UnitedHealthcare has completely revamped its provider search experience for millions of members, infusing new features that leverage claims and pricing data, along with AI-powered tools that provide more accurate results.
"The company went through a transformation in the way that it operated and started thinking more about the end-to-end consumer journey," Cole Johnston, Senior Vice President of Get Care within UnitedHealthcare's consumer product office, told Becker's. "We saw a very strong opportunity for us to really lean into that experience and improve it by helping members not only find the care that's personalized for them, but also connect their search with the next best actions such as online scheduling or finding out how much services could cost."
First launched in January, the company's new provider search is now available to 27 million commercial members nationwide, with plans to continue expanding. The makeover is the result of a two-year collaboration across 40 teams and 300 employees, and is designed to offer a more personalized search process compared to a traditional search engine.
"Consumer expectations are always changing, and that's something that we as an industry need to embrace and lean into now more than ever," Mr. Johnston said. "As a company, we're really trying to lead the way in this consumerism of healthcare movement and rethinking the way that we see ourselves as a traditional insurance company to more of an assurance company, which is really our role."
Among all the new features is "claims-aware search," which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to show the most relevant providers to members. Using claims data, UnitedHealthcare can show services that are actually offered by a provider versus the services the provider may only be licensed to provide.
The revamped search process will also show members an estimated cost for services by using specific CPT codes and public price transparency data. A new side-by-side provider comparison tool will allow members to compare providers based on their preferences, such as language.
Along with the more accurate and personalized search results, UnitedHealthcare's members will be able to search for services tailored to specific family members, read patient reviews powered by Healthgrades, and browse an interactive map to find providers in a geographic format.
"If we're doing our job really well, we should almost disappear from the member's perspective." Mr. Johnston said. "And the members should be able to think about the most important thing, which is caring for themselves and their loved ones."