By Curtis Kopf
Senior Vice President of Customer Experience
We want to help make healthcare work better. To do that, we need to reduce cost, help customers get the right care, and take hassles and confusion out of the experience. And, first and foremost, we need to listen.
That's why I came to Premera a year ago after working for 16 years at pioneering Seattle companies like Amazon.com, Microsoft, and Alaska Airlines. I learned so much at these customer-obsessed companies and wanted to bring that experience to Premera to help make healthcare work better.
It starts with listening. In July, we launched a new program called Premera Listens to get customers' feedback and act on it every single day. The program is built around a simple 5-question survey. The feedback from these surveys goes directly to employees at Premera who are eager to act on it and make a difference.
Premera Listens surveys are sent to customers after they interact with us, such as calling customer service (already launched) or visiting our web site (coming in September). Customers can also give us feedback any time by simply going to Premera Listens and telling us how we can make healthcare work better for them.
One thing we've heard loud and clear is that health insurance is confusing and complicated. We want to do our part to make it simpler. We created Let's Be Clear, a program aimed at eliminating the jargon we sometimes use. So, instead of saying “adjudicate,” we can say “process.” Instead of saying “formulary,” we can say “drug list.” These are simple things we can do right now.
This is a journey. Healthcare can be expensive and complex, and it doesn't always work the way it should. When it works well, it changes lives and enables people to do the things they love. That's why I came to Premera.
We have 3,000 employees who wake up every morning determined to help make health insurance better. We're motivated and we're humbled by the task at hand. And we're listening.