology was developed leveraging HealthEdge’s extensive experience successfully implementing their suite of solutions with health plans of all types, sizes, and lines of business.

HealthEdge has outlined 3 phases of successful technology implementation: 1. Evaluation 2. Envision 3. Execution. Because Transform Methodology is focused on long term success, the last phase of technology implementation is ongoing and the most intensive to explain. This article goes over in detail how to successfully execute technology implementation over many years.

To learn about the previous two phases read 3 Steps to Effective Technology Implementation for Health Plans.

Phase 3: Execution

Key Steps

PART 1- Implement

• Build: Configure and Integrate products
• Migrate data
• Execute test phases
• Plan operational readiness and training
• Plan cutover and go-live

PART 2- Promote

• Execute final end-to-end validation and assure operational readiness
• Execute cutover
• Go live
• Begin monitoring user adoption and outcomes

PART 3- Transition

• Stabilize customer business in production
• Conduct handoff from project to operations
• Initiate next phase and optimization opportunities

Planning for the Go-Live

Planning for a technology’s Go-Live involves outlining the design, delivery tools and best practices which will be leveraged.

Design

There are 3 aspects of design to keep in mind to ensure long term technology impact:

1. Operational Efficiency and Scalability: Consider any needed maintenance. Are there any processes to outline which would promote sustainability and accuracy? As well, make sure the designs are scalable to meet throughput and performance needs.
2. Modular Framework: It’s important to work in tandem with existing editors to enable additional editing opportunities and efficiencies.
3. Security: Make sure to leverage secure cloud-based architectures with SaaS delivery.

Delivery Tools

When deciding which delivery tools are important for your go-live consider including tools that:

• Ensure Operational Readiness: Tools that adapt to change such as those that correct language, edits and pricing
• Leverage Agile Principles: Tools that enhance collaboration across teams to deliver iterative batches of work with well defined acceptance criteria
• Promote Future Functionality: Tools that will allow your health plan to become better as your vendor’s solution becomes better

Best Practices

Best practices your health plan uses when executing a software deployment should encourage process optimization. This includes leveraging training materials like:

• User Guides: Guides that provide organizations knowledge and recommendations on how to leverage features and functionalities
• Training Suites: Trainings which empower your team to drive organizational change and implement operational efficiencies.

Vendors should also offer separate product support by customer type like Blues and Non-Blues. Upgrade cycles should also be separated by customer type.

“One Team” Principal

All execution efforts should promote a “one team” approach to software launches. This means integrating activities of all internal departments and vendor supports. In this way, deployment should be seamless and have a precise focus.

Most importantly, be sure to have unified:

• Goals
• Governance Practices including the governance team’s mastery of advanced operations
• Collaboration Mindsets where work is encourages across business teams
• Operational Model
• Communications including agreed upon cadence and promotion of knowledge-sharing across teams
• Decision-making structures
• Focus on value driven work like reuse, scalability and flexibility
• Capacity to accept changes quickly.

With the “one team” approach, vendors can be better partners to your health plan, helping you with implementation and setting your organization up for long term success.

Moving Beyond the Go-Live

It’s important that health plans think beyond the go-live date to ensure long term success of any implementation. This planning should include:

• Maintenance of a strong release management process
• Coordination of at least 1 upgrade annually
• Implementation of an annual Health Check to analyze workflows and new features
• Optimization of processes as new items are released

Other considerations involve adopting a continuous improvement approach when moving from an MVP (minimum viable product) to optimal functioning, removing manual interventions, as well as improving processing times and key metrics.

As new features and functionalities are released your health plan can take advantage of better optimized workflows and configurations. For example, with Source, new content and policy updates help health plans keep pace with business and growth.

When implementing new features ask yourself:

• Are there new ecosystem partners we need to integrate with?
• What does this change impact? (ex. input/output, technical, business, claims, manual processes?)
• Who deploys the changes?
• Which configurations or pricers need updates or changes?
• Are updates required for automated or manual workflows?
• How will testing take place for the changes? (pre-production testing for expectived results, go-live decision testing, export or import testing to update production environment?)
• What training or communication should be send out regarding the change?

Health Edge Case Study: Results and Returns

Using these principles, HealthEdge has enabled savings for its clients through long-term partnerships.

