Business Process Outsource Services for Carriers
Connect One Health is routinely engaged by Carriers to train and manage licensed agents who provide enrollment services for a specific Carrier only — what COH refers to as Business Process Outsource Services or Carrier BPO Services. Although the Connect One Team retains management oversight and continues to employ the agents who are “dedicated” to a Carrier partner, those agents market and sell that Carrier’s products only. As a result, the agents develop an intimate and extensive knowledge of the Carrier’s products and services and the specific needs of its Members and potential Members.
Connect One Health has been offering Carrier BPO Services since January 2020, when a regional carrier engaged it to staff and operate a 40-seat call center to answer inbound calls from beneficiaries and enroll them in the Carrier’s Medicare Advantage plans. Although planned as a traditional “bricks & mortar” operation, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Country, the Connect One Team had no option other than to shift the operation to a “virtual call center,” hiring, training and managing over 40 agents virtually, 12 hours per day, 7 days per week.
Since that time, Connect One Health has expanded its Carrier BPO Services to include the following:
Alternative Cost Models to Maximize Carrier CPA
Similar to what Connect One Health does with Carriers who hire it to service their inbound calls from beneficiaries who respond to the Carrier’s branded marketing, the Connect One Team also provides outsource enrollment services to Carrier partners, where Connect One Health generates the inbound calls through its non-branded marketing efforts. Although similar to traditional brokerage, the Connect One Team works directly with the Carrier to develop alternative cost models that maximize its Cost Per Acquisition. The Dedicated Carrier Services also include daily reporting of call dispositions and Key Performance Metrics.
Inbound & Outbound Customer Service
Some Carriers require outsourced assistance for both Enrollment Services and Customer Service functions. On the latter, Connect One Health works with Carriers to understand their Customer Service needs, deficiencies, and/or “wants,” and to develop carrier-approved Customer Service plans for the provision of such services. Connect One Health then trains and manages a separate group of licensed agents or employees (depending on the requirements of the Carrier) to staff the Carrier’s Customer Service department.
Examples of projects previously staffed by COH include “welcome” campaigns for new Members, “thank you” campaigns for renewing Members, and outreach programs to ensure that Members have received important communications from the Carrier.
Development of Call Disposition Metrics
Some Carriers require a more detailed understanding of their Members’ preferences, call volume, call patterns, etc., which require the agents to record more specific call dispositions that provide such insight. The Connect One Team has worked with Carriers to develop such call disposition metrics so that the Carrier can obtain additional insight into their Members’ views and preferences regarding the Carrier’s Medicare product offerings; to assist the Carrier in understanding the specific reasons potential Members declined to enroll in one or more of its products; and to assist the Carrier in evaluating the effectiveness of their Interactive Voice Response (“IVR”) systems.
If you are interested in exploring how Connect One’s Carrier BPO Services can help your business, please contact Connect One’s Chief Executive Officer, John C. Barnoski on LinkedIn, or by email at jbarnoski@connectonehealth.com.
Provider Business Process Outsource Services
The Connect One Team also provides business process outsource services to providers in the Medicare industry, including hospital systems and individual hospitals, physician practice groups (“PPGs”), and companies who manage PPGs (collectively, “Provider BPO Services”). It currently offers the following Provider BPO Services:
Concierge-Level Enrollment Services for Patients of Providers
The Connect One Team works with Providers to train and manage a team of licensed agents to work exclusively on their behalf, as the Provider’s “preferred” Medicare broker. For example, COH works directly with Physician Groups to understand their patients’ Medicare needs by demographics, product mix, and scope, and to match the patients’ specific needs to the plans accepted by the Physician Group. As a result, the Connect One Team is able to provide patients of the PPGs with “concierge-level” service on all things Medicare, including Educational Services, Enrollment Services, and webinars that are exclusive to those patients. This in turn leads to more efficient benefit meetings between the agents and the patients (i.e., less time on the phone), and higher patient satisfaction with the enrollment experience.
Inbound Customer Service
Providers also engage the Connect One Team to assist with projects that are beyond the scope of their current Customer Service Team and may require licensed agents. For example, a group of PPGs had advised their patients of certain changes in the Medicare insurance coverage they would be accepting during the upcoming plan year. Due to the unexpected volume of calls that the announcements generated, and the fact that the PPGs’ staff were not properly trained to address the substance of the patients’ Medicare questions (including, potentially, a discussions of Medicare benefit), the PPGs engaged COH to provide licensed agents to answer and respond to the calls on their behalf. Within a week of being engaged, the Connect One licensed agents were acting as direct extensions of the PPGs, answering all calls generated by the announcements pursuant to a unique telephonic script. Connect One also developed an extensive FAQ for the patients that could be used as a reference tool.
Outbound Customer Service
Although most Providers have an internal customer service team that handles standard inbound calls from patients, there are other times when the Provider wants or needs to initiate an outbound call program that exceeds the current capabilities or available time of its internal Customer Service team. Examples include patient satisfaction outreach programs, or programs to update patient information. COH has extensive experience in managing outsourced labor for such campaigns.
If you are interested in exploring how Connect One’s Provider BPO Services can help your business, please contact Connect One’s Chief Executive Officer, John C. Barnoski on LinkedIn, or by email at jbarnoski@connectonehealth.com.
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