Healthcare CX outlook 2023: League’s Sasha Khan

Palwasha (Sasha) Khan’s professional mission is personal: help healthcare organizations improve care access for the people who need it. As League’s Head of Product Marketing, Khan’s drive comes from her own experience as a child immigrant to the U.S. translating Medicaid information for her family members. Ultimately, that work led to a career driving consumer experience (CX) transformation initiatives with a particular focus on making healthcare easier to understand and navigate.

In this installment of our Thought Leaders @ League series, Khan shares insights about how health plans and health systems are approaching consumer experiences, how digital tools are driving improved access to care and accelerating digital transformation in purposeful ways that benefit everyone and her own journey to becoming a healthcare CX thought leader. 

Q: As a professional who has worked in different CX organizations, what have you seen in the evolution of digital health experiences?

A: Speed and agility are incredibly important. Healthcare companies need to play catch up, so they need to move toward solutions that offer velocity and prove value immediately. They are realizing solutions don’t need to be perfect — they just need to work and offer insights into where to improve. CX is never a one-and-done tactic. It evolves and changes. It transforms and takes on new shapes. 

I’ve seen companies take more than three years to build a member portal in-house, and by the time it launched, it was completely outdated. I’ve seen those same companies spend 2x over budget on in-house builds that need to be ripped and replaced a few years later. Speed is important because it allows organizations to launch, test and iterate on a solution much quicker. The only way to learn about what works and what doesn’t is to actually put that solution out into the world so you can see how to evolve it. Let the data tell you where to take it next and follow through.

Q: What are payers looking for when it comes to technology, solutions and partnerships?

A: Payers are in a perfect position to offer the right care to the right member at the right time. After all, payers are incented and motivated in many ways to ensure their members either become healthier or stay healthy over the course of their lifetime as a member. Therefore, they should be at the forefront of convening care — meaning they bring care services and members together, especially for individuals who have complex needs, are at rising risk or have chronic conditions. These members need more individualized treatment plans and the most personalized level of care you could imagine. 

I have been fortunate enough to be part of such organizations that have done this well but for smaller subsets of populations. However, payers are asking themselves —  how do I scale this? How can I scale truly personalized member health experiences to meet the needs of millions across various care requirements — all while keeping costs and operations efficient? 

To do so, payers are looking at digital as the scaler of care. While human interaction will always be a core component of healthcare, digital is the solution that can extend care beyond the four walls of a hospital and phone call queues. I also believe that payers are looking to offer their members a greater sense of agency. Digital is the key to driving more self-service and health literacy. 

Q: Following that, where are healthcare providers in their CX transformation journeys?

A: Providers are recognizing that digital consumer engagement in healthcare is no longer a nice-to-have, but it’s essential for increasing patient volume, retention and overall growth. Historically, the healthcare industry was immune to poor patient experience because competition was scarce and options were limited. But, there has been a significant change within the last decade as new entrants make their way into the market. 

These newer digital-first entrants are built around the consumer, already have the ‘pedal to the metal’ and are disintermediating traditional healthcare delivery and service models. Most of them, if not all, have the existing technology and capabilities in place to draw consumers in and keep them. They offer digitally enabled convenience, on-demand access to relevant information, personalization and affordability.

However, since COVID-19, I’ve seen health systems accelerate their digital transformation and take a far more proactive approach to the patient health experience, engaging their patients across multiple channels. There’s an increased recognition that a CX strategy isn’t just a way of attracting and retaining patients, it’s a driver of better health outcomes and affects the bottom line across the board.

Q: What’s next for both health plans and health systems during 2023, in terms of CX transformation and maturation?

A: The definitions of convenience and access have expanded. In a world where consumers now have fast access to self-driving cars (Waymo), highly accurate chatbots (ChatGPT) and state-of-the-art wearables (Movano Ring), consumers will continue to raise their expectations as they begin to have access to greater digital convenience this year and beyond. 

Healthcare organizations understand that consumers are no longer comparing them to other healthcare companies — but that they are now being compared to companies from all industries. Healthcare’s competition pool for consumer attention and loyalty has now become an ocean. And, this elevated level of pressure is pushing healthcare toward world-class, high-engagement CX. I am very optimistic about what’s on the horizon for healthcare CX.

I believe that this year, the industry will continue to invest in digital CX and make it part of their strategic imperative. There is immense untapped value in CX. However, the longer healthcare leaders wait to bring their strategy to life, the harder it will be to catch up to today’s consumer demands and market pressures. 

That said, payers and providers need a clear and guided approach to CX transformation and strategic partners to bring together solutions, vision, direction and expertise in tech, healthcare and CX.

Q: What drove you to pursue healthcare and digital solutions as your career?

A: A significant portion of people in healthcare are mission-based because of something that occurred in their lives. My family came to the U.S. from Pakistan when I was a child. When my parents tried to get health insurance, their limited experience with English made it difficult to access care. Language and transportation were our biggest barriers to care. They relied upon me to help them translate and understand our benefits. That meant hours of waiting on the phone and navigating outdated and confusing provider directories. That’s how I learned how hard it is to navigate healthcare in the U.S., especially when you have barriers like language. 

Even at that very young age, I saw the fragmentation of the industry — the frustration, the confusion and the complexity of it all. That’s why I chose healthcare. I wanted to make healthcare more consumer-centric and accessible, specifically leveraging technology and digital solutions that could bridge the gap between healthcare organizations and consumers. 

Q: How do you envision healthcare CX maturing in the next three to five years? 10 years?

A: There will be growing pains as healthcare leaders shift their mindset and strategy on what a great CX looks like. There will be iterations and challenges along the way. Organized healthcare has been around for centuries whereas e-commerce has been around for a handful of decades. The industry should be much further along in its CX, but we still have a lot to do. 

But I am a true optimist — I can see the world for what it is and still have hope that we’re destined for great change. I believe this wholeheartedly for healthcare. While the industry has and will continue to have its ups and downs, I believe that healthcare is on the right path. I believe healthcare CX will continue to move toward personalization and a focus on what consumers really want. Across the U.S., you will see a greater focus on whole-person care, not just medical. 

Consumers are expecting more from healthcare, yes, they want specific episodic care when it’s needed, but they also want a direction forward on how to take care of themselves. This means payers and providers need to offer this type of whole-health service and partner with the consumer on their health journey. We will see a profound shift in the industry as leading organizations shift from just focusing on healthcare to more broadly prioritizing health.