Jenny Smith is the Hawaii Medical Service Association’s new COO and first female president. Her priorities as the organization’s operational lead are not overly fancy, but she does not think that makes them any less important.
“If we do not consistently deliver on the basics, it does question our credibility in the marketplace,” she told Becker’s.
Those basics: Call centers, customer service, efficient claim payments and care management to limit waste and improve patient outcomes.
“You’ve got to deliver well on the fundamentals before you can transform,” she said.
Hawaii is in a unique position, considering its range of islands, steep cost of living and low uninsured rate. Ms. Smith has worked in a variety of markets across the U.S., and she said her years of experience taught her to “design around local dynamics.”
“Our member really is actually our neighbor,” she said. By focusing on the basics, Ms. Smith wants to build trust in HMSA’s communities.
HMSA also recently co-invested in technology firm Stellarus alongside other Blues plans. Stellarus strives to expedite prior authorization, lower administrative costs and boost member experience.
“We just can’t afford to rebuild everything from scratch,” she said, emphasizing the time it took for a mid-sized plan she previously worked at to build out back-office capabilities. “We can be in a better position to leverage advanced analytics, consumer experience technology and the back-office capability at scale without compromise.”
