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Building a Strong Network: It Takes an Empowered Team

Life is full of different experiences. Take a moment to think about the last really good experience you had. What was it about the experience that made it so positive? Now think about the last horrible experience you had. What was it that made the experience so poor? I’m betting that the factors behind why your experience was positive or negative were clear and they may have had very little to do with the actual quality of the product.

Healthcare payers focus a significant amount of time and money on improving their member and provider experience, as they should. However, what many payers overlook is that by improving employee experiences, you in turn improve both member & providers experience. Think about the last time you had to make a return to a store or call someone about a mistake on a bill. When you spoke to a customer service agent did it impact your response and overall experience? If the customer service agent is understanding, sympathetic and is empowered to resolve the issue quickly it makes for a positive experience for you. If they are rude, take forever or imply that the situation is somehow your fault, how do you respond? How do you describe the experience? Doesn’t it impact your willingness to do business with them in the future? Studies have shown that understanding and improving the employee experience is critical for companies operating in a highly competitive global economy because attracting and retaining skilled employees is imperative to what drives a strong customer experience.

How would you describe everyday life for your Network Management & Contracting team? Do they have the tools, support and empowerment to provide that efficient, next-level care to your providers? Or are they stressed out, putting in long days to maintain an adequate Network? Do they scramble to ensure contracts are complete and all departments have signed off before getting wet signatures? Are they struggling with collaboration both internally and externally? How organized and accessible is their contract library? If this sounds familiar there are steps you can take to improve the employee experience, departmental collaboration, maintaining a healthy and compliant Network – all while making employees feel confident in their contributions and daily activities. Enter digital transformation.

Technology solutions are designed to streamline the provider contracting process from recruitment through renewal and/or termination, equipping your team with the tools they need to provide exceptional service and improve the overall experience for providers. How, you ask? It’s actually quite simple.

  • Electronic projects are created to recruit providers. These campaigns contain all necessary information needed to create and execute a contract.
  • A central library of contract templates allows for language changes that will be reflected in all contracts moving forward after the update, eliminating the unnecessary redlines of outdated contracts.
  • Parallel processing of contracts allows for multiple departments to work on a contract at the same time eliminating the time an employee wastes waiting for other teams to complete their tasks or tracking down members of the team that might be working on the contract.
  • Say goodbye to the days of printing a hard copy of a contract for a wet signature. Simply email your provider, notifying them that the contract is ready for their review and signature. They click a link, apply an electronic signature to the document and the contract is ready for execution.

Improving provider experience should always be at the forefront of any healthcare payer strategy. Happy providers, make happy members and they are what keeps your business thriving. But so are happy employees. Focusing on innovation and improving your internal processes kills two birds with one stone and improves the experience for everyone. What are you waiting for?