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Home > Resources > eNews > June 2000 |
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The Managed Care Insider eNews Volume Two Number 5 June 2000 PART TWO of TWO Welcome to The Managed Care Insider eNews. You are receiving this because you have subscribed; the eNews is never sent unsolicited. Subscribe/unsubscribe information can be found at the end of this eNews. The Managed Care Insider eNews is published, copyrighted, and owned by The Scheur Management Group, Inc. (SMG), http://www.scheur.com and is distributed monthly, free to subscribers. If you wish to forward this edition, you may do so only if the edition is forwarded in its entirety. No reproduction of any part of this publication is permitted without the express permission of the publishers. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This edition of the Insider eNews presents two views: provider and customer service, wants versus needs, for your consideration. The focus of Part Two is on customer service -- what people skills are important to improve relationships with health plans. As always, we have included some web sites for your review and even an online survey! We welcome your comments and can be reached via email at insider@scheur.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Customer Service: What a Concept! By Karen Cook, Senior Consultant, Scheur Management Group Have you read your automobile insurance policy? Me neither. I've tried from time to time, but I always end up calling to have someone answer my questions by telephone. And yet, when I work with health plan clients, I still get drawn into discussions about what we should expect members to read about their benefits. It's a great concept, but in the long run we're better served to focus on the Customer Service Department. In the early days of managed care, health plans varied widely from one another. Everyone was feeling their way, trying to come up with the best benefit plan, the best provider network. We still try to find a better mousetrap. The difference is, when one health plan makes a change, the rest follow suit. It's imperative to offer the same benefit package and the same network in order to compete for business. And the tolerance of plan sponsors for a few dollars' difference in premium is almost nonexistent. So how can we be different? Customer service. We who are in this industry know how complicated healthcare delivery can be. Imagine what it's like for people who don't know that the unseen pathologist generates a bill, or that an otolaryngologist and an ENT are the same thing. Just listen to your friends and neighbors as they describe their interactions with "the insurance company." And listen to calls in your customer service department. Listen to the tone of voice, the acronyms, the jargon people use. Make sure your grandmother could understand it. I recently had a theft, which meant I had to talk to my homeowner's insurance company. The representative I spoke to could just as easily have been taking a call about a death claim instead of a property claim. And she was just as sympathetic about my loss. At the end of the call I asked her if they received any special customer service training. She said they just treated people like they'd like to be treated. What a concept. About the author: Karen Cook is an SMG senior consultant with particular expertise in managed care provider network management and MCO operations, she manages a full spectrum of provider-related operations for SMG clients. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sites and Sounds on The Internet SMG has no ownership of, nor does it endorse the following sites. This information is presented as a resource for subscribers. In keeping with this issue's focus on providers and their use of Internet technology, and customer service, we present the following sites which cover these areas. Surveys, everyone is doing them. To find a comprehensive list of those doing health related job/salary surveys, and their outcomes, visit http://www.pohly.com/salary.html Health on the Net Foundation frequently conducts surveys about health professionals' use of the Internet. To find out more, visit http://www.hon.ch/Survey/analysis.html Who is using the Internet? How many are surfing the electronic waves? To find out general Internet usage, visit http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/index.html The Big Picture: More on the who and how of Internet usage can be found at http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/demographics/ Patient Satisfaction : The Indispensable Outcome from Managed Care Magazine at http://www.managedcaremag.com/archiveMC/9904/9904.patsatis.html The American Academy of Family Physicians has a good article online: What Does Disney Know About Patient Satisfaction at http://www.aafp.org/fpm/991100fm/33.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- What's New? Continuing its mission to reshape the practice of managed care, Venture Health Partnership Group, LLC (VHPG) of Newton, Massachusetts announced today that it has finalized the acquisition of Health Partners of Alabama, Inc. (HPA) from the Baptist Health System (BHS). VHPG Chairman Barry S. Scheur says, "With this, our second HMO acquisition in less than six months, we continue to disregard financial analysts, the so-called health care experts and others who dispute the opportunity and profitability of the managed care marketplace. We believe that somewhere along the way, managed care has lost its soul and has forgotten that the primary reason for its existence is the patient, not the bottom line. With our continuing acquisitions and turnarounds of provider-owned HMOs, we are proving these so-called experts wrong in their forecast for the future of this industry." To find out more, visit http://www.vhpg.com or http://www.hlthpart.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- Where do you stand? We would like to hear from physicians. How are you using technology in your practice? SMG invites you to complete our brief survey on "Where Physicians Stand on Technology." As a thank you for completing this survey, we will give you a one-month free subscription to our new online knowledge management service e=mc2 (managed care squared). e=mc2 is a customized, knowledge management online service designed to provide healthcare professionals with the information power to achieve goals, manage systems and implement tools in strategic business development. It's another way of demonstrating our commitment to reshaping managed care with an emphasis on empowering providers with information. Follow this link to the Where Physicians Stand on Technology Survey: http://www.scheur.com/1technology/webpage/mcochallenge.nsf/ts62000 ---------------------------------------------------------------- End of PART TWO of TWO, The Managed Care Insider eNews, Volume Two, Number 5. Scheur Management Group (SMG) is one of the most experienced specialized healthcare operations management and business revitalization consulting firms in the country. Our expertise is in time-sensitive analyses, strategic business and market planning, operational re-engineering, and communications, as well as implementation of start-ups, expansions, and new products. The firm's clients cover the spectrum of insurers, managed care organizations, physician groups, integrated delivery systems, hospitals, employers, governmental entities, vendors, and other providers. Contributors to this edition are Barry Scheur, Mary Ellen Luff and Karen Cook. Editing and Research by Judith Jaffe. Production Coordination by Nancy K. Belle. TO SUBSCRIBE: visit http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/ezine.html or send e-mail to insider@scheur.com with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject and name, email, company, title, and country in the message. TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send email message to insider@scheur.com with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject. Please take a minute to visit our eNews page at http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/ezine.html for archives, subscriber information and to RATE our ezine. Get up-to-the-minute health care news on-line at www.scheur.com |
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