Health Advocate Partners with H1 to Reduce Referral Times
Built on the philosophy that navigating healthcare takes both a human touch and data-driven approach, Health Advocate has been helping Americans navigate the healthcare system for over 20 years.
The Challenge
Health Advocate’s mission is to actively engage members in the healthcare system to improve their overall health and well-being. They offer a full range of clinical and administrative services as well as behavioral health and wellness programs to employees.
Before partnering with H1, it took this customer several days to complete healthcare and behavioral health referrals. Their standard procedure involved using Google to find providers and confirm their details, which was a manual, time-intensive process.
They understood that to deliver a more personalized care experience that motivates people to take charge of their health, their team of compassionate health and medical experts would need more than just online searches.
The Solution
Health Advocate reached out to H1 to find a solution to reduce their reliance on manual processes and reduce their overall referral times.
H1 worked with Health Advocate to implement a solution that combines industry-leading directory data with the flexibility to reflect additional data sources that were important for Health Advocate. With this solution, Health Advocate gained access to high-quality provider, location, and insurance data on 99.9% of providers and facilities in the U.S. to power their care recommendations. H1 was also able to integrate additional data sources for Health Advocate, adding hospital quality and patient satisfaction ratings from third-party data sources, and reducing the burden on Health Advocate’s tech team to manually maintain this data.
After the initial implementation, the team identified an opportunity to drive further efficiency gains. These gains would require a close partnership between H1 and Health Advocate.
H1 dove into the customer’s data to examine where the solution could be adjusted and optimized. The team collected new insurance networks for Health Advocate, investigated ways to optimize Accuracy Scoring (a method to determine the level of accuracy for data points on every provider), and worked to resolve data discrepancies, all with a laser focus on achieving and exceeding the outcomes the customer was looking to drive.
The Results
This joint effort led to a striking 2.5x increase in efficiency for Health Advocate’s overall referral close rate.
Where it previously took 4.3 days to turn around a healthcare referral, the same process after implementing H1 now only takes 1.8 days. The customer’s behavioral health referral times are now closed in less than 3 days, compared to 7.6 days previously.
While these results have been crucial for increasing Health Advocate member and customer satisfaction, building the foundation for a collaborative partnership model is just as critical. H1 doesn’t believe in simply delivering data and walking away. We partner with our customers to understand their unique challenges and goals, pivot if these goals change, and constantly ensure our customers get the most value out of our partnership.
Health Advocate’s care navigators are now able to navigate their members to affordable and high-quality care faster, ensuring they can deliver on their mission to help people positively engage in the healthcare system without barriers or frustration.