2 min read October 2022 — President and COO of FirstCarolinaCare Craig Humphrey spoke with Invest: and discussed the action items that have been keeping him busy, namely technologically. The modern patient experience is evolving and with that comes the evolution of the traditional health coverage model. “Mental health is a big piece of the future,” he said.
What has been keeping you busy over the past 12 months?
From our standpoint, it’s been a year of technology and implementing a new system, integrating the provider systems with ours. This means we can eventually allow providers to share records with us and with members accessing their MyChart portal or MyChart app. Technology has been a focus of the entire healthcare system lately. There have been many new mandates from the government about transparency and cost calculators, and even the ability to provide Medicare-covered telehealth services. From a health insurance perspective, we are concerned about members that are still reluctant to enter a healthcare facility to receive elective services. We need to keep them engaged with their primary care provider by embedding virtual visits within their benefit offering.
We pride ourselves on the service levels we provide and our employees are our main differentiator. We focus on the needs of members in our local communities by offering excellent service and affordable products that matter to them. Another highlight has been our drug adherence rate, which ensures patients are taking the drugs they need. This means they are able to maintain their chronic conditions at a level that does not require an ER visit. We continue to deal with COVID; hospitals still operate in a way that discourages in-patient visits. We’ll see where the future lands us with that, but it certainly has lingered on much longer than expected.
The government’s mandate surrounding transparency has been a huge development as it ensures people are able to access their information and share it with a provider. Our Hally app allows clients to access their information needed for health insurance. One of the upcoming requirements of the legislation is being able to utilize a cost calculator, and this will take effect in 2023. We are proud to have been offering this service prior to it being required.
What is the modern patient experience?
For us on the insurance side, it’s about what the members want out of their experience. Prior to COVID, we didn’t have a lot of uptake on the internet-related tools. Everyone wanted in-person services. As a result of recent social isolation, individuals are grasping onto the tools technology provides to receive care. There are now more options to receive care, and we are ensuring they have access to that. For those who do want to enter an in-patient setting, we are still maintaining our provider networks and engaging with the community to ensure appointments remain available.
How are you promoting health literacy?
It depends on the type of product. We have launched our Hally.com website. This provides access to a variety of health and wellness topics for members of all ages. We provide both commercial and Medicare products, but there’s probably more interaction with Medicare out in the community. The older population has not been eager to meet face-to-face to discuss their care. This year we may start to see that changing. On the commercial side, we’re mainly dealing with employers who are making decisions about their carrier. The employees aren’t always paying attention to benefits until they need them, and customer service is then our first line to ensure we can answer questions when an employee has them.
How are you setting the precedent for what health coverage looks like going forward?
We serve local communities here in North Carolina, and a lot of them are rural in nature. All the national companies want to be in the big cities, but as you move even 20 miles out, you’re in rural areas. It’s an entirely different dynamic. Our emphasis is on making employer groups better educated consumers and understanding how they can incentivize their employees. That includes wellness events, preventative services, allowing time away from work to access healthcare or bringing it into the workplace. The value of identifying conditions much earlier is huge and we encourage employers to make these investments early on.
What are some of the ways mental health has become a priority in your offerings?
For those members who have felt socially isolated, we have launched supplemental benefits that can be accessed free of charge. One such benefit is the Papa Pals program for our Medicare members that provides companionship at home, and the same representative is able to answer any questions they may have. We want people to feel they’re part of a community and not treat them as simply a member.
Typically for most companies, employee assistance programming is a separate cost, but we include that into our commercial accounts for free. We think that’s increasingly important, especially from the mental health standpoint. Often, personal issues for employees may affect their productivity and lead to bad health outcomes such as stress. We want to ensure there is additional access to mental health services.
For more information, visit:
