Growth is rarely easy – specifically, growth driven by customer interest and market demand rather than the temporary variety driven by acquisition, cost takeout or organizational restructuring.

Because markets are moving faster than ever, we believe sustainable growth results from:

• Unlocking compelling customer insights to inform growth strategies
• Creating relevant, impactful growth moves
• Executing faster and more efficiently

Through this series of interviews with healthcare leaders, we explore the driving insights, key actions and anticipated impact of their recent growth strategies.

In this edition, we sit down with Fred Turner, chief executive officer and co-founder of Curative, to learn more about his unique vision and approach to driving change in the insurance industry.

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Curative is a groundbreaking healthcare services company that created and launched the first-of-its-kind employer-based health insurance plan. Founded in 2020, Curative reengineered health insurance by providing unmatched simplicity, enhanced engagement and cost transparency with a competitive monthly premium and zero additional costs. Curative is all about building the next generation of large employer health insurance – focused on preventative health and removing barriers to care.

Fred Turner is the CEO and co-founder of Curative. Under his leadership, Curative has shifted from the leading COVID-19 testing provider to an innovator in health insurance, offering plans with no copays, no deductibles and no cost-sharing for in-network care (with the completion of a baseline visit). This model has achieved a 94% member engagement rate, far surpassing industry standards. Turner’s vision is to create a healthcare system that supports holistic patient health.

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What Is the Major Unlock That Informed Your Approach and Strategy for Curative?

When Curative was founded in January 2020, we initially focused on improving sepsis outcomes but quickly pivoted to supporting COVID diagnostic testing. That work exposed us to two key learnings: one, we touched every type of payer and health plan and saw cracks in the system, and two, we learned that consumers have serious fear and anxiety when it comes to healthcare expenses. That fear may prevent them from getting care, for example a COVID test, even when COVID tests are fully covered. We knew we wanted to do something that would move the needle on U.S. healthcare, something that could drive meaningful change in the system.

“Our experience during COVID made us say, the payer dynamic is a real problem with the U.S. healthcare system, and we could build a payer that can drive preventative care and better long-term outcomes.”

We saw the untapped space, where there hasn’t been innovation for decades, as the employer market, which is where 50% of Americans get their health insurance. The U.S. has run a natural experiment over the past 10 to 15 years with High Deductible Health Plans. Fifteen years ago, about 10% of plans met the American Care Act (ACA) definition of high deductible. Today, we’re closer to 60%. Did it work? The answer is a resounding no. Consumers aren’t great at price shopping, and people don’t make rational decisions, particularly when it comes to emotional subjects such as health and their finances.

“The other substantial effect when patient cost sharing goes up is the deferral of care.”

The National Bureau of Economic Research ran a study that followed a group who moved from a low deductible to a high deductible plan over three years. In the first year, you see about a 12% reduction in spending, which looks great – like we reduced healthcare spend. The problem is when you dig into what is happening, you see people putting off primary care visits, checkups and screening tests – even though in the plan design, certain preventative screening tests, like colonoscopies, were covered at $0 out-of-pocket cost. The care that gets put off is lower acuity preventative care.

“If you have a heart attack, you’re still going to go to the hospital, no matter what your deductible is. What the high deductible plan does do is prevent you from getting the checkup that might have avoided that hospitalization.”

How Did That Insight Help You to Create the Curative Platform in a Relevant, Differentiated Way?

We’re trying to approach preventative care differently in terms of the value that we assigned to it. The typical way that an insurance plan looks at loss, or medical loss right now, is every dollar spent as $1. Whether you spend $1 on preventive care or you spend $1 in the hospital, it’s still just $1. The way that we look at it is that dollar spent on a preventative visit could avoid inpatient stays, emergency room visits or specialty drug use.

“Preventative care that keeps people well is a dollar significantly better spent than a dollar on a preventable hospital stay.”

We’re committed to making an investment upfront, to getting people engaged in their care early and then seeing that payoff downstream with lower ER, hospital or specialty drug use. Most employers get stuck in this cycle of deferred care, where the population’s health is decreasing and costs continue to go up. Curative flips the script. We make it easy for people to engage upfront. The cost sharing is zero, so there are zero out-of-pocket costs, no copays and no deductibles to go and access care – as long as you engage in a preventative health visit within the first 120 days of signing up for the plan.

“If you want people to engage with care, you have to make it really simple.”

And the only way to make it simple enough that people really understand the cost to them is to make it zeros across the board. That’s the fear that any engagement in care is bad because I might get a bill for it – that’s what we have to fight. We think the only way to reset people to see a doctor if they’re sick or in a preventive manner to avoid becoming sick is to build trust that those actions won’t cost them a dime. Our philosophy, the long game, is that we will have a higher spend in the first year because people will get the care that they need. But in the second year, we’ll get back to baseline and, by the third year, we’ll actually be saving money because this population will be healthier.

How Are You Proving That Curative Can Execute Results That Employers Are Looking For?

We’re still in the process of building trust with members and employers, but the engagement piece via a preventative visit is key. We get an hour of the member’s time to do two things: one, we aim to educate them about accessing their care through a Care Navigator session. How do they make appointments? What is a deductible? What’s a copay? How do you figure out what doctors are in-network? When should you go to the ER?

“We’re demonstrating that we want them to access the care they need versus an adversarial relationship that members often have with their health plan that doesn’t want to cover what they need.”

That kicks off the relationship in a fundamentally different way and drives a higher degree of engagement. Two, members then meet with a clinician who is looking for gaps in care. If we see a pre-diabetic patient, we want to get them to a primary care physician who’s going to manage their pre-diabetes or even reverse it, rather than letting that continue to full-on type two diabetes, where, if unmanaged, could lead to major health complications that result in tremendous expense – that’s bad for the member and for the health plan. In the longer term, we expect to be able to keep rates closer to flat by managing this care over time, rather than the typical 10% increases you’re going to get from BUCA carrier every year. We’re new to the space and want to make sure that we’re here for the long term.

“It may sometimes seem like moving the boulder of the American healthcare system is impossible, but I think with a lot of dedicated, smart people chipping away at it, piece by piece, we really can make substantial change.”

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Growth is rarely easy – specifically, growth driven by customer interest and market demand rather than the temporary variety driven by acquisition, cost takeout or organizational restructuring.

Because markets are moving faster than ever, we believe sustainable growth results from:

• Unlocking compelling customer insights to inform growth strategies
• Creating relevant, impactful growth moves
• Executing faster and more efficiently

Through this series of interviews with healthcare leaders, we explore the driving insights, key actions and anticipated impact of their recent growth strategies.

In this edition, we sit down with Nick Stefanizzi, chief executive officer at Northwell Direct, to learn more about the company’s origin and philosophy around growing its integrated care network.

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Northwell Direct is a subsidiary of Northwell Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in New York. Established in 2020, Northwell Direct offers a direct-to-employer health care network of more than 31,000 providers and customized wellness programs to support employee health. This allows employers to offer high-quality healthcare to their employees without going through traditional insurance companies. Northwell Health utilizes Northwell Direct’s provider network for its own employee health benefits, ensuring comprehensive and cost-effective care for its workforce.

Nick Stefanizzi is the CEO of Northwell Direct, where he is responsible for the strategy, operations, growth and financial performance of Northwell Health’s direct-to-employer organization. Stefanizzi has been with Northwell Health for 16 years, serving in various roles, including assistant vice president for HR innovation and organization effectiveness as well as director of management services for Northwell’s ambulatory network.

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What Is the Major Unlock That Informed Your Approach and Strategy for Northwell Direct?

Northwell Health had its own insurance company (Care Connect) that was incredibly successful – but we were not prepared for risk adjustment, so that business venture shuttered in 2018. While that was challenging, what wasn’t lost was our belief that playing in that space was the right approach. At the same time, our organization started to grow. We’re the largest private employer in the state of New York, in addition to being the largest healthcare provider. Organically, we started to get inbound inquiries from employers saying, we’re having these kinds of challenges in our employee plan – can you help us figure this out as both an employer and a provider? We saw that we had an opportunity to do something different for the communities we serve. That was really the genesis of Northwell Direct. We then built a business around that concept, not only to meet employer needs but to disrupt the payer space.

