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Company: Humana, Inc., Louisville, KY
Company Description: Humana Inc., is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded health and supplemental benefits companies, with approximately 10.2 million medical members, 7.1 million specialty members. Humana is a full-service benefits and well-being solutions company, offering health, pharmacy and supplemental benefits for employer groups, government programs and individ
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications Department of the Year
 Nomination Title: Humana's Strategic Communications (StratCom)
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the achievements of the nominated department since January 1 2020, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions.
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Briefly describe the nominated department: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 134 words used.
Humana's Strategic Communications (StratCom) empowers consumers through creative, innovative, best-in-class communications. StratCom utilizes process, consumer data, business intelligence and technology to increase communication effectiveness and efficiencies. StratCom produced 699,988,399 communications via multiple channels, including personalized Explanation of Benefits (EOBs), emails, letters, texts and voice-activated technology calls.
SmartSummary (Medicare) and SmartEOB (Commercial), are Humana's versions of government mandated EOBs. StratCom sends 206 million EOBs annually. These EOBs are industry-firsts and raised the industry standard, combining color images and personalized, variable messaging. These innovative communications capture attention and deliver clear, pertinent, actionable and legally required information. Research revealed 90% of members look at their summaries.
EOBs are StratCom’s core communications, but it produces many more: billing statements, letters, Annual Notice of Change/Evidence of Coverage booklets, drug lists, checks, commission statements, and Evidence of Remittance.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Outline the department's achievements since the beginning of 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 243 words used.
StratCom’s SmartEOBs consolidate communications that might otherwise mail separately, resulting in more than $9.9 million in cost avoidance and an improved member experience from reduced mailings. The technology that produces the summaries identifies which members need these communications and only sends them to those members, creating unique, personalized summaries.
StratCom completed a Commercial EOB project that created system capabilities to offer them in Spanish, increasing consumer experience for members whose primary language is Spanish.
The team also completed a Puerto Rico EOB project that improved process efficiency by removing 150+ IT jobs that were once used that continued running, wasting space and run time on the mainframe.
StratCom is mindful of multi-cultural language preferences, accommodating these and improving the experience, StratCom translated 10,342 documents in 23 languages.
StratCom completed a Six Sigma green belt project, eliminating manual work from the translation process for Major Annual Communications. Estimates predict savings of $105,000.
StratCom created a voice activated technology (VAT) call for Covid vaccine scheduling. They also conducted a Breast Cancer Screening & Diabetic Eye Live Agent Outreach to schedule BCS or eye appointments.
StratCom notified providers of changes in utilization management requirements in areas hit hard by COVID-19. Delta surges often required weekly communications for a dozen states as well as urgent ad hoc requests.
In StratCom’s quest for performance excellence, it tracks accuracy and voice of the customer (VOC) metrics and utilizes the Malcolm Baldrige framework to improve the workforce.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other communications departments in your industry and/or to the depatrment's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
The $9.9 million in cost avoidance is the result of learning to code messaging to to target specific populations. This personalized approach is industry-leading.
Creating the capabilities to offer Spanish SmartEOBs was a massive undertaking that launched in December 2020 and was implemented in September 2021. Coding changes from IT, translation of multiple EOB prototypes, requirements writing to instruct coders how to bring the prototypes to life, and quality assurance efforts with multiple testing teams was all conducted in this short time.
The Puerto Rico EOB project to eliminate unused IT jobs from the process saved 2.75-3.25 hours of clock time and 26-40 minutes of Central Processing Unit (CPU) time. “Clock time” is the time a job uses based on a standard clock. “CPU time” is the time the job actually processes data on the CPU. Jobs can start and have clock time counted, but may not be using the CPU due to higher priority jobs, so clock time is always higher than CPU time. Reducing CPU time is the greatest cost savings since it’s expensive to use the CPU.
The Covid VAT call contacted 1.5 million people across 25 states, scheduling 160,000 vaccinations.
The Breast Cancer and Eye screening outreach resulted in 12,242 appointments scheduled and 2,899 home test kits ordered for eligible screening gaps (A1c, Neph & Col).
StratCom’s 2021 communications were completely accurate 99.99% of the time. VOC surveys indicated 97.93% of customers highly recommend StratCom.
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 96 words used.
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In summary, StratCom produced 699,988,399 communications with 99.99% accuracy. The team saved or avoided spending more than $10 million, reduced cycle times by 3 hours, scheduled 160,000 vaccinations and translated 10,342 documents in 23 languages while maintaining a 97.93% customer approval rating.
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