By Judd Bagley

The American healthcare industry enjoyed an infamously privileged status for a long time.

For decades, it didn't much matter how consumers felt about their member experience. Competition was minimal because employers made most health care plan decision. Complaints rarely made it beyond one's immediate social circle – which was itself generally comprised of people equally unhappy with their own member experiences.
In 2010, two enormous but unrelated factors combined to bring change.

First, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) created a health insurance marketplace, which allowed members to shop for healthcare insurers in much the same way that they shopped for other imposing-but-accountable service providers, like banks. In addition, the ACA also mandated that measures of member satisfaction be gathered and used as a basis for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.

Second, the rapid emergence of social technologies allowed members to express their sentiments far beyond their acquaintances. In some cases, members' good and bad experiences became universally accessible in a digital culture where online peer reviews carry as much weight as personal recommendations and are often trusted more than one's own physician.

Payers responded by focusing on improving member experience, which often meant contracting with specialized business process outsourcers (BPOs) able to provide high quality member support economically. This move is a large part of what's driving healthcare BPO's robust 6.3% compound annual growth rate, according to an industry report.

In 2020, a third factor emerged which upended the status quo yet again: Covid-19.

Among other things, Covid-19 swiftly eliminated any efficiency benefits realized by centralized member services, which had long been foundational to the BPO playbook as it ensured efficiency, quality control, and data security compliance. Yet over the course of a week in mid-March, centralized contact centers shut down globally, with only those BPOs able to quickly and effectively send member support agents home to work left standing.

Several months have passed since those trying times, and while still early, it's clear that Covid-19 has had a surprisingly positive impact on outsourced member support.

For example, in 2019, the average licensed agent supporting Medicare subscribers had about 18 months' experience at BPOs like Everise. In 2020, the average licensed agent has almost six years' experience to draw from. In the complex world of Medicare sales and support, it's difficult to overstate how great an impact an additional 4.5 years under one's belt can have on agent effectiveness and member satisfaction.

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