Enabling Effective Hybrid Work in the Healthcare Payer Space

Avaya’s research shows that healthcare payers continue to move towards hybrid work as processes evolve and employees continue to be geographically dispersed. On the employee side, 47% of workers of all ages say they love the ability to work remotely and 62% say a hybrid work model is best for happiness. Only 33%, however, agree their employer gives them the necessary tools and technology to do their job from anywhere.

Workstream collaboration is the ultimate tool for hybrid work success. In short, workstream collaboration represents the next evolution of Unified Communications. The cloud-based platform converges siloed UC and contact center applications into one tool with one application — creating more organic collaboration across all users, unbounded by time or geography. Gartner estimates that 70% of teams will be using workstream collaboration by the end of this year, and the overall market is forecast to grow to $6.5 billion by 2024.

Here's what healthcare payers should know…

Many Hybrid Employees Struggle with Fatigue from Managing Too Many Separate Applications.

A workstream collaboration application can replace disparate tools employees use for video meetings, chat, file sharing, and task management into one seamless application. This integration empowers teams to communicate in context in a persistent virtual workspace accessible on any device. This persistency ensures that work continues to progress across time and location. For example, a conversation about a customer issue will remain viewable with persistent chat so that management can revisit it and review if necessary.

One free-flowing application enables all employees — regardless of location or role — to communicate in real-time to improve decision-making and increase customer value. One healthcare payer using Avaya’s Workstream Collaboration application explained, “Being able to communicate in real-time about things like policy changes and customer qualifications across all of our global operations centers is massively important.” As payers work to deliver more holistic customer care, they can also involve care partners such as pharmacy and mental health affiliations as and when needed. All participants need is a web browser to join the persistent virtual workspace.

Workstream Collaboration Provides Real-time Intelligence for Supervisors to Effectively Manage, Monitor, And Assist Agents Wherever They’re Working.

As a converged UC and contact center solution, workstream collaboration allows for supervisor monitoring, coaching, and enablement of agents with real-time intelligence wherever they are working. Agents can chat with supervisors in real-time about complex and important queries while members are on the phone. They can ask questions and get answers or authorizations immediately, with persistent chat preserving the conversation for future reference. Healthcare payers can create an expert-centric approach to business and customer problem solving, ensuring that the right subject matter experts can flow in and out of team and customer interactions as required.

Hybrid Work Must Be Secure and Compliant.

As work becomes more fluid, payers need to verify that employees are who they claim to be while minimizing visibility into members’ sensitive and/or personally identifiable information. Identity-centered security enables this without adding customer friction or complexity. This is a secure, biometric-based identity verification and authentication method that ensures only the right people see and hear the necessary member information to complete a transaction.

The goal of identity-centered security is to prove who someone is versus what they know (as is the case with age-old KBA methods, e.g., “What’s your mother’s maiden name?”). This is easily done using the sensors on a user’s connected device. For example, a payer could require that employees undergo 3D face mapping using the camera on their laptop to access their workspace. This method is so reliable it has only a 1 in 12 million chance of being ineffective. You can learn more about identity-centered security and what Avaya is doing in this realm here.

The future of work is hybrid and Avaya, along with our partners, is leading the way. Payers using our Workstream Collaboration applications report up to a 60% increase in conversion and up to an 80% increase in care plan engagement while supporting digital transformation and future growth.

Learn more about the key elements healthcare payers should consider to digitally evolve with Avaya’s research. View the full report about Trends Shaping the Healthcare Payer Industry.