Big Fail #4: Trusting Newcomers Who Don’t Get It
In HealthEdge’s recent survey of 220 health plan executives, respondents cited increasing member satisfaction as their top strategic goal for 2021. When asked what steps they plan to take to achieve their goals, “improve engagement strategies” topped the list.
Laser-focused on customer service and outreach, payers are looking for new ways to enhance the member experience by leveraging digital technologies that enable improved communication, real-time data sharing, and personalized services, while increasing operational efficiencies.
Investing in digital health is on the rise. Rock Health reported, “It’s been quite a ride this past year watching digital health catapult from a niche sector to a mainstream market. The first half of 2021 closed with $14.7B invested across 372 US digital health deals with a $39.6M average deal size.”
The report added, “Even at its six-month mark, 2021 already surpassed 2020’s overall funding record.”
With the emergence of cloud-computing, API capabilities, artificial intelligence, virtual health, mobile apps, and more, the healthcare industry has seen a boom in digital technology startups with solutions aimed at improving care and lowering costs.
The digital disruption puts tremendous pressure on payers and providers to invest in next-generation technology or get left behind.
In this environment, health plan executives should be especially wary of vendors with “DIY” applications who are trying to enter their industry for the first time. Over-confident players with simplistic approaches underestimate the industry’s intricacies around lines of business, regulation, data, clinical practice, financial dynamics and consumer trends. Decision-makers should skip entities with a core focus elsewhere or who are spreading themselves across too many disparate businesses.
Vendors with success in other segments of the economy aren’t guaranteed the same outcomes elsewhere. No business should settle for being someone else’s experiment. That’s key to avoiding Big Fail #4.
Don’t miss the final installment of the 5 Big Fails of DIY Software. The last segment talks about the big-picture, long-term costs associated with your DIY platform.
Portions of this blog post are excerpted from Ashish Kachru’s Forbes article “Why Execs Should Avoid The DIY Software Trap.” Ashish is President and General Manager of Altruista Health.