“It’s our belief that a more direct relationship between those who provide the care and those who pay for the care is beneficial, and that today, payers have inserted themselves between those two entities.”

There’s still a role for the major carriers to play, but they don’t need to sit between us, and in fact, by working together with the employers and their employees, it’s our belief that we can better manage care and drive improvements in quality and outcomes.

We only work with self-funded employers in their benefit design. In New York state, that means more than 100 employees, and we don’t carry any financial risk, as we do not offer an insurance product. We’re on the hook for performance. Our focus is on delivering value, savings, efficiency and outcomes for our employers. The other thing we didn’t do was invest in building an insurance company. There are third-party administrators that have the capabilities needed to support an employer-sponsored plan, so why not partner instead of building it ourselves and going at it alone?

“We saw a business model that was ripe for disruption and employers who were hungry for support, grappling with the challenges they’ve had with their employee population and desperate to arrest a trend that had been moving in the wrong direction for over a decade.”

We saw an opportunity to build the platform differently with partners.

In Addition to Opening a New Line of Business, What Impact Did Northwell Direct Create for Your Key Audiences?

We’ve made a concerted effort to remove the traditional denials and hurdles in this space that don’t add value or drive for the member or material savings for the employer. While we can accommodate any benefit design requirements, we have examples of clients for whom, if their employees receive care within our tier one network, there are zero prior authorizations needed. And it doesn’t lead to higher costs. There is no statistical difference in unnecessary utilization or unnecessary testing.

“We take a clinical-first approach – what does the doctor believe is necessary?”

We trust that we have providers who are going to do the right thing by the patient and by the plan, and then manage the care intensely to make sure it’s as efficient as possible. It’s about administering consistently with the benefits plan but providing clinically oriented insights into how that benefit design can be enhanced to drive the right patient behaviors and the right patient choice of the highest quality, lowest-cost providers, and then wrapping the member with support that is integrated with and endorsed by the clinician. By taking a provider-oriented approach, our engagement levels are much higher. We’re able to share the care management information back with the provider so they can take a more holistic view. And lastly, what we can do locally that the national carriers can’t is get on the ground. If we have a member who is admitted, we will send a nurse care manager to their bedside to coordinate their follow-up care, their appointments and make sure they’re clear on what happens post-discharge. You can’t do that from a contact center across the country.

“Clinical-first, integrated care management, boots on the ground and a structural approach that is different in terms of our philosophy around denials versus provider enablement – that’s what we’re doing, and it’s fundamentally different from how carriers think about this.”

How Challenging Was It to Get the Business Running, and How Will You Execute Your Growth Future Plans?

It’s hard for health systems to get into this business because it takes investment, and health systems are struggling financially. They are under enormous pressure, there are a lot of competing priorities, and it takes a lot to stand up a new venture like this.

“You cannot do this by having somebody do it off the side of their desk.”

You have to build competency and capabilities. For example, we brought in people with skill sets that traditionally don’t exist within the health system. We’re selling an incredibly complex product in the insurance space, even though we’re not an insurance company. I have licensed brokers that work for me – that skill set and those broker relationships don’t exist in health systems. You have to invest in building the appropriate infrastructure. You need talent that doesn’t necessarily exist from within the organization, and you have to build capabilities. But you don’t need to do it all. Just pick one thing that an employer might need or have a conversation with a major employer in your region and ask what they would want help with and start there. Yes, there are competing priorities, competing investments and a tremendous amount of pressure, but I believe this strategy in the long term will alleviate those pressures.

In the next five years, we will expand the field of play and be a major regional player. There’s an opportunity to grow our network and the geographic footprint of employers we serve. In addition to that growth, we’re diversifying the ways in which we partner with employers. That means new products and services. That means rolling out digital platforms to augment our clinical capabilities. That means partnering differently, even within the insurance space. We’re going to roll out our own bundles and centers of excellence.

“I believe, fundamentally, there is a national opportunity here for health systems to partner together and for us to take the work we’re doing here, to line it up with the work that Baylor is doing in Texas, what Orlando Health is doing in Florida, what Providence is doing up in Washington and California, and for us to figure out how to stitch something together that would allow us to scale nationally.”

That’s a very complicated proposition. I don’t know exactly yet how it will come together, but I believe there are enough health systems that see this as an interesting space and that there’s opportunity for us over time to figure out how to make that possible together.

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Jeff Gourdji, Senior Partner at Prophet, spoke with a number of healthcare leaders to learn more about the challenges and opportunities for platform thinking in healthcare. Here, he speaks with Jamey Shiels, SVP Consumer & Digital Experience at Advocate Health, on the process of driving momentum for and implementing a platform in a health system. 

Deploying a platform approach will be crucial for businesses to thrive going forward. As our colleagues Ted Moser, Charlotte Bloom, and Omar Akhtar observe in their book, “Winning Through Platforms: How to Succeed When Every Competitor Has One” platforms illuminate parts of the customer journey that have historically been dark by enabling companies to have a better, holistic understanding of how customers engage with the organization. In the last decade or so, health systems have begun to observe customers during the “choose” part of the journey, but platforms could enable health systems to understand the “use” part of the journey and how to personalize it to consumers.     

In this illuminating interview with Jamey Shiels of Advocate Health, he shares how he overcame the barriers to building a platform – from driving organizational buy-in to clearly defining a set of metrics to measure key experiences. He highlights how a clear connection between patient needs and business requirements was key to demonstrating potential impact and showcasing the value for a health system in adapting a platform approach. 

What enabled you to align the leadership that platforms were the right move for the business? 

First, our Chief Marketing Officer at the time, Kelly Jo Golson, made [the LiveWell platform] a priority for our brand marketing and experience teams. She determined we were going to be a consumer first organization and platforms were the way to get there. She was able to onboard senior leadership to that vision and align support across the enterprise. 

Second, we built a consumer-first executive committee that allowed us to bring [together] all the key stakeholders that knew we were going to need — Operations, Medical Group, Finance, HR were all in the room with us as we presented the strategy, got buy in and support, and achieved goal alignment.  

Third, we developed a set of metrics called ‘ease of use’ metrics that measure different encounters patients have on the platform and allow consumers to give feedback. We created a closed feedback loop [that allows us to] make improvements that both benefit the consumer as well as the operational people on the other side. We also built those metrics into our incentive plan, so anybody in the organization who was incentive eligible was very interested in embedding the platform into their day-to-day work.  

How did the business determine implementing a platform strategy was beneficial for the reputation of Advocate Health and its success? 

Our challenge was– especially in healthcare – ‘consume’ means ‘use’ and doesn’t mean ‘choose.’ The idea of a patient as a consumer was difficult for some to understand, so we had to go upstream and find a way to understand consumer choice.  

We first aligned consumer insights to our core business metrics of awareness and acquisition. We wanted to go into market with a brand and an experience that would encourage consumers to choose us before [they] use us. 

The second step was in the form of acquisition. Consumers are looking for their wants and needs [to be met when] finding a physician. Therefore, we looked into some of the metrics that the operations team was using in the onboarding experience and connected those to the clinical experience to demonstrate if we lift consumer metrics, we can lift business metrics. That connection between what matters most to consumers with what matters to the businesses was key.  

“I think that’s where platforms can really play a role, by making those connections and making them much easier than they historically have been.” 

Was there a specific leader whose support was crucial in getting marketing, compliance, and clinical leaders on board with this initiative? 

The key leader was our Chief Operating Officer, who had accountability for the medical group, operations, and P&L for the organization and knew the different parts of the business that we needed to align with.  

A big piece [of getting alignment] was saying: ‘We want to co-create this with your team.’ We emphasized how we’re solving consumer needs as well as the business problems.  

Can you talk about the capabilities you built in the platform as you started to build momentum? 

