Workplace in Focus Podcast Episode 11 Transcript

Banner|Aetna CEO, Tom Grote, talks about changes he is seeing due to COVID-19 and how Banner|Aetna will continue its mission of bringing together care and coverage in 2021.

ANNOUNCER: You have questions about what’s impacting the healthcare system. From pandemics to products, we have answers. Welcome to Banner | Aetna: Workplace in Focus. And now here’s your host, Banner | Aetna Market Head of Sales, Jon Dingledine. 

[DINGLEDINE]: Welcome everybody to this week’s edition of Banner | Aetna: Workplace in Focus. Today we’re excited to have Tom Grote, CEO of Banner | Aetna on the phone with us again for a repeat session on this podcast. Tom, welcome we’re glad your with us today. 

[GROTE]: Thanks, Jon. Glad to be here. 

[DINGLEDINE]: So Tom, you’ve been doing this a long time. Have you experienced anything like this, like what’s going on with this COVID pandemic. What are your big takeaways? 

[GROTE]: Yeah, I mean 2020 has definitely been an interesting year. I mean to be honest I’ve never experienced anything like this in more than 30 years in this business. It’s difficult to assess the impact here on the global scale. In a few months’ time, this pandemic has infected more than 35 million people across the world. And it’s caused more than 200,000 deaths in the United States alone. This pandemic has had a major impact on almost every area of our lives. The economy. Our health. Work environment. Social life. Sports and education. 

I think one of the biggest take always I have is that people are more resilient than we might have initially imagined. With our business and likely many of the companies we serve, you know I’ve seen most of the people make an almost overnight shift to a full-time work from home environment. And that has been incredibly challenging. People have been dealing with reduced team interactions. Having to find ways to care for their children and support their education needs. However, you know our team has rallied and it has been able to perform well without missing a beat. The same goes for many of our partner companies and clients. 

[DINGLEDINE]: So you just outlined some of the changes that are happening, some of the challenges that are out there. Is there one challenge that stands out more than others?

[GROTE]: Personally, I think the hardest thing has been the uncertainty around COVID and how people continue to stay focused on their jobs and supporting our customers and members. Like so many companies, you know we’ve had to be nimble and respond in real time to big challenges, while a lot of people have been worried about their own families, their own health, and their own economic circumstances. I mean all of us had to cope with this every day, 24/7, 365. 

You know we’ve been dealing with the pandemic for more than 6 months now. While many of us hope to see, to be seeing a real decrease by now in the number of cases and the sense of the pandemic as subsiding, it looks like the end may not be quite near yet. The uncertainty about how long this will go on and when a vaccine will be available on a large scale has created real challenges keeping everyone engaged. It’s tough to be on high alert for months on end. You know we’re encouraging our team members to take breaks during the day. To go on safe vacations so they can get away from you know their computers and the endless conference calls and video calls. We’ve also worked to incorporate virtual team building events and more video conferences so everyone can feel a little more connected. In the same way that we’ve told our members to be cognizant of their mental and emotional health, we want to do the same for our own people. 

[DINGLEDINE]: So do you see the changes that the pandemic has brought about? Things like increased telemedicine is permanent Tom? Or is this just a moment in time? A crisis and then healthcare will revert back to the old normal. What do you say? 

[GROTE]: You know, certainly one of the big outcomes of the pandemic has been the significant increase in telemedicine capabilities for our community physicians and the usage of digital health by our members. 

I would estimate that we experience about 10 years of evolution in this area in a three-week period. In that short period of time we went from about five percent of the doctors having telemedicine capabilities to about 95 percent. At the same time, we saw a large spike in utilization of these services by our members. While this certainly waned a bit over the last few months, we expect that members would have enjoyed this experience and will continue to leverage this care option going forward. 

You know outside of our business, you know we’ve seen people change their habits significantly because of the pandemic. You know especially when they’ve had fatal experiences (from people close to them). Like preordering or picking up restaurant meals or getting groceries pre ordered or picked up for delivery. You know we believe in virtual care adoption and we’ll follow that same course. If people had a great experience they’ll continue to use it. 

Now another area that was significantly impacted by COVID was the use of emergency rooms for care. We saw a significant drop in ER use during the height of the COVID pandemic. And that indicates that people were not going to the ER unless it was truly necessary. We do see unnecessary use of the emergency rooms would be very favorable going forward. We hope as the pandemic subsided, people would continue to take advantage of other, more convenient care options including virtual care, health clubs, Banner Health Centers or other urgent care settings. 

[DINGLEDINE]: Yeah those are great examples of how we’ve seen the rate of change really accelerate as a result of what’s going on. So can you tell our listeners how is that shaping his Banner | Aetna is looking forward into the next year? So as you look into 2020, what are the key priorities you hope to accomplish?

[GROTE]: A year ahead, we’re definitely going to be looking to further build upon our mission of bringing together care and coverage to deliver a better experience for our members. We’re gonna be focused on really two key areas, pre authorization of services and billing. You know the pre authorization of care remains a satisfied for members and physicians. Knowing that we’re working on a solution that will automate and streamline this process while still making sure that our members receive all the appropriate care they need. 

On the billing front, that is another area of dissatisfaction with the members. We’ll be focusing on better consolidating bills to make it easier for our members to understand what they owe and support them with easy to understand payment options. You know those are two of the key drives that are we’re gonna be focused on for the year ahead, but there’s a lot more that we hope to accomplish. You know together with Banner we’re exploring how to better incorporate CVS assets like the newly expanded health hubs to create a more robust, coordinated ecosystem. The goal here is to offer additional convenient and coordinated care options for our members. 

Finally there’s no doubt we’ll be working to help our members return to work as the pandemic subsides. Should a vaccine be made available, we will be actively promoting it for our levers and partners as well as helping to educate one and all on the best way to stay safe and maintain your health under what will surely be evolving circumstances.

[DINGLEDINE]: Thanks Tom. That’s a great way to summarize 2020. I know we’re all ready to look forward into 2021 and it sounds like Banner| Aetna and CVS have some great things in store to move us forward. So Tom, thank you so much for being with us to help us wrap this up.

[GROTE]: My pleasure.

[DINGLEDINE]: And I want to thank for everyone for checking out this series, Banner | Aetna: Workplace in Focus. We’ve had a number of great guests from all over the United States and even Germany. We’ve explored how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted lives and businesses across Arizona, the U.S., and overseas. More importantly, we’ve learned how Banner | Aetna is developing new tools and resources to meet our client and members needs in this new world. We hope you all have enjoyed this series. So till next time. Be safe and healthy. Thanks. 

ANNOUNCER: You’ve been listening to Banner|Aetna Workplace in Focus. Learn more at BannerAetna.com.