In today's workplace, employees are seeking more personalized and meaningful healthcare benefits that cater to their unique needs. At the same time, healthcare costs are expected to rise by 8% next year, and benefits leaders are seeing more high-cost claimants than ever before. Brian Harty, head of total rewards at Accolade, spoke about the growing importance of personalized healthcare at From Day One’s NYC Benefits conference, highlighting how technology, especially AI, can transform employee benefits into a truly individualized experience.

By combining the right data with a human-centric approach, companies can create an environment where employees feel valued and cared for. Drawing from his experience as a benefits leader at large and mid-size companies, Harty provided insights into implementing personalized healthcare strategies that not only improve employee well-being but also drive long-term savings for companies.

HR teams are facing unique challenges as well as opportunities. “We all know that Covid pushed the boundaries for remote and hybrid working, adding pressure to attracting and retaining our top talent,” Harty said. It also increased the need for mental health support for employees. “Healthcare has never been more complex or costly,” Harty said, and HR teams are working harder than ever to make sure employees are getting the right level of support.

One in three adults don’t have a primary care physician, and 40% choose the wrong doctor when it comes time to get help, says Harty. Additionally, 50% of total healthcare spend is consumed by only 5% of members, and 80% of employees are confused by their benefits.

Embracing AI in the HR Space

“You can’t go a day without hearing something about artificial intelligence,” Harty said. But how does it impact HR and benefits specifically? There is some fear, Harty says, since “we believe that a strong human connection is important for getting people over the hump [of understanding benefits]. And the more you take away that human connection, will that actually reduce engagement?” he said. But AI is here to stay, and may even be able to solve some of today’s most pressing challenges, he says.

To make sure AI is being used effectively, he shares the following questions to ask vendor partners as you decide whether to make them part of your healthcare ecosystem:

• What are their AI strategies, goals, and objectives? 
• What problems are they expecting AI to solve?
• How will they measure success?
• How are they thinking about data protection and security?
• What experience do they have to date?
• What is their road map, including deep testing, accuracy, and reliability?
• How will AI strategy enhance, not replace, human connection?

“Find out exactly where they are headed, to make sure they are aligned with your HR and technology goals,” Harty said.

Enhancing the User Experience

At Accolade, AI has been transformational for the company’s workflow. “Our focus in the AI space is to customize algorithms and train our machines and our learning models for the use of our care advocates and the use of our members in a way that will drive innovation,” Harty said.

AI is present throughout every step of the process. A virtual assistant, Ava, is at the front end of the member intake interaction to get information from members in a HIPAA compliant way and route the member to the appropriate Accolade expert. “It reduces the time and effort for the member in trying to get to the right person the first time.”

Typically, a conversation with a nurse or care advocate takes between 15 to 30 minutes. “All this is actually being recorded by task automation and note taking. What’s great about this is there is 100% focus on the conversation,” Harty said. “In-the-moment member discussions and empathy is the secret sauce of what Accolade is delivering.” That data stays with the member’s profile throughout all the next steps, whether that’s with a doctor, pharmacy, or beyond.

Then there is a quality review of the call. At other organizations, Harty says, this is often through a call center or a random sampling of listening to maybe 2 or 3% of the calls. But by using Accolade’s natural language processing and speech analytics algorithms, “we [at Accolade] are reviewing 100% of the calls. There's the ability to give fast feedback to our care advocates and our nurses around how the call went, and ways to improve it and report that back to our customers,” Harty said. “That’s a game changer in continuing to raise the bar on care and information delivery to our members.”

Finally, is what Accolade calls True Health Actions. “All the conversations with the member, their claims data, information about your benefit programs… that’s all ingested into our AI engine, so that during the conversation, our care advocates and our nurses can say, ‘Hey, based upon this information, your top two things that you should do next are the following,’” Harty said. By outsourcing some of the critical thinking to AI, “it allows for empathy to be the primary focus.”

“I’m really proud of the impact Accolade has had with our customers,” Harty said. The company is reporting 70% engagement with an 87 net promoter score, as well as a 55% drop in hospital readmissions, 4% annual employer savings, and 15% reduction in emergency room visits. Harty summarizes: “keeping the human first is great for longevity.”

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Accolade, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. 

Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.