LISTENING, DIAGNOSING, PRESCRIBING

Three keys to improving your healthcare benefits program.

Listening

Listening is the most commonly used communication skill we most frequently use.  Various studies show that 70 to 80 percent of our waking hours are spent in some form of communication with others.  Interestingly, only 9% of our time is spent writing, while 16% is spent reading, 30% speaking, and 45% listening.  However, the same studies show that we are not very efficient listeners!

One reason is because our minds process speech much faster than people talk.  While most people speak at a pace of approximately 125 words per minute, our brains have the capacity to understand and process about 400 words per minute.  So, this is one major reason we find our minds wondering while others speak.

Another key reason is many people remain quite while another is speaking, but they are contemplating what they will say next, instead of intently listening to the speaker.  This is a common pitfall for many in sales.  We feel like we have to have a savvy answer for every comment, a rebuttal to every objection, an answer to every question.  This takes our attention away from listening, truly listening.

These poor habits cause us to be severely inefficient listeners as well.   After all, we only retain about a quarter of what we hear.  25% efficiency isn’t very good!  Let’s face it, listening is hard work!  It really is!  But listening is just another skill, and like I tell my son, who is just now getting into sports, skills are developed, not inherited.  Skills have to be sharpened, practiced, and conditioned.  Listening is a skill, and we are committed to honing that skill for our clients and prospects.  We are here to listen before anything else.

Diagnosing

How well you define the problem with dictate the quality of the solution.  Albert Einstein once proclaimed that if he had an hour to solve a problem, he would spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem, and 5 minutes thinking about the solution.

When you really slow down and think about this mindset, it makes complete sense.  The better you understand the problem you are trying to solve, the quicker you will come to a solution.  Knowing what the problem is is pretty easy to recognize.  But defining the root cause of a problem can be more complicated.  Most times, problems aren’t simple, but complex.  These complex problems require that we really understand them, what’s causing them, what manifestations are generated because of them, etc.  The better we know and understand our problems, the quicker we can solve them.

Most of our time with prospects is spent asking questions about processes, education, strategy, and communication.  Typically, these areas are the first to break down, and prevent success.  It might be that communication between employer and employee is the root cause of an issue.  It might be the lack of strategic analysis of data.  It might be the absence of strategy, despite having all the information and data one would need to solve a problem.  You never know.  This is why we dig in, ask questions, listen, and then diagnose the situation.

Prescribing

Today, too many employers are simply “hoping” someone can come along and just magically solve their problems.  Employers cross their fingers, “go out to market”, and hope that some broker can find some solution that will lower costs without sacrificing quality benefits, etc.  This isn’t a strategy, it’s pure wishful thinking.

Many employers deploy what we call the “quote and hope” strategy, where they round up half a dozen quotes, hope they pick the best option, and then forget about it until the next renewal cycle.  By that time, if the group has sustained losses, and their staring down a hefty double-digit renewal increase…..well, at that point, it’s probably too late to do much about it.

While cliché, the phrase, “An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure” couldn’t be more relevant.  It never fails, each and every year, we have a prospective client that reaches out in the 11^th hour with the same story…..they got a nasty renewal because their loss ratio was 300%, and now they are facing a 50% increase for next year, and they need help.

Do they not realize this is like running to an insurer, asking them to insure your home…..that’s currently ablaze?

 “Hey, my house is on fire, can I get some of that insurance real quick, and make it cheap?“

For some reason or another, employers don’t make the same connections when it comes to health insurance.  I mean, people just know that when their house is on fire, well, that’s not the best time to be shopping/requesting home owner’s insurance!

Yet, year after year, employers come to us, 45 days prior to renewal, asking for help when they’ve had 11 straight months of horrific losses.

Our best prescription for employers in that situation is try to avoid the huge renewal rate increases altogether.  If you’re 10 months into a plan year, and your losses are 300%, there’s little that can be done.  But if you’re two months into a plan year, and you have implemented strategies to address, mitigate, and/or eliminate known risk…..well, you’re the exception to the rule, and chances are, you won’t ever have to experience a 150% renewal increase because your claims were so bad!

Prescribing solutions is the fun part.  Solving problems is what we do, and the best solution in healthcare to lower costs and improve quality is to manage the healthcare supply chain where you can.  Influence/mitigate risk that you know is there.  Prescription costs, imaging, outpatient surgery, physical therapy, primary care, wellness, cancer treatment, chronic disease management…….all of these are areas of KNOWN risk.  If it’s known risk, it’s manageable risk.  Remember that.

We are currently preparing for 2021, and this year, we are placing extra emphasis on these three areas:  listening, diagnosing, and prescribing.  We will listen more intently to your concerns and challenges.  We will diagnose problems and discover opportunities for improvement.  We will provide solutions with clear timelines for implementation, all coupled into one strategic plan for your organization.