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While the federal healthcare ecosystem undergoes transformation, the ability for service personnel to access care through the Defense Health Agency (DHA) remains essential to supporting a mission-ready force. It is also important for Veterans to receive high quality care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). As we think of personalized care and modernization, these two organizations will need to partner for the best possible care as they serve a combined 18.5M+ beneficiaries.
Today, many beneficiaries expect digital, personalized experiences when accessing care and benefit services. Providing this tailored, omni-channel service is a monumental task. However, a digital approach to health services powered by advanced technologies and human-centered design can create a simple, seamless, and secure customer experience (CX). This includes access to care and information with centralized user portals, as well as portability of healthcare data between agencies. These health services can then keep pace with the military community’s healthcare needs and ensures our nation can respond rapidly to evolving mission readiness priorities.
Reimagining CX to deliver preventive healthcare – anytime, anywhere
Today, it’s well understood that healthcare doesn’t just need to happen when a beneficiary is unwell and requires care. Healthcare must be preventive to improve health outcomes, lower costs to health systems, and decrease risks to mission readiness. Consider that Military Health System (MHS) medical encounters increased by 18 percent between 2022 and 2023 alone, increasing costs to MHS and underscoring the need for prevention to keep beneficiaries healthy and ready to serve. It is clear that military health agencies need a path forward to efficiently deliver preventive care.
To achieve this end, mission-driven healthcare agencies can prioritize seamless, secure electronic access to enrollment, care, health records, educational health information and materials, and more. Doing so will mark a significant improvement over traditional government services and paper forms that are difficult to track and manage and often lead to inefficient, fragmented care.
For example, the Defense Health Agency (DHA) has launched several initiatives to provide a secure digital entry for beneficiaries by consolidating and standardizing solutions to enhance and simplify healthcare information technology (IT) for users across the MHS. The goal is to deliver seamless health IT solutions to support healthcare delivery to 9.6 million military beneficiaries worldwide, improving patient care and experience and providing real-time information distribution while allowing for flexible healthcare options.
Prioritizing personalized care to deliver better health outcomes
Access to services, as well as the type of information available to patients, has a critical impact on patient behavior and individual health outcomes. Every beneficiary has a unique healthcare journey, and research from the National Institutes of Health shows that personalized experiences are more effective than rigid approaches for creating sustained health behavior change. In turn, this can positively impact health outcomes and support mission readiness.
Prioritizing personalized care requires consideration of various health conditions and life stages. For example, younger generations may want to access services and information in digital formats while other generations are less accustomed to online services. An example of this generation gap comes from my own family. My stepdaughter, who is active in the military, was interested in setting up an appointment with a business that I’ve used for years – only to learn it did not accept online bookings. So, she chose another option that fit her “anytime, anywhere” expectations for digital CX. Indeed, technology has radically changed our daily lives.
Healthcare agencies must serve both digital enthusiasts and those more comfortable with traditional technologies. Through decades of work with health agencies, including the VA, Maximus has learned valuable lessons by analyzing data about how people seek and receive services. Technologies that make this data actionable are now mature, accessible, and readily available.
One of the many advanced technologies successfully implemented in contact centers in recent years is an Intelligent Virtual Assistant, designed to deliver conversational self-service to the public. This technology allows them to use a multi-channel approach to provide access to critical information using the customer’s preferred method, enhancing the user experience by providing timely information.
Improving our nation’s military readiness
While the benefits of delivering personalized healthcare to service personnel and retirees, their families, and Veterans are easy to identify, the broader impact ultimately extends to national security. This comes at a time when military retirements are at an all-time high, and global threats are increasing. Amidst these vulnerabilities, maintaining a mission-ready military is vital.
To this end, unified Electronic Health Records (EHR) accessible from every base hospital to every field hospital ensure seamless continuation of care for service personnel regardless of where they are stationed, whether on temporary duty assignment (TDY) or deployed. Additionally, when service personnel have assurance that their families are being cared for, they can focus on the mission without distraction.
Delivering modernized healthcare today
By providing services through all available channels of a secure digital platform, agencies can succeed in delivering unified, tailored healthcare experiences. As agency leaders embrace personalized experiences to deliver a better standard of care, expert integration partners can deliver robust change management to understand beneficiary needs and ensure the right mix of advanced technologies is in place to address those needs and fulfill the mission. The future of healthcare lies in personalized care for all, enabled by technologies that offer choice and access—anytime, anywhere.
The author, Kelley Harar, is Vice President of Federal Health at Maximus.