CEO Corner with Bud Flagstad: Helping Payers During the Medicaid Redetermination Process

To reach Medicaid members, payers are looking for a solution that will meet members where they are, resulting in effective engagement at the lowest cost. 

Technology that boosts efficiency helps increase engagement and capture qualifying information, such as employment, income, and health and risk status. Payers also need help navigating members to take the appropriate action to retain their Medicaid coverage.  

Care Angel’s simple and effective approach helps payers. Our 28% to 83% engagement rate with Angel is consistent across voice, secure chat, and text options. Payer clients should expect to increase their traditional outreach capacity by 600x or more with Angel, our digital health engagement platform.  

We sat down for a Q&A with Bud Flagstad, Care Angel’s CEO, to discuss ways to boost outreach efforts during Medicaid determination.

Care Angel: What’s different about Care Angel?

Bud Flagstad: For starters, we have trained Angel for over seven years with medical and health language knowledge. That gives us context for conversations with members. It also allows us to automate repetitive, high-volume tasks. Our campaigns help us reach members; in this case, letting them know about the need to reapply for insurance coverage. 

We also help payers identify care gaps quickly and efficiently. Angel can understand conversations in more than 72 languages. That helps us reach diverse populations across the country—how and when they want to be engaged.

Care Angel: What have you learned about when and how to contact members?

Flagstad: We have access to a wealth of data about members, which means we know when they’re more likely to respond and what type of outreach is more likely to generate responses. For example, Medicare members are less likely to respond during “The Price is Right,” while Medicaid members are more likely to interact at certain times using their smart phones via voice or text.  

We can circle back with these members using voice, text, and secure chat. Unlike a traditional contact center employee, who may only have time to dial once, our technology can redial, which means we have a better chance of connecting with members. Our technology gives us the flexibility to start with voice and shift to other modalities based on user preferences. 

Care Angel builds profiles of members, using the cognitive abilities of our AI model. While most plans have consent to text approximately 5% of their Medicaid population, we’re able to reach and gain consent for texting between 24% to 32% of their population, depending on the campaign. While complying with all appropriate regulations, Angel can engage with members using voice, text, and secure chat whenever they’re most likely to be available.   

Staffing nurses at a call center after business hours is virtually impossible, but Angel provides the ability to engage with members—and that means we’re connecting when members are available.

Care Angel: But a payer executive may already have the budgeted dollars to staff a call center. What then?

Flagstad: Payers will save a significant amount of budget dollars by working with Care Angel—and those dollars can be used for other initiatives.  

Angel captures information while providing education and navigation support for members—without adding to labor costs. Adaptable and customizable for other costly and critical engagement needs, Angel supports the following programs:

• Enrolment and awareness
• Maternal health and well-child
• Diabetes quality measures
• Chronic condition management
• Medication and care plan compliance
• Post-discharge/readmission avoidance
• SDoH and health equity, and more

Care Angel keeps it simple. We're going to help you meet or exceed your Medicaid redetermination targets and keep your members covered.