The core functionality that needs to be in a platform is your EHR and transactional HR data. We wrapped that EHR data with a fledgling platform. That gave us the infrastructure to start to add features that improved the patient and clinical experience – and extended into health and wellness.  

We’re also working on integrating third party products into the platform for care-at-home and digital therapeutics. We want to create a true multi-sided marketplace for healthcare that connects health and wellness creators to consumers.   

What was the role of the clinicians in all this? What role are they now playing in advocating for the platform? 

Whether it was governance or co-creation, [clinicians] needed to have a voice in the room. We designed a partnership with a clinical leadership team [to drive] co-creation across the board. We asked: ‘How does this improve your work and fit into your day?’ The benefit is that now, when you go into one of our physicians’ offices, you’ll hear them talk about LiveWell.  

“We’ve seen continued uptake with LiveWell; it is now fully embedded in the operations of our organization.” 

What operational challenges were you solving for with platforms? 

There are three problem areas that we’ve looked at over the last few years: 

1. Online scheduling takes call volume out. When you can message your provider in a secure platform it reduces call volume at the front desk, but you have to ensure you can manage and service the messages on behalf of physicians. 
2. We have a mail order pharmacy that in our Midwest region generates 7 million calls a year related to prescription refill. We think we can take half of that out through new systems automation feature functionality in the platform.  
3. E-Check-In, self service capabilities built in the platform make the consumer’s life easier and helps the frontline staff.  

Where is the platform going in the future? 

“We think the idea of platforms as a business model [in healthcare] for the benefit of consumers and the business is where the future is.” 

The challenge we’re facing from a healthcare perspective is the battle for the soul of the platform. Is that going to be the EHR? Vendors? EPIC primarily? Or third parties? Or are the health systems going to try to step up? Do you want to differentiate within your market, and do you want to deliver an exceptional consumer experience?  

“We’re going to go big into the platform space because we think it is the right decision for our business, and the future of business.” 

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About Jamey: As Senior Vice President, Consumer and Digital Experience at Advocate Health, Jamey Shiels leads enterprise activities focused on creating a personalized and seamless consumer experience that improves engagement and health outcomes as well as business value through growth and cost-savings.  

About Jeff: Jeff Gourdji is a Senior Partner at Prophet and is responsible for leading client engagements across the firm’s range of solutions. As a leader of Prophet’s healthcare industry practice, Jeff works with clients across the healthcare ecosystem, including provider systems, payers, healthcare technology and life sciences companies. 

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Platforms are the key to illuminating the consumer journey. They allow companies to light the “dark” side of a consumer’s journey, the post-purchase “use” side, when previously, only the “choose” side was visible. As our colleagues Ted Moser, Charlotte Bloom and Omar Akhtar observe in their book, “Winning Through Platforms: How to Succeed When Every Competitor Has One,” platforms are the way to enable companies to observe, interact with and provide value to consumers as they engage with the organization. Many industries are already immersed in the platform race – from Amazon Prime’s offering (i.e., ecommerce, Whole Foods, streaming content) to Uber and Uber One (linking rides and eats). Even financial services companies are in the game with strategies from Chase, Bank of America, and more. So, how will healthcare players engage in this new value exchange? 

The beauty of healthcare is we know more about our customers than pretty much any other industry. It’s about how we use that knowledge to personalize, drive conversion, and close gaps in care.

Jeremy Rogers, Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, Indiana University Health

Broadcast connection reflects the one-way communication that marked most of the 20^th century. With the launch of the internet, websites and digital analytics, businesses were able to shine a light on the “choose” side of consumers’ engagement. While it’s often the darker side of the consumer journey, the “use” side that reflects the greatest value – both for business and for consumers.  

(Lighting the choose and use journeys graphic Int. 1.2) 

In the era of platform connection, health systems have an opportunity to capture and deliver greater value to their consumers. And the stakes couldn’t be higher. In healthcare, the data and knowledge gained by this level of consumer engagement could have profound effects not only on that patient and their care delivery, but a systemic impact on how to manage disease states, reduction of challenging SDOHs and improved health equity. Currently most health systems are focused on patient portals and transactional engagement, making this transformation feel daunting, elusive, or even operationally impossible. 

Healthcare is behind, and we all acknowledge this. Think about the hospitality industry and how their rewards programs generate loyalty and word of mouth – the best experience you have anywhere is the experience you want everywhere – and that includes in healthcare.

Ken Chaplin, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hope 

There’s no doubt this is hard work. There are several reasons why healthcare leaders say it’s been an uphill battle – from a lack of integrated technology systems to concerns around patient data privacy – these are valid reasons to be concerned. However, other highly regulated industries have shown how to connect and protect consumers data. We spoke with several leading healthcare innovators to understand why this work is daunting and what they are doing to overcome the challenges:

1. Non-Proprietary Platforms Are Not Designed for Optimal User Experience 

Health systems often started with their EMR as the main platform, and what was the EMR developed to do? Billing, coding or quality documentation. They certainly weren’t designed for the user experience of a clinical physician or clinical nurse user – let alone a patient.

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

2. Barriers to Risk-Taking 

We can have zero failure when lives are at stake, zero failure. That doesn’t apply to the business-oriented things we can do. We need to ask to experiment and fail and then fail forward, to learn and get better. But it’s just culturally very tough for people nowadays.

Jeremy Rogers, Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, Indiana University Health 

3. Internal Resistance to Change

How do you have large scale change when you are changing the way people work? Number one, we cannot innovate and bring customer centricity to life without the operators – we can’t move forward until everyone comes to the table.

Sara Saldoff, Head of Product Management & User Experience, OhioHealth 

4. Overcoming Data Concerns With the Right Data Value-Exchange  

I don’t think it’s truly a challenge to get consumers to believe their data is safe. I think it’s about translating, what’s the benefit to them? We must help patients and health consumers understand the value of sharing their data. How do we tell the story in the right way to facilitate their willingness to share private health information or behaviors?

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

5. Competing Priorities, Competing Investments, and Tremendous Pressure 

You have to invest in building an appropriate infrastructure. You need talent that doesn’t necessarily exist in the system already. You’ve got to build a lot of capabilities. But these strategies, in the long term, will alleviate some of the pressures we’re all facing.

Nick Stefanizzi, Chief Executive Officer, Northwell Direct 

Challenges aside, shifting to a platform-based model is the solution to achieving the transformation C-suite executives have been collectively working towards to achieve better business and health outcomes for patients. 

There’s a massive amount of data that health systems today have access to. If we can get this right and gain more consumer trust, we can harness that data in a way that can help with precision medicine, drug discovery, disease prevention – it’s so incredibly powerful.

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

Inherent in this shift to platform thinking is a value proposition for consumers: I share information about myself so that a company can provide me with more value via content, loyalty programs and tools. Equally as important is the value generated for the organization. Today, many consumer engagements with health systems are transactional, leading to drop off, and overall brand neutrality. This is exacerbated by behaviors of younger generations (Gen Z and Millennials) who often don’t have a PCP. For health systems, the opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with consumers, whether they need care today or in the future, is essential for driving loyalty and patient volume in any market. 

Beyond the acquisition and retention of patients, there is a halo of benefits for building strong consumer relationships including increased adherence, proactive preventative care, lower costs for the system (both administrative, e.g., faster bill pay, and clinical, e.g., getting preventative screening) and better negotiating power with payers. Properly collected, synthesized and actionable data could ultimately shape future innovations in disease prevention or treatments. Platforms help C-suite leaders optimize and personalize the patient experience with critical knowledge and data-driven insights.  

Platforms are the way to: 

1. Make Holistic Care Real 

This has been an ongoing topic in healthcare. Health systems struggle to deliver holistic care, particularly for marginalized groups. Collecting data and applying insights to deliver better care, based on what patients really need, would drastically upend engagement and loyalty in healthcare. Consider how Amazon uses its data – from grocery shopping to prescription drugs to baby care essentials, to deliver better experiences.  

 Patients are doing all these things in the wellness space that are tangentially attached to their health, but that health systems don’t know about. We don’t know where it’s happening, and we don’t necessarily provide all the tangential services that customers want or need. The question is how much of that experience can we stitch together in partnership with the customer so we can treat the whole person?

Sara Saldoff, Head of Product Management & User Experience, OhioHealth 

We’re creating communities that connect cancer fighters with prospective patients – it’s incredibly powerful and allows us to drive deeper, meaningful relationships with patients.

Ken Chaplin, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hope 

2. Empower Ongoing Engagement With Health 

It’s no surprise that consumers are willing to pay to engage with their health (i.e., Fitbit; Apple Watch; fitness, sleep, wellness tracking apps, etc.) Connecting the healthcare experience to meet consumer needs and their desire to be “always on” has the power to turn engagements from transitional to longitudinal. Facebook enjoys regular engagement from users drawn in by sharing features, community connections, and a focus on life’s moments (“on this day,” birthdays, etc.). 

So much of the journey happens outside of the clinical experience. What are we doing to engage patients in between those appointments, those procedures? Modern consumers demand autonomy- agency in their healthcare journey. If we can give them agency, they’ll take advantage of it.

Jeremy Rogers, Executive Director, Digital Marketing & Experience, Indiana University Health 

We envision a world where care support is everywhere – a doctor prescribes a curriculum where the patient can access tools and educational content about their prescription regimen, diet, broader wellness – and not have to go digging and find it on their own.

Ken Chaplin, Chief Marketing Officer, City of Hope 

3. Create and Drive New Revenue Streams 

Platforms have the power to optimize white space opportunities to create new revenue streams. They also have the potential to shift health systems’ focus from “sick care” to “well care”. Northwell Direct saw an opportunity to disrupt the traditional payer model and better serve employers by strengthening the connection between health coverage and care. They implemented a plan to reduce the hurdles for providers and patients, to drive to more comprehensive wellness for the employees they serve.  

We have an opportunity to serve our communities through a different pathway. We took this idea and said, how do we create a business around this? Yes, to meet employer needs through services…but also to disrupt the payer space because it’s our belief that a more direct relationship between those who provide the care and those who pay for the care is beneficial to delivering higher quality care and to better managing and improving outcomes.

Nick Stefanizzi, Chief Executive Officer, Northwell Direct 

4. Make Personalized Care Scalable 

The balance between the hyper personal and the need to scale across a health system is daunting. There are myriad nuances that impact or shift an individual’s health journey. Value-generating data collection through platforms can help to bridge this gap. Consider Nike’s app family – from workout classes and SNKRS drops to monitoring runs and alerts when footwear needs replacing based on the integrated mileage tracking, they can serve consumers what they need before they know they need it. 

The dream of our Smart Rooms is to give us real time feedback so we can solve problems with a patient in moment – but down the road, we could use the increased data use and AI to help us anticipate when something could go wrong and recommend solutions so we can get ahead of an individual’s care needs.

Sara Saldoff, Head of Product Management & User Experience, OhioHealth 

If we can hyper personalize, for example, for a person whose family was touched by asthma or coronary heart disease or cancer or diabetes, and determine how to engage that individual over a lifetime with preventative behaviors and interactions, it can cut across things like health, education, literacy, economic status and be inclusive of race, religion, gender, etc. It’s going to be hard – but it’s also going to be a big game changer.

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

We see exciting signs of progress. It is still early days for health systems, though clear signs of progress are emerging. From OhioHealth’s “smart rooms” to City of Hope’s connected patient communities, there are signs on where health systems are heading. Others, like Advocate Health, are already leading with their LiveWell Platform, which helps consumers manage both their health and their wellness. Jamey Shiels, SVP Consumer & Digital Experience at Advocate Health emphasized that driving organizational alignment required connecting the vision with pre-determined patient needs with business requirements.  For example, easier check-in process means less stress on front-line staff, on-line scheduling means reduced volume in the call centers and more  

We are constantly improving LiveWell, listening to what our consumers are telling us about the experience to create a feedback loop we can engineer back into the experience. We mapped the consumer needs to the business metrics and showed how lifting those needs could improve the business metrics; connecting what matters most to the consumer to what matters most to the business is our biggest challenge but where I think platforms play a large role. We believe platforms are the business model of the future. Healthcare is behind, but we want to get into the game and lead the way.

Jamey Shiels, Senior Vice President Consumer & Digital Experience, Advocate Health 

If platforms are the answer, how do we get started? To begin building a Platform Connection, start by thinking about how to align your platform’s needs with your organizational ambition. Winning Through Platforms lays out a path to success, and it starts with cultural shifts to gain three key advantages: Strategic, In-Market, and Alignment. 

Strategic Advantage: Bring Something Structural to the Market That the Competition Doesn’t Have  

• How might the organization’s portfolio of solutions (i.e. care, coverage, ancillary services) better connect to demonstrate the value of the care network it offers? 
• How can teams better share assets to reduce efforts and increase flexibility? 
• How can the organization align on the customer personas (patients? payers? referring physicians?) and journeys to align strategic intention? 

In-Market Advantage: Grow at Higher-Than-Market Rates Through Better-Than-Competitor Practices, Spanning Go-to-Market and Innovation 

• What technology is required to capture patient information and organize it for action that results in customer and system benefit? 
• How can content across the journey be personalized by life stage, condition type, and relevant social determinants?  
• What role might community and patient-generated content play in enriching the overall engagement experience – and keeping patients engaged beyond the transactional? 

Alignment Advantage: Translate Better Internal Alignment and Teaming Into Stronger Customer Engagement and Superior Organizational Performance 

• How might the traditional functional silos be restructured into a full journey, collaborative, go-to-market model? 
• How will internal teams align on and ensure a consistent set of customer interaction standards? 
• What will define best practices when it comes to an elevated patient experience? 

There’s too much at stake to not figure out the right way to partner for better outcomes for patients.

Jodi Rosen, Vice President Innovation & Digital Strategy, City of Hope 

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With the pandemic increasingly in the rearview mirror, many healthcare organizations are coming to terms with the big and small changes that have become permanent parts of the healthcare landscape. Ushered in during the pandemic, omnichannel care delivery is now a fixture and will play an influential role for many years to come; that’s a good thing, as patients prefer having options and are often enthusiastic about new channels, technologies and treatments. More caregivers now see the value of omnichannel care, especially telehealth and in-home care, because they work so well for patients.    

In our recent work with clients, we’ve seen how different types of healthcare organizations can capitalize on leading practices for change and transformation as they seek to refine, optimize and expand their omnichannel clinical care models.  

The common denominator with healthcare leaders is human centricity. Organizations that successfully drive change design their care models around what patients want and need. Similarly, organizations that adopt a human-centered approach to transformation are more likely to succeed in winning hearts and minds, instilling new behaviors and changing the culture in sustainable ways.  

1. When transforming the clinical care model, start small and iterate fast. 

There are ample transformation opportunities across healthcare but organizations that take on too much change too fast are bound to struggle. The key is to focus on the achievable while understanding the distinct needs of underserved populations and addressing drivers of high cost. 

Organizing around a condition or a use case, rather than a service line, can be useful both for making progress and setting up for broader change over the long term. Breaking down big changes into manageable steps is the only way to go. For example, to redesign diabetes care, leaders will need first to address issues typically treated by primary care, endocrinologists and cardiologists, as well as supporting clinicians in nutrition and other related aspects of care.  

Our work with one national player confirmed how many patients with kidney failure “crash” into dialysis in an unplanned fashion when longitudinal care models can address the holistic needs of such patients. When Geisinger launched a home care program, it realized impressive results, including reduced ER visits and lower costs, largely due to its careful patient selection, a focus on chronic conditions and proactive outreach by care teams.   

Within value-based care models, better patient communication can increase HCAHPS scores, which directly impacts reimbursement. That’s a relatively small-bore change that can yield potentially big results. 

2. Recognize that every healthcare organization is also a software company. And an AI and data science firm, too.  

Whether or not they want to be, all types of healthcare companies are in the technology business – and we’re not referring exclusively to electronic medical records (EMRs). Software now underpins every step of the care delivery process and is essential to making the “anytime care from anywhere” vision a workable operational reality. And yet, there’s no denying that tech has contributed to significant burnout among healthcare workers, including physicians.  

Healthcare organizations would benefit from several tech innovations, including agile sprints and experience design principles, to continuously enhance features. Had EMRs been designed in this manner, they would more seamlessly fit into the clinical workflow and not contribute to provider burnout as they are today. Healthcare organizations can take a similar approach as they design omnichannel care delivery models and deploy new technology.  

Thinking like a service designer will help orchestrate the linkages between backstage systems and data sources and, ultimately, create a seamless experience for all types of users. Accommodating the needs of users with different levels of technology access and literacy – including both patients and caregivers – is the key to developing high-impact solutions. When designing a patient app for patients receiving home dialysis, we went through multiple rounds of design and user testing to ensure that the experience met patient needs in an intuitive way and delivered the right information at the right time. That’s how to empower – rather than overwhelm – users.  

Organizations must also change the perception, common after initial rollouts of EMR systems, that technology is the enemy. One way to overcome that persistent bias is to co-create solutions with patients, caregivers and providers. That’s what we did with a national player seeking to shift the site of care from clinics and inpatient settings to the home. Service designers worked directly with nurses and nurse practitioners who could speak empathetically to the day-to-day needs and challenges faced by home healthcare teams and provide feedback on initial design sketches. These foundational insights, as well as those from patient groups, guided the design of new tools.  

AI Goes Everywhere

There’s no talking about tech without talking about artificial intelligence (AI). AI seems to be taking over healthcare. Payers are using it to digitize claims, conduct audits and monitor payments. Clinically, AI is helping physicians scan X-rays and get ahead of emerging risks and adverse outcomes. Providers use AI to design care paths, personalize care coordination and model the financial impacts of different treatment plans. AI promises to revolutionize clinical trials in the pharmaceutical sector.  

Embedding AI-enabled technology deeply into care delivery processes can make routine tasks simpler, faster and safer. And it’s the most effective way to use technology as a “force multiplier” in delivering care, which is the primary motivation for many healthcare organizations that acquire technology companies. Technology that enables caregivers to do their jobs more effectively and operate at the top of their licenses is invaluable in a time of provider shortages. Equipping end-users (including physicians) with training, skills and knowledge to use the right tech at the right time is how tech can directly support better outcomes.  

That sort of human-centered approach is necessary to change minds, create advocates and smooth the transition as the organization evolves from being healthcare-centric to thinking and acting like tech, AI and data science companies.  

3. Transformation takes an ecosystem.  

Achieving ambitious change objectives will almost certainly require collaboration with others – including payers, specialty care providers, technology companies or other third parties. So finding the right partners is critical, even when focusing on a manageable, well-defined issue or opportunity.  

The massive complexity of healthcare – both as a business and in terms of delivering care – makes broad organizational buy-in an absolute imperative for effective transformation. Overlooking a key constituency can make the difference between success and failure.  

We define stakeholders as anyone playing a role in care or invested in its outcomes. Thus, the universe of stakeholders includes everyone from institutions (e.g., payers and large employers) to back-stage actors (e.g., hospital management, pharmacies) to front-line care providers (e.g., PCPs, specialists, therapists, care coordinators, social workers) and, of course, patients who must remain at the center. These stakeholders have wildly different incentives, hold different values and operate with different information and authority. 

The broadest ecosystems require teams to think like systems designers in working outward from the patient to the entire stakeholder ecosystem, including front-stage actors (e.g., caregivers, PCPs and specialists) and back-stage actors (e.g., care managers, pharmacists, hospitals, payers, regulators).  

Ecosystem design requires incorporating the needs and perspectives of many different stakeholders.  

All of these players have widely different incentives, hold different values and operate with different information and authority. Misalignment among ecosystem partners can manifest in systemic problems that reach deeper than any single touchpoint. When we design healthcare ecosystems, we apply such principles to understand current systems and envision those that will be necessary tomorrow. Design tools such as ecosystem and value exchange mapping are a critical part of incorporating the entire innovation ecosystem into specific solutions. 

Leveraging Internal Ecosystems

The most successful transformation programs also involve many different internal constituencies. One Fortune 500 healthcare organization seeking to disrupt renal care with increased use of in-home dialysis built a diverse, cross-functional team, including digital strategists, product teams, client nurses, nephrologists and other specialists, in its ideation process. It gathered ongoing input via iterative design and feedback sessions. The testing process of initial solutions involved 40+ external users, including patients, nurses and other caregivers and social workers.  

Organizations enacting large-scale strategic change often convene a leadership council for regular reviews and feedback. Typically, such groups include chief medical officers, clinical business unit leaders, medical specialists and senior operational and administrative leaders.  

4. Embrace regulation and payer mandates as inspiration for innovation.  

The expanding adoption of value-based care shows how regulatory requirements can prompt necessary change for organizations with creative leadership and high degrees of operational agility. By default, many leaders resist new rules and love to complain about old ones, which can lead to regulatory oversight being used as an excuse not to change.  

Federal regulators are certainly looking to foster innovation and prompt greater use of in-home dialysis via reimbursement changes in kidney care and other areas. The acute shortage of clinicians is another area where regulators are likely to be flexible in allowing healthcare organizations to experiment with new care delivery options. Consider how pandemic-era stop-gap measures to allow providers to practice telemedicine across state lines have remained in place. We believe the clinician shortage is an existential threat that must be at the forefront of the design of omnichannel care delivery models. Certainly, it will force provider organizations to automate more low-value tasks as they seek to expand their reach.  

Social determinants of health (SDoH) are also being incorporated into regulatory frameworks as their importance to health becomes clearer. Medicaid changes are more likely in the short term, with Medicare following suit in the long term. Organizations that are proactive in developing solutions – ideally in collaboration with regulators and other partners – will be positioned for future success.  

Working with a national provider organization to address the needs of diabetes patients, we focused on SDoH in determining how to shift the site of care to the home. Patients with mobility issues, those that lived in food deserts, or lacked reliable WiFi for remote diagnostics each required different design decisions. As innovation strategies more frequently intersect with regulatory requirements, we help clients think through the implications and find opportunities to streamline compliance processes as an outgrowth of experience design and technology development.  

5. You can’t change your clinical care model without changing your business model.     

This might be the hardest challenge in healthcare, because of the frequent tension between what’s good for patients and what’s good for the bottom line. In theory, clinical care organizations can find the financial backing to move to a more consumer-centric clinical care model in one of two ways:    

• Improving patient loyalty and outcomes to become a recognized market leader or provider of choice, with the net effect of boosting both patient volumes and financial returns. 
• Maximizing reimbursement for all kinds of clinical care services including those delivered outside the traditional clinic.    

We’ve found the first is a harder recipe for success and following it can lead to internal disbelief at best and barriers at worst. Financial incentives need to align with care incentives. Organizations that invest in transforming their care model should expect to realize financial rewards or at least figure out how to get paid for providing services that benefit patients.  

To make it happen, we have helped strong leaders think outside of existing markets to create new categories of care based on patient needs. To model the potential for a new home health business that a diversified healthcare giant was launching, we created a consensus view of existing service lines that could be brought together to meet patient needs in the home, from infusions, to telehealth, to diagnostics and monitoring. Here again, the key was getting stakeholders to collaborate and communicate in new ways.  

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Looking ahead to 2023 in healthcare, the big macroeconomic clouds on the horizon make for a less than cheery outlook. The combination of an economic downturn and higher costs will be a dominant theme for the entire healthcare industry and a huge challenge for organizations across hospitals, health systems and device makers, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences companies, as well as players in technology. 

Still, taking the glass-half-full view, we see many opportunities for leaders across the business to drive operational discipline and innovation by focusing on investments that matter most in driving better outcomes for all stakeholders. As we point out in our transformation playbook, changemakers that push beyond the many common barriers to innovation can achieve a great deal. Yes, the economic pressures will be greater. But 2023 will see plenty more disruption – and thus plenty of growth opportunities – as our annual list of healthcare trends below makes clear.  

