Making the health insurance document process hassle-free for customers

The era of the customer is here. But are we truly improving the experience for customers in the health insurance industry? Let’s put ourselves in the customer’s shoes: It can be unsettling when we’re waiting for confirmations after updating insurance coverage or when we file a claim. We often need to proactively reach out for the latest status. And from the company side, how many of your specialists are tied up in calls, emails and chats, helping patients navigate different departments and business process systems to find the answers?

When we look at the health payor segment, the enrollment numbers are trending upward. These shifts in enrollment are due to a growing aging population, loss of jobs and new job opportunities, as well as changing regulations resulting from the COVID pandemic or growing natural disasters. Despite growing demand, the journey for patients continues to be a fractured experience and a burden to insurers. From the initial submission of forms for insurance enrollment to more forms for account changes and claims, most insurance companies use multiple systems, thereby increasing operational inefficiencies for health insurance organizations while decreasing team member efficiency and delaying coverage or care for patients.

Moving document processes to the cloud delivers ROI

A critical component of the patient journey is how insurance companies communicate with patients through digital document workflows. With so many companies involved in a patient’s healthcare journey — from insurers to providers and more — it’s safe to say: It’s complicated. Previously insurers may have felt they couldn’t truly improve processes without completely changing backend computer systems, yet this is no longer the case. With Adobe Document Cloud, health payors now can have a close to turnkey modern forms implementation without a huge investment in hardware or implementation overhead. Organizations that have moved to Adobe Document Cloud have increased digital enrollments by 50 percent and transaction speeds by 30 percent. Additionally, leveraging cloud-based solutions has another positive effect for insurance companies — sustainability efforts. According to the BBC, organizations can lower their carbon footprint threefold when sending an email with a link versus an attachment (which is printed out and mailed back).

Adobe and Microsoft solutions - a seamless integration

Enterprise health insurance entities create and store content across multiple backend software applications. These are complex systems, often in place for years and integrating with both legacy and new software processes. To help ease the document workflow challenge, Adobe and Microsoft have come together to unite data, content, and processes, helping organizations transform their business and deliver the great experiences customers expect across all touchpoints.

By offering an integrated experience using Adobe Acrobat Sign, Microsoft’s preferred e-signature solution and the only e-sign tool that also includes the power of Adobe Acrobat in one package, multiple applications work seamlessly together. Customers benefit by less complicated processes and faster turn-around times. Employees benefit by doing work within the primary app they already know and use most often, without having to switch from multiple platforms/apps to get their job done. Some organizations have reduced time spent on compliance and regulatory reviews by 25 percent. Additionally, a large healthcare insurance company decreased cancellations by 25 percent via a digital self-serve model and generated cost savings of US$1M in its first year by digitizing the on-boarding and enrollment process.

How the Adobe and Microsoft solutions work together

One Fortune 500 healthcare insurance company using the Adobe and Microsoft integrated solution, authors forms and contracts in Microsoft Word then uses Adobe Acrobat Sign to gather e-signatures.  Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe Acrobat Sign are used to support both internal operations and external patient care.

The Human Resources team uses the two solutions for new hire paperwork and conflict of interest forms. Sales uses Word and Adobe Acrobat Sign for contract management, primarily for their insurer enrollment network of new and existing vendors. In this healthcare insurance company’s care clinics, if a patient goes to Instant Care or Urgent Care, the receptionist sends them a link to input their patient information. The returns:

• 44,893 agreements sent
• Time to sign reduced from 2 weeks to 11 hours
• 74 percent of agreements completed with an average cost savings of $6 per transaction

How health payor workers get the job done

Employees can create a high-fidelity PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro through SharePoint or Microsoft Teams. Documents can be autogenerated by pulling key attributes from various systems vs. having to manually create the documents. Document reviewers can comment and mark up the PDF, and the final document can be sent for electronic signatures using Adobe Acrobat Sign. Once all signatures are collected, the approved document can be stored in Microsoft SharePoint or Dynamics 365 or any other downstream system using Acrobat Sign API or Microsoft Power Automate. This enables the organization to stay on the digital continuum by automating the document process from creation to archive.

A better experience for both customers and insurers

The growth in health insurance enrollment is an amazing opportunity for health payors.

Organizations that embrace end-to-end digital document experiences, like Adobe Document Cloud, can stay lean and flexible. They can create a workforce that is empowered to work from anywhere, benefitting from increased productivity because employees can leverage the software and systems they already know. Perhaps most importantly, simplifying processes for the company can help create a great customer experience through more efficient forms processes and timely information updates from all touchpoints in the organization.

Learn more about digital document solutions with the Adobe Document Cloud, and how to maximize efficiency with intuitive Adobe and Microsoft solutions by visiting our integrations page.