Health plan data enables you to understand who is not getting care that could, and who is getting inpatient care but could
use virtual health — and maybe even prefer it.
Clinical trial populations typically are not (e.g., ~72 percent white), according to a report from the FDA.
48%
of U.S. adults have ever seen
an advertisement for one.
less than
Insights
Intelligent insurance automation requires
more than savvy tech
Even with the best intentions, you’ll risk falling short on impact if your ESG efforts aren’t baked into your company’s DNA. That’s because tackling complex problems like climate change or social injustice at the root cause level requires a profound shift in mindset.
What does this mean in practice? It means treating your ESG initiatives as the way you do business, not merely as an awareness or compliance exercise. For example, a beauty company should ensure its raw materials are sustainably sourced and be accountable for ethical labor practices within its supply chain.
To do this, it must connect the dots between functions like product design, environmental impact, and responsible sourcing.
Bottom line – the days when environmental and social impact investments could be delegated to the “office down the hall” are over. It’s not enough to have siloed programs targeting different outcomes.
People and processes are your keys to success
Keep the big picture in view
Companies that rely solely on their own frontline workforce to take and fulfill custom orders face common friction points and problems.
Key Takeaways
Here are some practical steps that will help you get started with clarity, evaluate results, and minimize risk.
Moving forward with reduced risk
Behavioral health demands outpace supply, causing stress for providers, payers and patients
The insurance industry is barreling toward a more automated future as executives embrace AI’s potential. Insurers believe investment in this area can help edge out the competition by delivering better margins, greater efficiency and happier customers.
What are your ambitions for your social commerce and web3 projects? What will fit with your brand and culture and what won’t? Having clear answers to questions like these will help narrow the field, align your team around shared intent,
and reduce questions down
the road.
Once the rules of engagement are understood and agreed upon, it’s time to ideate. In this stage you’re getting all the options out on the table and building a menu of the projects to pursue.
With metered funding rather than jumping to a six-month pilot, start with multiple small tests that you can evaluate as you go. When designing your tests, here are a few criteria to consider:
Compare your test results based on current value, expected future value, timeframe, and potential risk to see which projects come out on top..
Establish Guardrails
1
Map Your
Innovation Portfolio
2
Test and Learn
3
What will it take to validate your assumptions?
How expensive will testing be and how long will it take?
How confident will you be in the answers the test returns?
Evaluate Test Results
4
People and Processes Are Your Keys to Success
Insurance companies frequently underestimate the organizational impacts of intelligent automation while focusing too narrowly on shiny new technology capabilities. And they often hire outside advisors who reinforce this technological bias.
Here's the rub: Large-scale automation will have a huge impact
on your people and how you operate. The way you manage that change, prepare your processes, and adapt your organizational structure to accommodate automation will determine your level of success.
Point B's holistic approach takes the interplay of people,
process and technology into account during this significant transformation.
We put people at the center of automation initiatives, even in cases where one of the goals is to streamline the organization or shift their focus to higher value work. Why? Because even in highly automated functions, people will run the algorithms and people decide how automated processes align with the company's mission.
You can't simply automate a function and then let it run. Like any other business transformation, automation requires that you reexamine how your company works. Without that mindset, automation won't produce the desired benefits.
Significant automation pushes will likely be met with some level of employee resistance. Executives need to be ready to address this,
and the organization should have retention programs in place to give high-performing employees an opportunity to thrive in the new
operating model.
Providers and payers can act independently to alleviate the issue,
or go one step further to build a partnership
Partnership includes sharing pain points, successes and data across the table and collaborating to build new, concerted solutions
Data and digital tools are key enablers
Three questions might help guide your approach:
As with any strategy, an integrated strategy is an organized set
of hypotheses – your best guess on where the world is going and how you should respond. Especially when it comes to ESG, your success hinges on effectively measuring results and being adaptive in the face of new market trends and information. This process – creating systems to evaluate and manage your impact, then continually learning and adjusting – is even more critical than building the strategy itself. This stage of work is fundamental to bringing your integrated strategy to life but is far less understood and more difficult to tackle.
