Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's
Healthcare. Thanks so much for tuning in to
the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. Fantastic to have
you. Today, we're talking about reimagining access, aligning
technology strategy and
the member experience. And I'm very excited to
be joined by Rachel French, chief strategy and
partnerships officer,
MD Live by Evernorth. Rachel, it's so great
to have you. Thanks for being here.
Thanks for having me today. Absolutely.
I wanna start off for our audience with,
introductions. If you could just share a little
bit about yourself and your work and journey
in health care.
Absolutely.
So my background is actually in public health
and digital innovation.
I've spent my career working across payers, providers,
and tech organizations,
really with a mission to improve how care
is delivered and experienced.
What drew me to virtual care and to
MD Live more specifically
was the opportunity to address some of the
most persistent challenges that we see in health
care today, which is access and affordability.
I myself was born and raised in a
rural state, and I know firsthand
the challenges of not having access to quality
and affordable care.
But now as the chief strategy and partnerships
officer at MDLIVE, I have the pleasure to
continue to drive my personal passion
along with the company mission forward. And for
me, it's incredibly rewarding to be part of
a team that is making health care better
every day.
MD Live is an Evernorth health services company,
and we're a leading provider of virtual care
services, which includes primary care,
urgent care, behavioral health, and dermatology.
Nearly 63,000,000
people have access to MD live either through
their health plan or employer benefits,
and we have a national network of board
certified providers,
including board certified doctors, licensed therapists,
who are specifically trained in virtual care.
We're dedicated to delivering accessible, personalized health care
through a seamless digital platform,
which we'll talk about more today.
Rachel, it's always so great to hear the
rural perspective. As someone who lives in Iowa,
I absolutely understand.
And you've you've mentioned some of the the
challenges. Right? You've talked about these challenges. So
we talk about,
long wait times, appointment availability,
patient access. Right? You talked about it remains
one of the most persistent challenges for organizations
right now. How are you thinking about redefining
access in a way
that's more sustainable and equitable for members?
Yeah. I think up until recently, we've really
thought about access
primarily in terms of network design.
And what I mean by that is the
core question patients often ask is, is my
provider in network or out of network? Is
the provider service covered by my insurance or
not? But today, we're seeing a shift. Access
really is no longer just about who's in
network.
It's also about how care is delivered.
So that means thinking beyond traditional modalities like
brick and mortar,
but including
virtual
and asynchronous care.
It's really about meeting members where they are,
and that's beyond geography,
and making it easier for them to take
the next best step in their care journey
that's only gotten increasingly complex.
Yeah. At the end of the day, it
is truly about patient care. How can we
improve that step and make it as easy
as possible so folks can receive the care
that they deserve and that they need?
Why is this
more personalized connected care experience
so crucial in this process?
It really comes down to that personalized and
connected care is critical for engagement.
You really have to think about how we
can meet patients where they are so that
they we can also think about how we
provide the support for them to either take
their first step in their care journey
or continue on their journey to better health.
And what I mean by that, or maybe
a more specific example,
is that MD Live, we do this through
our provider guided care programs.
And an example I'll give you is through
our provider guided weight management care plan specifically,
which we offer as part of our virtual
primary care solution.
And within these care plans, our providers work
directly with our members to create an individualized
care plan.
These plans include clinical oversight,
behavioral health support, and referrals.
We also have tailored education that includes meal
planning and exercise plans, all that have a
personalized goal set not only with the patient,
but in conjunction with their provider.
And today, we see so many solutions on
the market that rely primarily on the technology
piece alone. But at MD Live, we see
firsthand how provider involvement is so critical
to those sustained outcomes, and we see those
today.
We see members are losing weight, they're staying
engaged, and they're feeling supported.
And it's all about making sure members aren't
just receiving care, but they're actively participating in
it with the right guidance every step of
the way.
Yeah. And you've mentioned something very important,
just now as well, and you know this.
We've seen
so much investment, such significant investments in digital
point solutions to improve access.
However, there's still a large number of members
that struggle to get
the care that they need.