• Medicare Advantage payment integrity
• Multi-state Medicaid implementations
• Dual-eligible implementations
• Automated claims pricing for LOB

Their Source solution consistently monitors and updates regulatory policies, rates, fee schedules resulting in effective contract configuration which:

• Reduces repeatable processes
• Reduces number of contracts
• Minimizes needed maintenance
• Optimizes existing processes.

The Source solution also applies claims pricing seamlessly with your health plan’s existing editors. To learn more about HealthEdge and their suite of solutions for health plans click here.

Transform Methodology: Change Management Framework

Transform methodology is the insurance industry’s cutting-edge approach to change management during internal project launches. Its principles can be found in many successful business transformation processes, but its phases and steps are designed specifically for vendor partnerships.

Traditionally technology implementations involved simply building on a firm’s operational competencies and short term needs by adding a product. Instead, transform methodology requires working together with vendor’s expertise and software to align and achieve long term goals while transforming businesses from the inside out.

When could you use transform methodology as a health plan?

When conducting:

• Annual contract updates
• Annual Contract Updates
• Expanding or Adding New Lines of Business (ex. Medicare/Medicaid)
• Mergers and Acquisitions

Transform methodology was developed leveraging HealthEdge’s extensive experience successfully implementing their suite of solutions with health plans of all types, sizes, and lines of business. From these real-life experiences, HealthEdge leadership incubates best practices and lessons learned to create this change management framework.

The Foundation of the Framework: Relationships

“Any successful implementation begins with a solid foundational relationship between our health plan customers and HealthEdge,” HealthEdge’s Anne Marie Gramling explains.

When you work with vendors who value partnership, together you can operationalize change and focus on long term success. At a minimum, vendors should provide:

• A shared comprehensive review and evaluation of areas for improvement and optimization
• Complete guidance through design, configuration, testing, roll-out and training
• Configuration efforts to minimize maintenance efforts

HealthEdge’s Transform Methodology outlines the 3 step model insurers should leverage when working with technology vendors.

The 3 Phases of Transform Methodology

Phase 1: Evaluate

Key Steps

1. Understand customer’s current state and transformation objectives
2. Indicative migration scope, timeline, resources and cost
3. Envision scope of work

During this first phase your insurance firm and the vendor assess your current state, business objectives and requirements. This will allow you to comprehensively develop the overall scope, timing and estimated effort for any project. 

Phase 2 will involve creating a more detailed timeline and governance bodies. The scoping in stage 1 should be for the project as a whole.

After the scope, timing and effort are estimated, it’s important to describe why you are undertaking this transformation: How does the initiative tie into your overall company mission and stakeholder incentives?

If struggling with “the why”, consider if the proposed changes will:

1. Drive operational efficiencies through faster processing, increased accuracy, automation or scalability
2. Improve member, provider and employee experience
3. Allow you to change easily to adapt to the market demands and growth opportunities

Using this information communicate the planned changes internally and continually reinforce why this matters.

Phase 2: Envision Part One

Key Steps

1. Establish program governance and milestones
2. Formalize migration goals and objectives
3. Project kickoff
4. Requirements discovery
5. Define business and technical future state blueprint
6. Define migration, test and operational change strategies

During the envisioning phase, vendors and health plans work together to create a clear picture of the implementation’s desired result.

Whether it’s a more seamless patient experience or enhanced claims accuracy, define what you are trying to achieve and the impact it will have on your health plan.

For example, many HealthEdge solutions automate business workflows and coherently exchange data in real-time across ecosystems.

When considering implementing HealthEdge technologies, health plans should imagine what their company would operate like with:

• Improved End-User & Consumer Centricity
• Ever Reducing Transaction Costs
• Ever Increasing Quality
• Ever increasing service levels
• Business transparency

Once a clear end result is outlined, use this as a starting place to list all the supports and organizational roles needed to achieve that vision.  In other words “start at the end and work backwards”.

These supports and organizational roles can include:

1. A program governance model that outlines resources, timeline, communication plans and project structure.
2.  A deep dive into validation of firm requirements
3. The design of full implementation with business configuration, ecosystem, integrations and workflows
4. A detailed implementation plan with:

• Configuration sprints plans
• Integration requirements for development grooming
• Test strategy and use cases

At this stage you should also develop measurable goals and decide what metrics will be used and how they will be tracked.

Phase 2: Envision Part Two

Key Steps

• Design future state
• Plan iterations and releases and begin design/build
• Plan iterative, successive test phases
• Requirements grooming
• Execute Scope of Work

Phase 3: Execution

Key Steps

PART 1- Implement

• Build: Configure and Integrate products
• Migrate data
• Execute test phases
• Plan operational readiness and training
• Plan cutover and go-live

PART 2- Promote

• Execute final end-to-end validation and assure operational readiness
• Execute cutover
• Go live
• Begin monitoring user adoption and outcomes

PART 3- Transition

• Stabilize customer business in production
• Conduct handoff from project to operations
• Initiate next phase and optimization opportunities

The last phase is Execution where solutions are built, tested and launched. This is where projects transition from Implementation to Production. The governance, education and enablement services previously set up in the Envisioning phase are central to support execution efforts.

Learn more about HealthEdge’s Implementation Services here.

At HealthEdge, disrupting the status quo is part of who we are. When it comes to redefining payment integrity, we often think about it in terms of shifting from a black box to an open book approach—essentially empowering payers with technology that enables them to gain control of their IT ecosystems, address root cause issues, and reduce waste in the healthcare system.

But what does that mean? What does reducing waste and abrasion actually look like?

Here’s an example:

Say a patient sustains an injury to their foot and leg and has multiple diagnostic images taken by the same provider on the same day.

The claim they submit to the payer might looks something like this:

All claim lines are paid at 100%.

After a few months, the claims are reviewed post-payment by a payment integrity vendor. The vendor determines that these procedures are related and should be reimbursed based on multiple procedure payment reduction (MPPR) regulations.

The claim should have paid as follows:

After confirming the overpayment, the following steps are required:

1. Payer resources are required to validate the findings for the existing vendor.
2. The vendor notifies the provider and attempts to recover the overpayment of $295.75
   • Note – Post-payment vendors are only able to recover 60-70% of identified overpayments
3. The vendor charges a contingency fee of 15-20% on the recovered savings
4. The payer then needs to reprocess the corrected claim.

In this type of payment integrity environment, the above example can occur at a very high volume. Additionally, traditional payment integrity vendors identify this type of issue on a recurring basis but never address the root cause issue—so the overpayments, administrative burden, rework, and provider abrasion continues.

When we talk about striving for accuracy, we’re talking about shifting processes upstream so that claims are paid quickly and comprehensively the first time.

With Source, the above example would be handled differently.

Instead of the claim being passed through pricing and then editing, Source provides integrated claims processing of policy edits, pricing algorithms, and rate schedules. We call this function parallel processing, and it unlocks the ability to view and assess a claim more holistically.

In this scenario, through parallel processing of MPPR edits and reimbursement content, the line level reductions would be applied prior to payment. The root cause of the recurring issues would be addressed at the earliest possible intervention point.

Reimbursing accurately and upstream provides the following benefits:

• Elimination of overpayments
• Avoidance of contingency fees to the existing post payment vendor
• Resource savings for all payer employees involved in the rework of claims
• Reduction of provider abrasion

With Source, you not only have complete control and visibility over your payment lifecycle in one place, but a dedicated partner who wants to help solve your largest and most complex payment challenges. We want to eliminate administrative waste and provider abrasion so that payers can focus on what matters most—their members.

“…if we redefined payment integrity as not recovery, but intelligence striving for accuracy, people’s thought processes would change. If people change the way they think about payment integrity, it will start to inspire people to work on improving the system….” – Ryan Mooney, GM & EVP of Payment Integrity at HealthEdge

Enrollment Trend Drivers 2023

Key drivers for open enrollment trends 2022-2023 include:

• The COVID-19 Pandemic
• Labor shortages
• Popularity of hybrid and remote work
• Focus on emotional well-being
• Implementation of the No Surprises Act

Due to these forces health benefits have become one of the top three drivers of employee attraction and retention (WTW’s 2022 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey). At no other time in the last decade have employees placed more importance on health and retirement benefits.

