Date: 2025-08-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00018120
Healthcare
Gail K. Boudreaux ... President and Chief Executive Officer of Anthem, Inc.
Can health plans truly be innovators?
The key word in the title is 'can'. Of course the health sector organizations 'can' be innovators and do a better job for their customers or clients. The questions is whether they 'will' do a better job. I am an engineer turned economist turned accountant and it is my understanding that the cost of most everything including a whole lot of healthcare activities has gone down over the past several decades while the price of many of these activities has gone up. This has been to the advantage of all the actors in the healthcare supply arena, but terrible for the users of healthcare. While amazing progress is being made in the world of information technology, the fact that there is very little publicly available information and the cost, price and effectiveness of healthcare activities is bothersome ... and in my view, no accident. Show me and the general public these numbers and I will change my mind. #TVM PeterB
Peter Burgess
Can health plans truly be innovators? 1 article Follow The healthcare system is overdue for disruption. Affordability and access are significant issues for employers, consumers, government and society as a whole – and I know we can do better.
I have participated in conversations recently about how innovation will reshape healthcare, including at the HLTH Conference and Forbes Healthcare Summit. One question that’s been raised is whether health benefits companies can truly be innovators. My answer is an emphatic yes.
While we must continue to evolve, and think, act and lead differently, here’s why I believe Anthem is well-positioned to further our impact through innovation:
People are at the heart of our business, and the culture we’ve built will enable us to redefine what’s possible. Our 60,000+ associates are deeply committed to improving lives by addressing the whole health needs of the people we serve. To be truly disruptive – and alleviate cost and complexity – we know that exponential change is required. This is both an opportunity and a responsibility that each of us takes to heart.
We aim to make healthcare simpler for consumers using a combination of data with a human touch. We start with the consumer and build the right tools around them so they can engage with us on their own terms. Our ambition is to enable whole person care that is personalized, proactive and preventative. By harnessing data to serve every consumer as a population of one – based on their individual medical, behavioral, social and economic needs – we are able to generate greater engagement for people in their health and, most importantly, better outcomes. This may include using analytics to identify and prevent the development of chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, or predicting when someone may need support so we can reach out to them before they call us.
We are betting on innovation both inside and outside of our organization. I am a firm believer in an open ecosystem, so we can bring together the best talent and capabilities out there to simplify the consumer experience. We don’t need to build everything ourselves; we find value in innovating with partners of all sizes and across industries. This includes collaborations with established players like Wal-Mart, and new players such as K Health and doc.ai. And we are engaging the developer community to crowdsource new ideas. This fall, hundreds of software engineers, developers and designers pitched new solutions to Anthem at hackathons, including HACK/HLTH, where they created mobile experiences to improve whole person health for people with diabetes.
The pace of innovation is rapid, which presents a challenge for companies to move quickly enough to meet consumers’ evolving needs. We must be flexible and agile, and test and learn quickly to incorporate insights into our solutions.
Consumers expect more today. They want a streamlined experience that integrates their preferred technologies and enables personalization.
This is what drives us at Anthem – fulfilling our promise to deliver more to those we are privileged to serve.