1. Holistic Wellness Solutions Continue to Influence the Market  

Successful one-off wellness apps and small niche solutions are adopted by large employers and payers to enhance benefits programs and give people more options to live healthier lives. As consumers adopt wearable data trackers in support of that goal, they will increasingly choose to work with healthcare organizations that are committed to holistic wellness.  

 It’s not about the gadgetry, but rather driving good outcomes, particularly relative to social determinants of health (SDoH) and patients’ lived experiences. The start-ups and tech firms with the most attractive and powerful solutions will achieve rapid scale by going the B2B2C route. We think the biggest winners will emerge in in-home diagnostics, preventative health opportunities (e.g., perimenopausal women and metabolism and nutrition) and mental health, which will be of interest to large employers, as well as individuals. Apps and widgets that empower individuals with their own data, plus timely prompts and attractive incentives, will crack the code on growth.  

2. Venture Capital Focuses on the Best and Brightest  

While we expect to see a few big winners among tech players, most firms will face a tighter funding landscape and more intense due diligence. Venture capital, which has been flowing freely and voluminously for years, will become less available as investors scrutinize business models more closely and back only the best and brightest.  

 We suspect the firms that attract funding will be those that focus on narrowly defined patient cohorts already engaged in self-monitoring behaviors and where innovation can move the needle on cost control or value delivery. Those that can collect real-world data from outside the four corners of traditional clinical environments, and integrate seamlessly into core systems, will be specially well positioned to attract funding and potential partners. Chronic disease management, patient engagement and population health solutions will also be priorities because there is clear clinical and financial upside in all these areas.  

3. The Workforce Shortage Worsens as a Full-Blown Crisis  

With continuing burnout among healthcare workers, large provider organizations face issues with care quality and deteriorating patient experiences. The supply-demand fundamentals are inescapable: There are simply not enough doctors, nurses and paraprofessionals – not to mention data scientists, business analysts and experience designers – to fill all the vacancies. 

However, there are multiple potential solutions to resolving talent shortfalls. Workforce optimization and workflow efficiency are necessary, so too automation and more advanced technology in everything from reading x-rays to identifying payment fraud. More support for patient self-monitoring, continued expansion of telehealth and in-home care will also help alleviate chronic talent shortages. There’s also a large cohort of tech-savvy talent looking for jobs with a higher mission after layoffs from Silicon Valley giants.  

4. Value-Based Care Models Become Innovation Labs  

The inevitable momentum toward value-based continues. More than 40% of U.S. healthcare reimbursement now has some value-based component, a proportion that will only rise in 2023 and beyond. Though pockets of resistance remain, more provider organizations will advance and mature their Value-Based Care capabilities. And they’ll do so on several fronts. More sustained preventative outreach efforts to underserved, high-risk and high-cost populations for routine screenings will continue producing strong results. Shared-incentive contracting will be more attractive for capital-intensive equipment, such as MRI machines and CT scanners.  

Sophisticated technology usage will be a hallmark of VBC winners. Consider how the burden on the workforce could be reduced with digital apps and AI-enabled patient engagements leveraging HIPAA-compliant natural language processing on existing voice platforms (e.g., Alexa). Such applications also free clinicians to operate at the top of their licenses. The next year will see many pilots of creative concepts in the space.  

The tightening economic backdrop, alongside rising consumer expectations, more powerful technology and the prevalence of chronic conditions, will fuel further adoption of VBC models. Large employers wanting to know what they are getting from higher rates will be yet another prompt for innovation.  

5. Consolidation Increases as Non-Traditional Players Press on  

Challenging macroeconomic conditions will drive more consolidation and spark aggressive plays from tech platforms and large retailers. In this sense, 2023 will look a lot like recent years. Retailers and other non-traditional players are cracking the code on healthcare, faster than healthcare players are cracking the code on consumerism.  Amazon, Walmart and other large players will continue experimenting on their own, buying up promising ventures and looking for partners that can further their huge ambitions.  

And their ambitions won’t shrink just because the economy does. If you already thought these companies were relentless competitors when the economy was good, then you can expect them to press their advantages even more forcefully in pursuit of ever greater market share as cost and capital pressures rise for others.  

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Change is hard, especially in healthcare. But in the sometimes lagging, but always vital industry, transformative change enables real people with real needs to live better lives. Not to mention, change strengthens bottom lines, improves investor returns and supports a more productive and sustainable society. That’s a powerful and synergistic business case to inspire all people that work in healthcare to take on the challenge of driving innovation.  

At face value, becoming a “changemaker,” can be daunting. It requires bravery and a clear sense of direction. This new report, from Prophet’s Healthcare team, was written to empower and guide healthcare’s future changemakers so they can ignite change in the industry and realize their transformation goals.  

Based on interviews with 29 senior leaders in healthcare, extensive market research and decades of experience helping healthcare organizations transform, “Transforming Healthcare: The Changemaker’s Playbook,” provides insights and recommendations to drive necessary change in healthcare.  

Download the report for: 

• Deep dives into four areas ripe for innovation and transformation in healthcare:
  • The rise of connected and empowered consumers
  • The expansion of care outside the hospital
  • The ascendancy of Value-Based Care
  • The decentralization and democratization of data
• Highly relevant commentary and insights from industry leaders across the ecosystem 
• Digestible and achievable “next steps” for leaders seeking to become changemakers

These were the takeaways from Prophet Healthcare’s leadership roundtable, moderated by John Ellett, which focused on driving uncommon growth in healthcare today.  

Attendees included: 

• Ken Chaplin, City of Hope 
• Lisa Smith, Merative 
• Anthony Giordano, Sermo
• Olga Eskinazi, Kaia Health 
• Joseph Ferry, Ceribell 
• Beth A. Andrews, Dell 

We convene for these discussions a few times a year so leaders from different subsectors and functions can compare notes and share insights. The latest session was all about growth – where it is coming from today, how senior marketers can make it happen and who needs to be on the team.  

Key Takeaways for CMOs and Growth Leaders Across the Healthcare Ecosystem 

Play the Long Game of Innovation 

In healthcare, innovation takes many forms – from new product launches and optimized experiences, to M&A and business model innovation. But no matter the approach, and whether we’re talking about startups or large enterprises, innovation requires both a long-term perspective and a sense of timing. It can take years to develop, say, breakthrough technology, but if the market’s not ready for it, new offerings might not take off.  

Relative to growth, innovation must be viewed in the context of core value propositions, as well as future impacts. That means knowing what really moves the business and understanding what innovation will deliver (e.g., future revenue gains, increased profitability, brand differentiation). The support of senior leadership is key to keeping the organization’s eyes on the prize across long time horizons.  

Solve for Talent 

Executives agree that talent is as important as ever, even as marketing becomes more tech-driven. A few firms were looking for more skilled strategists to set the direction for marketing. But more are looking for tactical and functional expertise to execute growth strategies. There was consensus that “even the best strategy needs worker bees.” Ideally, workers will be self-starters who understand big-picture objectives, think analytically and measure results. As with growth itself, there seems to be no such thing as too much talent. 

Focus on The Perennial Value of Customer-Centricity 

As much as marketing has changed, customers remain the perennial focus. Everyone agrees that customer insights should be the core of all growth strategies. But participants also noted that it’s easier to say “we’re customer-centric” than to integrate the voice of the customer throughout all brand and marketing efforts, especially when targeting new segments. Many felt CMOs are uniquely positioned to maintain the powerful link between such customer-centricity and growth, including building stronger customer communities. In fact, being a “customer advocate” might be the most important responsibility CMOs have. 

Recognize it Takes a Network 

As healthcare leaders face an ever-expanding range of growth possibilities, the importance of internal and external networks grows more important. Asking the right questions of mentors, peers and external advisors is key to staying ahead of important industry developments. Socializing and testing your own vision is just as important. A strong network can certainly provide tips and insights relative to engaging customers in new channels. On a larger scale, they can shed light on how new technologies, ecosystems and partnerships, as well as business models, will impact growth strategies over the longer term.  

Balance Brand and Demand 

Senior marketers and other growth-oriented leaders across industries are trying to balance brand-building and demand generation investments and activities. (Check out Prophet’s blog series on this very hot topic). Demand strategies are easier to measure, a huge advantage in the multi-channel digital world. However, because of the unique nature of healthcare where relationships are at a premium, brands remain critical to building trust with consumers and patients. 

One participant mentioned the classic formula of “40% demand and 60% brand,” but the optimal balance will vary based on an organization’s customer base, growth strategy and market position, among other factors. Because both “brand builder” and “performance marketer” are inherent parts of their job descriptions, CMOs must continue seeking the right balance, and recognize that it will evolve continually along with market conditions.  

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Since the onset of the pandemic, mental health and burnout have become more common topics of conversation in the healthcare space and within the broader culture. The use of #MentalHealthAwareness in more than four million Tweets in 2021 alone, for example, shows just how common conversations about mental health have become.

Increased consciousness of behavioral health and wellbeing was one of the driving forces behind the Great Reshuffle, which significantly hit the healthcare industry. It’s estimated that almost 20 percent of healthcare workers quit during the pandemic. And because behavioral health is very much on the minds of workers, it’s an urgent topic for employers too, in healthcare and nearly every other industry.

Forward-looking organizations are leaning into the critical issue by seeking ways to facilitate more productive conversations and provide additional behavioral health support.

Why Employers Should Support the Health of Healthcare Workers

Today, wellbeing in the workplace has evolved to become more holistic, including both physical and behavioral health. As we highlight in our POV on employee wellbeing, Prophet believes a balance of flexibility and connection is key to promoting wellbeing among employees across industries; empathetic leadership and emotional support also play important roles. This can help workers feel free to bring their authentic selves to the workplace and have candid conversations about sensitive topics, including mental health.

“Employers can enable a sense of belonging, where workers see how their own values align with the organization.”

By talking about the health of healthcare workers and creating space for conversations on wellbeing broadly, organizations send the message that their people are not alone in navigating stress, anxiety and fatigue. In proactively helping healthcare workers live their best lives both on the job and outside of work, employers can enable a sense of belonging, where workers see how their own values align with the organization.

How to Prioritize and Boost Wellbeing Across Healthcare Organizations

Prophet’s Human-Centered Transformation Model focuses on four elements key to organizational health and success: DNA, Mind, Body, and Soul. By changing the way wellbeing is talked about in the workplace, each element contributes to a healthier workday and more effective employee retention.

The ‘DNA’ is the Heart of Wellbeing

Wellbeing can – and should – be a part of an organization’s purpose and employee value proposition. Whether an organization has long provided behavioral health benefits or is just now considering doing so, supporting ongoing conversations around wellbeing can provide deep and authentic connections. This is especially important at a time when healthcare workers are prioritizing wellbeing in their workday and are more likely to move on if those expectations are not met.

The ‘Mind’ is How to Enable Wellbeing

Drive change across the healthcare workforce by actively promoting greater wellbeing. The organizational mind can be shaped by educating workers on the importance of behavioral health, providing useful resources, and building awareness of these offerings. Across industries, many companies are offering subscriptions to mental health platforms and meditation apps (e.g., Calm Business and Headspace for Work), which offer exercises and tips to stay focused and mindful throughout the day.

The ‘Body’ is How to Act on Change

To help healthcare workers feel equipped in prioritizing their wellbeing, organizations can change their operating model by putting in place processes and systems that support greater behavioral health and continuously measure their effectiveness. While workers navigate implementing wellbeing tools, organizations can encourage workers to share what is and is not working so that the types of resources being provided can simultaneously evolve.

The ‘Soul’ is How to Ignite Belief

These are the mindsets, behaviors, and rituals that continually demonstrate that wellbeing is an organizational priority. For instance, when leaders in the healthcare space open up and share their own stories on behavioral health and wellbeing, people get the message that it’s an important consideration. By furthering the dialogue on behavioral health and creating a sense of belonging, organizations will have happier, healthier workers.

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Summary

Hosted by Jeff Gourdji and Priya Aneja, Prophet’s Healthcare Changemakers podcast is where healthcare leaders who are driving change in their organizations, as well as today’s healthcare experience, share their stories. In this podcast, you’ll hear from industry-leading healthcare professionals about their personal transformation journeys and what organizations can do to create the next wave of growth today and in the future.

Episodes

18. What We’ve Learned About Changemakers 

Jeff, Lindsey, Priya and senior editor Anna Kuno look back at 2022 and look ahead at what’s next, including a new name for the podcast. The hosts reflect on topics that have stood out, lessons they have learned, and things that have surprised them, as well as why the show is now called Healthcare Changemakers. 

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts  

17. Thomas Cornwell MD of Village Medical at Home 

Dr. Thomas Cornwell, National Medical Director of Village Medical at Home, has made more than 34,000 house calls. That’s astounding considering that home-based visits haven’t traditionally been considered to be a profitable service line. Nothing has been shown to reduce hospitalizations on the sickest patients in society as much as home-based primary care, but the economics haven’t added up until players like Village Medical have found a place for it in their value-based care models. Take a detailed look at the economic engine behind “doing the right thing” and how aligning incentives has transformed the state of home-based care. 

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts  

16. Dan Liljenquist of Intermountain Healthcare 

Dan Liljenquist, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for Intermountain Healthcare, discusses physician shortages, the economics of drug development and distribution, and his career path with and before Intermountain Healthcare. Value-based care isn’t a destination; it’s an evolution. Learn where Dan sees that evolution going next and how it has led to the creation of the nonprofit generic drug manufacturing company Civica Rx. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts  

15. A. J. Loiacono of Capital Rx 

A. J. Loiacono, CEO of Capital Rx, believes in unlocking the power of the pharmacist in the healthcare value equation. If we can stop fighting over drug pricing and just let buyers and sellers freely communicate, it would free up pharmacists to be more innovative. Learn how Capital Rx is challenging the traditional PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) space and transforming drug pricing once and for all. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts  

14. Jamey Edwards of StartUp Health 

Jamey Edwards, Chief Platform Officer at StartUp Health, sees transformation through the eyes of hundreds of entrepreneurs that he supports. Their collective efforts are making progress in key areas such as improving access, reducing bias, and addressing health equity. Learn how StartUp Health’s portfolio companies are gaining traction and overcoming blockers of innovation that have limited the industry’s progress until now. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts  

13. Snezana Mahon, Transcarent  

Snezana Mahon, Chief Operating Officer at Transcarent, shares how transparency, care, and empowerment are vital components of a transformation. An empowered healthcare consumer understands the choices that they need to make and has the right information at their fingertips to make those choices. Learn how Transcarent is focusing on the longitudinal experience of care in oncology, behavioral health, and more. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts  

12. Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, End Well 

Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, founder and president of End Well, shares how the practice of medicine is changing to better serve end-of-life needs. Without the proper training and education, it can be challenging for healthcare professionals to know where palliative care fits in their patients’ treatment. Learn how End Well is working to transform the dialogue about end-of-life care and honor the needs of patients and their loves ones. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts  

11. Tony Ambrozie, Baptist Health South Florida 

Tony Ambrozie, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer at Baptist Health South Florida, shares how he represents consumers’ digital needs in their personal health journeys. Clinicians are heroes for the most important part of a patient’s journey – providing their care – but it isn’t the only part of the journey. Learn how Tony employs lessons he learned from his time at The Walt Disney Company, why communications preferences are considered table stakes, and how empathy for the operations team goes a long way. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts 

10. Joneigh Klaldun, CVS Health 

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer at CVS Health, shares the impact when organizations move beyond buzzwords and embark on a health equity transformation. Disparities aren’t inevitable, and there’s no gene that says that you should have a lower quality of life because of the color of your skin. Learn how to recognize the existence of implicit bias, collect data at scale, and use that data to address disparities in care. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts 

