Outcomes Rocket_Joanne Mizell: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Saul Marquez:
Hey everybody! Saul Marquez with the Outcomes Rocket, and I want to welcome you back to the podcast. I am privileged to be joined by the amazing Joanne Mizell. She is the Chief Operating Officer at Banner|Aetna. She joined Banner|Aetna in February of 2018 with over 20 years Aetna experience and nearly 30 years in the employee benefits industry. In this role, and as a member of the executive leadership team, Joanne will, oversees operations of the organization and supports the execution of the strategic goals set by Banner|Aetna’s Board of Directors, and Chief Executive Officer. She’s a proven leader who’s consistently delivered growth to various organizations and market segments by developing strong teams, crafting creative strategies, and fostering deep community and client relationships. I’m excited to have her here on the podcast and with that intro. Welcome to the podcast, Joanne.
Joanne Mizell:
Thank you, Saul. I appreciate being here.
Saul Marquez:
Absolutely, and so really just so many great things happening on the Banner|Aetna side of note, most recently the frictionless billing program, which I think we’ll cover on our time together today. But before we start unpacking, a lot of the really great things that you guys do, tell us a little bit about you. What inspires your work in healthcare?
Joanne Mizell:
That’s a great question because it changes over time, right? We need constant inspiration to be in an industry for as long as I have been. And I think today and where I am today, what really inspires me is I have the opportunity to work with so many really talented and like-minded people who are focused on the same goal, which is let’s figure out how to fix healthcare. Certainly a lofty goal and our North Star in the work that we do, but we’re all focused on that and looking at it from different backgrounds and different experiences, and it is inspirational to be able to hear different views and create and collaborate on solutions together. So that’s my inspiration, is really fixing healthcare, making improvements, and changing for the better, the healthcare experience.
Saul Marquez:
That’s great, Joanne, and you and the organization are uniquely positioned to do that, being a payvider, and so interested in hearing more about what you guys are up to. So talk to us about how Banner|Aetna is adding value to the healthcare ecosystem today.
Joanne Mizell:
Sure, well, I certainly think that we are, and hope that we are, adding value. As you said, we are in a unique position as a joint venture, which Banner|Aetna is. So we’re a company that is half owned by a very large insurance company, Aetna, and a large health system, the largest in Arizona actually, Banner Health. And I think that the way I would say we’re adding value is through collaboration, and that’s not something that you see between health systems and payers very often, it’s typically an adversarial relationship, but I think we add value by that collaboration, and by looking at our members as patients as well as members in every aspect of how they interact with the health system, and we’re just constantly looking at ways to improve that. So I could give you some examples of that. You mentioned frictionless billing where we collaborated with Banner Health to create a single statement instead of sending out a bill from the health system and an explanation of benefit as the insurer, we’re sending a single statement and taking our member out of the middle of having to reconcile those statements and figure out a very complex reconciliation that is difficult for lay people. So that’s the most recent one that we’ve just launched and completed and are pretty excited about.
Saul Marquez:
That’s great, and so kudos to you and the team for that. I mean, even the lay people, but also experts have a hard time reading their bills, right? So it’s a much-needed thing. And what have you heard so far about the program? What’s resonating?
Joanne Mizell:
We get gratitude and thank yous. We actually set up a dedicated 800 toll-free line for members that receive the statement to call with questions on it, and were hoping to gain a lot of insight from that, and have very pleasantly been surprised that there have been very few questions. It’s really clear and concise, and it provides the information, so I think that’s what we are going for, is not requiring a lot of extra phone calls, right? Nobody wants to have to follow up and call a bunch of companies to figure out a bill and what they have to pay. So I think that we met our goal of simplifying that for members and just making it a little easier. Whenever you get a bill, no one wants to get a bill, period, right? But yeah, we’re trying to make it the best experience possible.
Saul Marquez:
Well, that’s great. What a great example. And this is another example, folks, of steps being taken by providers, payers, to really be more consumer-centric, right? Historically hasn’t been the case, but as Joanne is sharing with us Banner|Aetna is doing their part to meet the consumer where they’re at. In a world where we want healthcare like we want Starbucks and Netflix, it’s so important. So what would you say makes what you guys do different than what’s available? I mean, this is one thing, but what else would you want to highlight?
Joanne Mizell:
I think, obviously, we’re a health insurance company, so we have to do all the basics. We have to provide coverage, we have to comply with regulations, we have to do all of those basics. But I think what really makes us different is, as I mentioned a little earlier, our constant focus and collaboration with the health system on how to make our members’ lives better. And I think that is what we do different, and I hope it’s better than what’s currently available today because it’s really focusing on that one person who kind of travels through the health continuum as a patient, as a member, and as a patient, again, right, where traditionally a health payer would look at them as just a member in a health system, looks at them as a patient. And this collaboration, I just think it is better because it helps us help each other, view that person from both perspectives and try to come up with solutions that help them in those areas. So I do think that’s different than what’s typically available today, and it’s a day-to-day interaction and collaboration, and we’re just continuing to build things that are going to make the lives of members better, and that’s what we’re focused on.
Saul Marquez:
That’s fantastic, yeah, and it’s an opportunity for everyone to really get to know Banner|Aetna better because when there is vertical integration, there is a possibility to look beyond that idea of fee-for-service versus value-based care, right? And so Joanne, would you want to highlight maybe a way that you guys have been able to improve outcomes or made business better?
Joanne Mizell:
Sure, so everyone involved in Banner|Aetna, whether it’s Banner|Aetna employees, Banner Health employees, or Aetna employees, or CVS, for that matter, are really empowered to think outside of the box and to think at doing things differently. And like I said at the beginning, that, we just work with so many very talented people with a lot of experience in their area. And when we empower all the team members towards the same goal of making lives better for our members and for the patients, we do improve outcomes. And one example I could use of that is we’re really focused on diabetes. That’s an area that’s continuing to grow in diagnosis, type-two diabetes, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better, younger and younger patients are being diagnosed with it, and so we did work with our health system partners and built some tools for our members to help them find the best care and the best way. But then we found a vendor, and we are always open to that, you know, it doesn’t have to be something we take five years to build, but we found a vendor that had a program that actually reverses diabetes. And that’s not something that you, yeah, it’s not something you hear very often. We hear diabetes management and diabetes, just making sure people are compliant with their routines and medications and so forth, but this program is diabetes reversal, and we put that in place over a year ago for our fully insured members, we make it available to our self-funded members, and we get support from our health system partners as well to deploy this program, and we’ve seen incredible outcomes. We’ve seen reductions in A1Cs, we’ve seen people actually reducing insulin and some even completely removing it from their regimen. So that’s an example that we’re pretty proud of and happy to be able to, again, it’s a way to improve the lives of these members that are dealing with diabetes on a day-to-day basis.
Saul Marquez:
Amazing, and the program, was it, I don’t know, my mind goes to what you eat, how you move, maybe coaching, tracking.
Joanne Mizell:
Yes, so it is a medical program, so it includes all of the lab work, it includes oversight, includes coaching, one-on-one coaching, and it is highly based on diet, which that’s easy to say, well, if everyone that has a perfect diet, can reverse their diabetes, and they probably wouldn’t be in that as bad if they had the capability to do that. But what’s great about this program is it’s not a one-size-fits-all. It’s not a, you go on this diet, and you do this exercise regimen. They really tailor it to the specific member and their lifestyle and what motivates them, and I think that’s what really makes it more successful than what we’ve seen before.
Saul Marquez:
Huge, and diabetes is one of those things that leads to everything else, and if we could curb it and eliminate it, wow, that’s a huge, huge outcome to definitely target. So fantastic work to you and the team, Joanne, on that one. You know, and the work that we do is difficult, and oftentimes we learn more from our setbacks than our wins. Is there any setback in particular that you’d like to share and a key learning that came out of it?
Joanne Mizell:
Sure, well, I don’t like talking about setbacks, but we like to talk about our successes. I think one challenge that, you know, our company is really trying to fix things that we know are broken and that cause friction and cause a lot of disruption for members and patients. That’s what we’re always trying to do, and it’s a little bit different because it’s not what the typical payer is focused on making things better, but that’s what we were created to do. And one of the areas of friction, I’m sure this will come, not as a surprise to you, Saul, is prior authorization. This has been something since, I’ve been at the company five years, but we’ve been kind of tossing around and trying to understand, ideally, you could completely do away with it and not have prior authorization. Unfortunately, that’s not realistic, and that’s a whole bigger discussion about why that’s the case, that it’s here to say, it’s here to stay. But it is one that we are, have been focused on, it’s been in our strategic and operating plans every year to improve on that process so that our members aren’t stuck in the middle of it. So our providers don’t say, oh, I’m going to have to jump through all these hoops again. And that we went down a road with a vendor a couple of times thinking that we had a solution that was going to work, and it’s just a really, really complex process to, for prior authorization. So I think a key learning from that, for me, has been, maybe we can’t fix the whole thing at once, but there are incremental things we can do to make it easier and to take some of the pressure and anxiety out of the process for the stakeholders, and we have been doing that. So a number of things that we’re doing to just chip away at that friction in dealing with prior auth, working with our prior auth vendor, but also providers to shield the members and shield those providers from the things they have to take place in the background. So just as a learning from that, it remains a setback, but it’s not like we’re not moving forward. We are, we’re just not, we haven’t solved it at this point. But trying, what we learned is incremental improvements are still improvements.
Saul Marquez:
Absolutely. You got to take the small wins, too, not everyone’s going to be huge, but with things like prior auth, I mean, you have them in place for a reason, they make sense, and it’s just a matter of like peeling back the onion little by little to make it more seamless, and it sounds like you guys are aiming at that and tackling it little by little.
Joanne Mizell:
We are, we’re doing it, and we are making changes that are improving the process, so I’m excited about that. And we’re dogs with the bones, and we’re not letting go. So we’re going to continue to focus on prior auth and fixing that process.
Saul Marquez:
Love that. Well, that resilience is key, folks. Stay on it. Don’t give up, there’s ways to tackle some of these big issues, and Joanne’s an example of that. Joanne, what would you say you’re most excited about today?
Joanne Mizell:
I think right now, the most exciting thing, for me and for our organization, is we have expanded in 2022 into the ACA individual marketplace for members that aren’t part of an employer-sponsored plan. And in 2023, we grew quite a bit, we made a lot of changes, we learned from last year, and it was appreciated, I think, because our growth in that population has increased exponentially. So I’m excited about that, not just because it’s growth in our health insurance company, but because it’s an expansion into an underserved population that really needs more options and really needs something that provides choice and is focused on the members. So I’m excited that we have the opportunity to serve that population as well. That’s probably the biggest one right now.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, that’s a big one to be proud of. I mean, there’s huge gaps in access to care, and certainly sounds like a big step toward solving for some of that. So thanks for sharing that. And you know, there’s been a lot of talk, too, around hybrid models of care and really where care is delivered. Are you guys looking at things like that to help with access, whether it’s mobile care, telecare, or even hospital as the home, at the home, as we’re hearing a lot about?
Joanne Mizell:
Absolutely, and not just medical care, but mental well-being and healthcare on the mental well-being side as well. We have invested quite a bit in virtual care. We have a no-cost option for members that they can do on their phone and from anywhere 24/7, text-based, and it’s highly integrated with our systems as well as with Banner Health. And that’s a very big, we have 20, maybe, maybe even more than that, virtual behavioral health and mental emotional well-being virtual options to help improve that population as well. We know that that need has grown a lot in recent years, so we have expanded into that. And then there’s always, we always have our eyes on the expansion of non-traditional health organizations finding new ways to enter into this space, so Amazon and CVS and Walgreens and things like that, that’s anything we can do and track that makes sense for members, we’re very interested.
Saul Marquez:
That’s great, Joanne, thanks for sharing that. And yeah, it’s just amazing, right, the list of, as you mentioned, non-traditional entrances into the space. I was just at a meeting in October, and I was just floored to see some of the names there. It’s just amazing, and healthcare touches everyone. You guys are open to collaborating with all, that can make a difference, and that’s super exciting.
Joanne Mizell:
Yes, for sure, because it’s all about the access. And unfortunately, there are areas in healthcare that access isn’t as great as it could be, and those are the gaps that we have the opportunity to help fill.
Saul Marquez:
Love that. Totally agree with you, and we are here at time, always wish that these are longer, but know that the time that we have is precious. So I’d love if you could just share a closing thought with the listeners and then the best place they could find out more about you and the work that’s happening at Banner|Aetna.
Joanne Mizell:
Sure, so I can always be reached on LinkedIn and keeping up with Banner|Aetna, we have the BannerAetna.com website that we keep very updated, and have all of our press releases and podcasts like these on the website as well, so I would suggest going there if anyone wanted to learn more. And then, as a closing thought, I would challenge everyone to look at, as we’ve had the opportunity to do all aspects of the person who’s dealing with healthcare. And if you’re on the insurance side, not just looking at them as a member, or on the health system side, not just looking them as patient. But we’ve been able, and we’ve seen it work, if you look at that person from both sides as a member and a patient and how they flow through the continuum of healthcare as a single person in both of those categories, you can really find ways to improve things, and I think we all really want to do that. So that would be my challenge.
Saul Marquez:
A great challenge indeed, Joanne, thank you for setting up that challenge for us. We got a challenge, the way we look at patients, at members, at people, consumers, and ultimately reach across the aisles to come up with solutions like the frictionless billing program that Joanne shared with us today and to think bigger around access to care. So Joanne, really appreciate you joining us today, can’t thank you enough, and certainly, looking forward to staying in touch.
Joanne Mizell:
Thank you for having me, Saul.
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