How to build an integrated ESG strategy
Whatever your company’s vision and goals, pursuing an integrated sustainability and social impact strategy can dramatically accelerate your growth. Not only will you find new connections between different parts of your business, but you’ll also be able to focus your efforts in ways that answer both “why” and “why us”?
Integrating ESG outcomes with business strategy can also help you overcome some of today’s biggest business challenges. For instance, are you worried about the rising cost of raw materials? The mounting competition to reach younger consumers? Emerging ESG expectations and disclosure requirements? The struggle to attract and retain top talent? An integrated ESG strategy helps you assess where you are and prioritize what’s most critical to your stakeholders all while uncovering opportunities for business innovation.
Likewise, innovation and adaptability go hand in hand. Developing a rigorous yet flexible approach to assessing your ESG efforts turns good intentions into real impact. We know from experience how a strategy can unfold in unanticipated ways – you must be nimble and responsive. Given the complexity and pace of change in today’s ESG landscape, taking an iterative approach is even more crucial.
The ultimate benefit of an integrated ESG strategy? Competitive advantage.
Creating an integrated strategy won’t be a walk in the park, but the rewards make it well worth your while. Embarking on this journey can be transformative, bringing unprecedented benefits to your business, people, and the world. Tapping this potential means being open to seeing things in new ways, asking the right questions, and committing to the long-term work of measurable, systematic change.
Thinking forward
To create real impact, your ESG strategy needs to be integrated across departments and used to drive business model innovation.
BACK TO Insights
Sean Morgan, Jeff Howard & Viraj Patel
by
How will you know that you know?
Intelligent insurance automation
requires more than savvy tech
1
2
3
How will you know that you’re achieving your intended impacts?
Who is the intended impact recipient(s)?
Here's how intelligent automation can help:
lower costs
Reduce headcount in departments like claims processing, shifting resources to more strategic functions.
Improve accuracy of quotes and claims
Immediately pay claims that don't require intervention. Spot risks more efficiently with third-party data. Increase the accuracy of policy pricing.
Boost customer loyalty
Improve trust with standardized processes and transparent criteria. Reduce the time to receive a quote
or get paid for a claim.
These benefits are real. But uncertainty has been a barrier for many insurance companies as they start this journey. Executives find themselves pondering
difficult questions: Where do we start? What are the risks? And how can we
measure the benefits of automation?
But there's one question that too many executives fail to consider in the first place:
How will automation impact our organization?
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Consider long-term “output” metrics to measure performance
ESG impacts can’t always be measured in traditional ways. For example, have you shifted your customers’ attitudes about sustainable products? Empowered workers in your supply chain to advance their careers? Enabled more diversity across your employee base and partner organizations? Thinking about impacts in an outcomes-oriented way uncovers new opportunities for your business, helping you focus and deepen your integrated ESG strategy.
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Learn and pivot
Your data provides signals that’ll tell you if you’re on the right track or need to shift. In some cases, that could even mean sunsetting a particular initiative. After all, a learning organization is adaptive in the face of changing circumstances. Use your data to innovate, test and learn.
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Collect data
Data collection is one of the biggest hurdles businesses face when building their ESG strategies, but it doesn’t have to be. The right technology platform and tools can make data collection efficient, reliable and relevant. And with better data, you’ll be able to make smarter business and investment decisions.
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Establish “input” metrics to measure progress
Again, these should include business as well as sustainability and impact metrics. For instance, you might consider measuring renewable energy, waste reduction, and employee retention on top of your traditional business growth metrics.
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Examine your ESG investments through the lens of both your business and environmental, community impact, and equity goals. This could include reducing your carbon footprint and water usage while providing customers with innovative products made from more sustainable materials. Know whom you intend to benefit.
Identify your impact areas
Consider the following
steps to get started:
Many executives mistakenly think that automation is all about implementing software and writing algorithms.
Here's what they miss: Automation can fundamentally change the intersection of processes and functions, the way people work, and how they are organized. These new processes need to be considered within the greater operating model and organizational structure.
Centering people in your automation journey is
just as important as the technology you select.
The Bottom Line