9. Alistair Erskine MD of Mass General Brigham 

Dr. Alistair Erskine, Chief Digital Health Officer at Mass General Brigham, breaks down what’s coming next as major medical institutions embrace the next phase of their digital transformation. While data is currency in managing patient care, it hasn’t been fully unlocked at scale yet. Learn how Mass General Brigham is aligning key digital components of their business model, operations, clinical workforce, and more, to provide a more satisfying patient experience. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts 

8. Tamara Ward of Oscar Health 

Tamara Ward, SVP of Insurance Business Operations at Oscar Health, shares what happens when you put empathy at the center of the transformation equation. Sometimes starting and failing at transformation is still better than never trying it at all because of what you learn along the way. Learn how Tam has learned to align transformation with the core competencies of the business and not get distracted by the hot topics of the moment. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts 

7. Michelle Lockyer 

Michelle Lockyer knows that the pace of transformation can affect the ultimate result in large, established organizations. The longer that a transformation continues, the more challenging it can become for leaders to keep up the momentum and for team members to stay engaged. Learn the myths and realities of transformation in the biotech space, including the three steps on Michelle’s 90-day checklist, her tips for constructing a strong purpose statement, and the attributes she looks for in leaders to drive long-term change. 

• Listen on Spotify 
• Listen on Apple Podcasts 

6. Myoung Cha of Carbon Health

Myoung Cha, President of Omnichannel Care & Chief Strategy Officer at Carbon Health, knows that behavior change takes more than just sharing information. Human beings are wired to act on short-term outcomes rather than longer-term habits where behavior problems often occur. Learn how Carbon Health is creating a new kind of primary care by filling care gaps, creating tighter feedback loops, and leaning into ambiguity.

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts

5. Nick Patel of Prisma Health

Dr. Nick Patel, chief digital officer at Prisma Health, shares what the 2025 version of a holistic experience strategy looks like, and what he’s working on today to get there. Shifting from fragmented care to connected ecosystems requires governance and alignment so that IT, informatics and medical groups can all look in the same direction. Learn the types of personas and data sources that Dr. Patel’s team uses to complete the patient picture and help physicians to provide more personalized, effective care.

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts

4. Stella Sanchez of Teladoc Health

Stella Sanchez, VP of consumer marketing at Teladoc Health, shares how building loyalty with consumers makes it easier to drive behavior change. Transformation requires inspiration, and that inspiration needs to come from a clear vision. Learn how Stella’s team uses a B2B2C marketing model to clearly articulate their vision not just for their client partners, but for the consumers whom they serve.

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts

3. Matt Gove of Summit Health

Matt Gove, chief marketing officer at Summit Health, discusses what health system leaders can learn from the transformation story of merging brands and growing relentlessly during the pandemic. Matt shares lessons about providing access to all the right care, developing the right type of relationships with consumers and the need to bring operations into patient experience work much earlier in the process. Learn more about Summit Health’s ongoing transformation work that has continued since their merger with CityMD, the leading urgent care provider in New York.

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts

2. Mary Varghese Presti of Dragon Medical

Mary Varghese Presti, SVP & GM of Dragon Medical, shares her experience setting the pace and direction for innovation at the same time. She explains the need for having not just a vision and inspiration for transformation, but also the execution and sweat equity to drive it to the destination.

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts

1. Nishi Rawat MD of Bamboo Health

Nishi Rawat MD, chief clinical officer of Bamboo Health, shares her experience in addressing whole-person health by attacking the twin epidemics of opioid abuse and mental health. There is an expectation for transformation in healthcare to happen quickly, but Nishi sees it happening incrementally, and it’s almost unnoticeable at times. Learn more about the work that their team at Bamboo Health is doing to make a difference.

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcasts

More episodes will be added as the season progresses.

Are you a healthcare leader hoping to join the discussion? Reach out to Jeff, Lindsey or Priya today.

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Every year, Prophet surveys thousands of consumers and asks, “Which brands play an important role in your life at why?” And every year we crunch the numbers, synthesize their feedback and produce a ranking and insight-rich report for business leaders to leverage as they transform and grow their businesses through innovative customer and employee experiences.

This year’s survey focused on questions about the “head” and “heart” of consumers. While companies that won over the “heads” of consumers brought pragmatism and convenience, “heart” winners found ways to connect with them on an emotional level. The top brands – aka relentlessly relevant all-stars – did both.

In the 2022 Prophet Brand Relevance Index® (BRI) leading healthcare entities—pharma, providers, suppliers—gained traction and awareness for bringing innovative solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pharma giants like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson grew in name recognition and brand value as they stepped up to the world stage with life-saving vaccines. Non-traditional care platforms also gained traction as consumers opted for telemedicine experiences.

But which healthcare organization was the most relevant to the lives of 13,500 U.S. consumers? Teladoc Health, the multinational telemedicine and virtual care healthcare company, ranked as the #1 healthcare organization and #21 overall.

The pandemic forced the adoption of virtual care and Teladoc Health’s newly transformed experience was there to meet the moment – providing whole-person digital-first solutions to patients. And with gaining momentum, more and more consumers have begun to embrace digital native health platforms. These platforms are rapidly scaling to become not only the digital care continuum for patients but the care continuum. Traditional sectors of healthcare are drawing inspiration from modern digital healthcare players like Teladoc Health who are taking center stage (and top spots in rankings).

Stephany Verstraete, chief marketing and engagement officer at Teladoc Health, joined Prophet’s brand leadership team in the Prophet BRI webinar to share her take on the organization’s rise in consumer relevancy.

What was the focus of Teladoc Health’s brand in 2021 and is that changing as we step further into 2022?

The pandemic created this unique moment where Teladoc became relentlessly relevant – hitting both on the needs of the ‘head’ and the ‘heart.’

We’ve reached an inflection in the adoption curve of virtual care. Which is something that is pretty rare in the world of healthcare. And I think that really stemmed from being there in the moment of people’s needs. In 2020, suddenly something they had taken for granted – access to a doctor – was compromised. And fundamentally, it transformed the relationship they had with our brand, from being largely “head” dominated, focused on convenience and value, to increasingly meeting those needs of the “heart” side as we became a place that they could safely turn to, speak to, without leaving their home.

How do you ensure brand relevance is at the core of building the brand and customer experiences?

We have been digesting our recognition on the list for the first time and are using the brand relevance construct to put a framework around what we are focused on this year.

People naturally gravitate to Teladoc for the “head” needs – like simplification and transparency – and how it can provide individuals in system-centric environments with experiences that are more “person-centric.” As we think about moving forward, we want to focus on how to make those deeper focuses on the “heart” as we deliver innovative experiences. We want to change the way people think about the Teladoc Health experience – from just sick care to healthcare. This brand thinking is transformative for how we go to market, from a marketing perspective, all the way through how we infuse it in our experiences.

Outside of marketing, what do you do to drive relevance in other aspects of the business? How do you inspire the rest of your organization around a brand?

Getting your employees to be power users makes them your greatest brand evangelists. They are the first line of feedback that we incorporate into our experience.

Fundamentally, the Teladoc Health team is inspired by our mission of enabling all people everywhere to live their healthiest lives. Our 5,000 global employees are really the power users of our services. And I would tell you, as a marketer, who has not spent a career in healthcare, this is unique.

We are very intentional about keeping consumers front and center in all of our strategic conversations. For a lot of our DTC marketers, this would seem like an obvious statement but as you get into a healthcare context, it’s really important. For example, we start every strategic meeting with a story from one of our members. It really has a powerful impact on how to keep us grounded in our company’s true north. That is the experience we are delivering and the people we are helping. We are defining a category and something for consumers that is new. When I talk about the brand, it is critical because our brand relevance is still being formed for a lot of consumers.

It is rare to see a study of this kind that can parse out innovative and traditional brands in a way that is relevant and meaningful for all of them. That’s something that we’ve really appreciated.

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