Where do you see that disconnect between payer
strategies and member experiences,
and then how can organizations better align those
two?
Yeah. So payers are continuing to invest in
digital solutions at increasing rates even more so
since the pandemic. Mhmm. And they've done so
to solve the access problem.
But what's happening is now they're creating new
issues or challenges.
Members are experiencing more confusion, more fatigue,
and ultimately ending up more disengaged because they're
lost in all of the different offerings that
they have.
They're overwhelmed by a hodgepodge of offerings that
don't really feel connected,
intuitive, or even easy to navigate.
Many of the digital solutions
really have dead ends and lack connectivity,
and most importantly, don't have a clear call
to action for that member to take
for their next part of their care journey.
So the answer really isn't more solutions.
It's payers need to move away from deploying
some of these solutions and silos
and instead towards designing
a more personalized holistic care experience
that connects the dots for the main members.
And that's really the only way payers will
ultimately be able to deliver on the promise
of access.
What role
does patient education play here in this context?
Right? How can leaders drive more effective engagement
into all of these processes that you just
mentioned?
Yeah. One of the biggest barriers that we
see is simply awareness.
In fact, according to our own research that
we've done, seventy percent of members who had
MD live
didn't use it simply because they didn't know
they had it.
That's a huge missed opportunity for both the
member and the health plan.
So the answer really lies in proactive guidance,
meaning
that we have personalized outreach so the member
gets the information
that feels relevant to them, while also making
referrals and care transitions seamless so that the
next step in their care journey is clear.
When we take the burden off the patient
to figure out what's available,
when and how and where to use it,
engagement goes up. Outcomes improve,
and the investment payers are making can start
to deliver real value.
Yeah. The easier, the better. That's really a
a good way to go for the patient
and for everybody really in the process.
Looking ahead, right, how do you see technology
shaping the next five years of health care
access really? And what are some of those
innovations that you think
will have the greatest impact on payer strategies
and member experience here?
We're going to continue to see the impact
of two major forces.
One,
provider shortages,
and two, an increasing number of consumers who
do expect seamless,
unfettered access to care.
And as clinics close and we do have
fewer providers available,
virtual care isn't just a convenience anymore. It's
an essential part of how care is delivered.
One of the more exciting things we're seeing
is the potential
of generative AI, and that's to help solve
this supply demand equation
using AI to help providers
work more efficiently
without replacing that personal touch.
At MD Live, for example,
I can speak to that AI. We're using
AI to reduce the administrative burden on providers,
meaning that providers can spend less time on
paperwork and more time with their patients.
And, of course, we always wanna make sure
that we're leveraging this powerful technology
ethically and responsibly.
I also think we're going to see a
shift towards more virtual first models where members
begin their journey digitally,
and technology will play a huge role in
making that happen.
Think of things like intelligently
guiding patients, sharing data bilaterally,
and connector connecting different sites of care to
ensure that that continuity
exists so members don't fall through the cracks.
Rachel, it's so fantastic to have you. We
covered so many different aspects of this topic
today. I wanna thank you for for your
time and your insights and turn the floor
over to you here too. Is there anything
else that that you wanna mention to our
audience that we might have not touched on
that you think is important?
Yeah. I think the last thing I'll mention
is innovation in healthcare, which we talk a
lot about. We talk about how
it's really, in some ways, easy to get
caught up in the technology
on the tools and platforms
and how they integrate and how they solve
specific problems, and that's absolutely right, how we
can leverage technology to advance
health care. But oftentimes, we need to ensure
we're not overlooking how critical the provider's role
is in making these tools meaningful and helping
patients understand and act act on their health.
At MD Live, we're focused on innovating technology,
but we're still centering our model on the
patient provider relationship.
So when our providers are empowered with the
right tools and data,
patients feel more supported, and that's how we
ultimately deliver on the promise of personalized and
holistic care.
Rachel, so great to have you. Thanks for
being here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. And
we also want to thank our podcast sponsor,
MD Life. You can tune in to more
podcast from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast
page at beckershospitalreview.com.