Ingram's October 2022

Thought Leader Insights: Health Insurance

Q&A ... W ith M att A ll The CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas addresses current conditions, employer cost challenges, the Af fordable Care Act af ter 10 years, leadership development and more.

Q: Hit us with your best elevator pitch about BCBSKS, its current strengths and its market position. A: I’ve been with the organization for 16 years—I was an insurance regulator for a few years, so I’ve been aware of and part of Blue Cross for a long time. And I’ve never beenmore excited about where the organization is going. It’s a really challenging time in health care— well, it’s always challenging—but coming out of the pandemic, we have a new set of chal lenges. Our job is probably harder than ever. But we’ve never been stronger or better at what we do. When people encounter the health care system, they’re often in a difficult, vulnerable moment in their lives. They need someone by their side who cares and who’s committed to making that moment better. We believe those moments will be better if they’re with us. A: This year, for everybody, not just us, has been difficult because the investment markets have been challenging. But because we’ve been very careful over the years, we’ve positioned ourselves to weather that and come out stronger than ever. What really matters to us is the experience our members have in the health-care system. We measure that in all sorts of ways. Nobody wants to need to access health care, but if they go into that system with a Blue Cross of Kansas card and have us behind them, we believe they’ll have a better experience than anyone else. A: In terms of strength, we measure that in several different ways: First, wewant to cover as many people as possible, and we cover more Kansans than anyone, by far, and that’s exciting for us. Helping people find peace of mind and a better quality of life is our mission, and if we can do that for more people, that gets us up in Q: How are current economic condi tions affecting you? Q: You mentioned processes for mea suring success. Can you elaborate?

the morning. We also need to be financially strong, and we are. We want our members to have a great experience when they need health care, and so we measure that simply by asking them. Where I think the whole industry has fallen short, though, is with affordability. That remains the central challenge of health care. Q: It’s a challenging time to be in health care. How’s that going for you? A: That’s another way we measure suc cess–employee experience–andwe’re investing a lot in that right now. It’s a challenge because during the pandemic employees’ expectations about the workplace have been scrambled. It has challenged our leadership, and we take it seriously and meet with every new employee, and I tell them the same thing: we want this place to be a good thing in their lives. They have a job where they can work on something meaningful, where they will be given opportunities to use the best of themselves to do great work, but also have plenty of space for a full life, plenty of time for family and to be involved in their community. We’re taking steps to make that better than it ever has been. A: My goodness, there are so many things. The health care system itself went through real trauma beginning in 2020, and is just now starting to emerge from that. Look, a lot of providers are hurting— they have lost staff, they have staff that are stressed out, and for some, there are difficulties financially, so they are trying to make sense of their own direction and health as organizations. Sometimes that involves money. But one of our biggest roles is to make sure health care is affordable for people, and we have to thread that needle for provider partners who do incredibly important work, while still offering a premium for members that is affordable. That literally keeps us up at Q: Anything keeping you up at night with forces beyond your control?

night. It’s really hard, because we don’t want to do things on the cheap. If you’re facing a big moment with your health or with a loved one who’s sick or injured, you want the best of care. Finding great partnerships with providers but still meeting the economic needs of our members and groups is really challenging. It always has been, of course, but the pandemic has only made it worse. Q: What do you see as the biggest potential innovations that might take health insurance in a new direction? Are you already embracing some of those? A: I don’t think health insurance, as an industry, has been especially innovative. There are reasons for that. We’re pulled from a lot of different directions as the midpoint between providers and patients. They have competing needs that can hold you in place. The other thing is, we’re heavily regulated—and we should be—because things can go very badly if payers act irresponsibly. I think one of the biggest innovations recently has been the expanded use of telemedicine; I think that is starting to mature, and that it will be used in a lot of different ways going forward. A: I don’t think we, as an entire industry, as a society, have taken mental and behavioral health seriously enough, but I think that’s changing. I don’t think we’ve fully appreciated how integrated and connected mental health is to overall health. The health care providers and the payers that are able to find a way to treat the whole person—behavioral health, mental health, physical health and under standing their linkage—I believe they will be the most effective over the next decade. Q: Any examples of that playing out with BCBSKS? A: One thing over the past year, we’ve Q: What else has the pandemic expe rience taught you?

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October 2022