In any very mature industry — and workers’ comp is certainly that — certain truths are immutable. Scale, margin compression, consolidation are all inevitable — or at least two out of three are.
Innovation — mostly “small i” innovation — can and will help smaller entities compete with goliaths, and large companies maintain and even grow margins.
The innovations I’m speaking of are the tweaks, efficiencies, streamlined processes and smoother customer interactions that make vendors easier to work with. Frontline customers benefit from these small innovations, sometimes almost without noticing them.
What’s easy to lose track of is the purpose of automation and innovation. The primary purpose is NOT to make the vendor more efficient and reduce vendor costs; it should be to deliver better service to the end user, be they provider, patient frontline customer.
Therein lies the trap. In a mad dash to strip out cost and improve “efficiency,” many service companies don’t pay nearly enough attention — if they pay any attention at all — to how those changes affect the end user.
For a while, those “improvements” will reduce costs and add to profits. Then, as frontline users suffer in voicemail hell or can’t find anyone to answer their questions or have to ask for another password to enter a “portal” for the umpteenth time, revenues will start to decrease.
Instead, focus your innovation efforts on those that will make your end users happier, less stressed and less busy.
Take work off their desk/work stand and put it on yours.
That’s innovation that delivers long-term results.
Joe Paduda is co-owner of CompPharma, a consortium of pharmacy benefit managers. This column is republished with his permission from his Managed Care Matters blog.
May 5-8, 2024
Amplify Your Impact There’s no limit to what you can achieve when you join the global risk managem …
May 13-15, 2024
Join us May 13–15, 2024, for NCCI's Annual Insights Symposium (AIS) 2024, the industry’s premier e …
May 13-14, 2024
The Board of Managers is excited to announce that the CSIA 2024 Annual Meeting and Educational Con …
No Comments
Log in to post a comment