AHIP 2022 Takeaways: Health Insurers Want to Boost Population Health Efforts

Last month AHIP 2022 took Las Vegas by storm–and Care Angel’s team was there for it. We sat down with two of our team members who attended the conference to capture their observations. That’s Seth Miller, operations manager, and Bill Bowman, vice president of sales and business development.  

Top of mind for health insurer executives is the need to pursue “a deeper relationship with large patient, member, and employer populations for use cases from chronic condition management to readmission reduction, behavioral health, and recovery from substance use disorder,” said Seth. Executives attending AHIP 2022 were “very responsive, in particular, to our voice-based demo for chronic condition management,” he added.  

Bill noticed another theme at play at AHIP 2022: Namely, the need to address health inequities. Many of his conversations in Care Angel’s booth centered on “payers’ need to support underserved and marginalized populations,” he explained.  

 Ninety percent of the country's $4.1 trillion in annual healthcare costs are for people with chronic and mental health conditions, according to research. A survey of nearly 300 health system leaders conducted by consulting firm Deloitte found that addressing social needs as a part of clinical care is often “ad hoc.” In addition, the company’s survey found that “gaps remained in connecting initiatives that improve health outcomes or reduce costs.”  

Without further ado, here are four highlights from Seth and Bill at AHIP 2022: 

1. Marked interest in chronic condition management and the need to address health equity challenges.

“There was a lot of interest in chronic conditions, specifically diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease monitoring,” said Seth. “A lot of people arrived at the booth with questions about how Care Angel could help them augment their current chronic condition management efforts, such as clinical outreach operations.” 

Attendees that we spoke with were really interested in the ability to improve their care management of health populations at scale, he added.  

Health insurer executives arrived at AHIP 2022 searching for solutions to support underserved populations, according to Bill. “Many executives were responsive to the fact that Angel works with not only mobile devices, but also landline phones, which means the health insurer can achieve interventions wherever populations exist; it also means Angel is a good fit for members who may not have access to a smartphone or reliable internet service,” he said. 

Bill also observed that health insurer executives were interested in Angel’s ability to subtly correct the misspelling of medications and to reach non-English-speaking members–who, again, are underserved–with access to Angel’s ability to speak and understand more than 72 languages. “Health insurers can’t staff clinicians who speak in all of their members’ native languages,” he explained.  

1. Increased demand for help with medication management, medical care, and surgical protocols. 

Some of the reasons members don't consistently take their medications include "My medicine makes me feel sick." or "I forgot." Often, members struggle to afford their medications. But their health insurer doesn't know that if the member isn't asked about medication adherence. 

The health insurer executives Bill talked to were looking for ways to improve medication management. In particular, these decision makers were interested in learning about our deep understanding of medical care, such as wound care, and surgical protocols, he said.  

Chronic wounds impact approximately 6.5 people in the United States–and it’s costly: to the tune of $25 billion annually. Combine that with a rapidly aging population and a marked increase in diabetes and obesity, and we have a crisis on our hands.  

1. Demand for behavioral health screenings is high. 

One in five U.S. adults experienced mental illness in 2020, per the National Alliance for Mental Illness. And it's worse for some individuals: One in 20 people experienced a serious mental illness, while 1 in 15 experienced both a substance use disorder and mental illness. 

But there’s a projected shortage of 250,000 behavioral health professionals. which means access to support is an ongoing challenge.  

“Angel can help health insurers by assessing members’ upward or downward spirals and connect them with a reliable, trusted resource–such as a therapist or even a psychiatric nurse, in real time, during an acute event,” said Bill. 

This same workflow offered by Angel is also a good fit for health insurers who want to “triage for situations that come up, such as high blood sugar or high blood pressure. Angel relies on machine learning to flag these events and support connections with the appropriate clinicians,” he added. 

1. Increased interest in integrations with Care Angel  

Seth was thrilled to field “a lot of questions about integrations with other software platforms,” he said. 

Care Angel integrates with a wide variety of health IT platforms. We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and collaborate during design sessions to exceed your integration expectations–and make each customized, launch a quick, painless, and process-driven. Deployments are typically less than 30 days. 

Meet Angel: Award Winning A. I. Voice Nurse Assistant 

Every single day, Angel can touch 90% to 100% of health insurers’ at-risk populations and activate and engage 43%. 

Angel comes to life through a secure, HITRUST-certified platform that supports healthcare organizations’ HIPAA compliance. Launching hundreds of thousands of personalized interactions with members, Angel reaches millions of at-risk members. That’s for post-discharge follow-up care, medication adherence, management of chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, or any clinical outcome you’re striving to achieve. 

South Florida-based EliteHealth, a Care Angel client, saved time, money, and resources--while increasing member engagement--from day one. Here are three ways EliteHealth achieved these goals: 

1. 83% increased member engagement as a result of interactions with Angel that are intelligent, personalized, conversational, and data-driven.  

1. 63% reduction in avoidable hospital readmissions as a result of real-time alerts and scale-effective interventions. 

1. 15:1 ROI, which means they can maximize clinical efficiency, lower costs, improve outcomes, while serving as good stewards of members' premium dollars and CMS' investment in beneficiaries. 

The end result: Improved population health outcomes, better chronic condition management, and more effective use of resources.  

Want to Learn More? Contact Care Angel Today! To learn more about Angel, write us at hello@careangel.com or fill out our online form. We look forward to working with you and providing you with the healthcare management tools you need!