Because of the new importance placed on employee health, open enrollment this fall 2023 will be a unique opportunity to share the value of benefit packages to help stem high turnover rates. Many employers are already aware of the importance of health plans to employee retention as two-thirds of employers plan to enhance health and benefits offerings in 2023 to improve attraction and retention or better meet employee needs (Mercer’s Survey on Health and Benefit Strategies for 2023). In addition, 85% of employers are prioritizing employee physical, financial, social and emotional wellbeing (WTW research 2022).

Supplemental Benefits Enrollment

46% of employees are willing to pay more out of their paycheck each month for a more comprehensive healthcare plan.

Karen Sturdivant, benefits director with LandrumHR, an HR services firm in Pensacola, Fla. explained how fear is the main driver for increased demand for supplemental benefits including hospital, accident, critical-illness and legal policies.

“Now more than ever, employees are looking to be protected in the event of illness and to protect their loved ones,” Sturdivant says.

As well, many employers are adding surprising new features to existing plans or offering new benefits that fall outside the scope of traditional healthcare but enhance protection.

Mental Healthcare

“Beyond health insurance, employees are looking for emotional support [and] resources to bolster their resilience and financial protection,” Aldrich and Hauch say.

52% of large employers are planning to offer virtual mental health care in 2023 (Mercer).

Employers are also expanding their behavioral services through employee assistance programs and by offering self-help tools at little to no cost.

Financial Education

An employee’s finances are intricately tied to employer benefits.

Due to high inflation and a potential looming recession employers are starting to build out holistic financial well-being educational programs to add to benefit packages.

Abortion & Medical Travel

The recent Supreme Court abortion decision is impacting employee benefit decisions this upcoming year. Access to abortion services are harder to find or no longer available, causing many people to travel out of state.

• 35% of employers now offer travel and lodging benefits for abortion services (WTW poll).
• 16% of employers are planning to offer abortion travel benefits next year.
• 21% of employers are considering offering abortion travel benefits next year.
• 86% of employers provide the same travel and lodging benefits for those seeking abortions as those seeking other procedures like transplants.

Medical-travel benefits not only support employees seeking abortion services, but also can benefit those requiring care at centers of excellence for cancer treatment.

Affordability & Customization

High deductible health plans have been growing in popularity the past few years, but employers know they are not the best choice for every employee.

• 41% of employers next year will provide a low-deductible medical plan option or a no-deductible plan with just premiums and co-pays.
• 11% of employers next year will offer free employee-only coverage for at least one medical plan option

Affordability of health plans is important for low-wage workers and those with chronic medical conditions.

Although 29% of small employers already offer coverage to workers at no cost, it is a newer approach for large organizations.

Driven by an increasingly diverse workforce and greater hybrid work, offering customized choices for employees to select is imperative.

• 49% of employers added greater choice in all benefits
• 23% of employers are planning or considering adding greater choice to all benefits in the next year.

Providing more customizable healthcare options like a lifestyle spending account or adding culturally sensitive care programs are gaining traction.

Family Forming Benefits

Fertility treatment coverage and adoption and surrogacy benefits are expected to become increasingly popular in 2023, as one-third of large employers are slated to offer access to these services next year.

As well, 37% of all employers will provide at least one specialized benefit to support reproductive health.

Reproductive health benefits and resources include support for

• High-risk pregnancies
• Lactation
• Pre-conception family planning
• Pregnancy loss
• Family-planning support during menopause

Accessibility

With increased consumerism increasing demand for one-click purchases, instant food delivery, virtual ordering and self-checkouts has led to accessibility expected in healthcare as well.

Accessibility features include flexibility in where care is delivered. More than half of all employees are working hybrid or full-time remote. Healthcare is expected to be provided from anywhere, at any time and from any device.

As well, employers are enhancing accessibility by customizing the enrollment process for those who are neurodiverse, colorblind, or suffer from decision-making anxiety.

• 52% of employers have enhanced their enrollment experience
• 34% of employers are planning to enhance their enrollment experience

Sources:

• https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/open-enrollment-for-2023-reflects-changing-benefits-landscape.aspx
• https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/fine-tune-benefit-options-before-open-enrollment.aspx
• https://www.wtwco.com/en-US/Insights/2022/05/preparing-for-2023-benefits-enrollment