Reaction to the UHC store: people do not say “I like my health insurer – let me see what I can buy from them”

Unitedhealthcare goes directly to the consumer with his new digital shopping experience online. While some health leaders say that this opens up another source of income for Unitedhealthcare and makes access to health services more transparent, others are more skeptical.

Last week, the health insurance giant announced the launch of UHC Store, which is available in the Unitedhealthcare application and its website. Members can buy a range of health and well-being offers with a discount of up to 15%. The insurer launches the UHC store in phases, starting with 6 million fully insured members, with plans to extend to 18 million commercial members later this year.

The offers include weight loss programs, orthopedic management applications and women’s health resources. Unitedhealthcare is associated with more than 25 suppliers for its UHC store, with plans to develop more. Current partners include the Digestive Cylinder Health Company, the Dariohealth Chronic Conditions Management Platform, the Embrage Female Health brand, the Nutrisense weight management service, the Fitness Sworkit application and the Kiaa Health musculoskeletal care provider. For example, cylinders can access food coaching; Nutrisense customers receive a glucose instructor and personalized support for weight management; And EMS offers a portable cooling device designed to relieve heat puffs and the constraint linked to menopause.

Consumers can buy these products directly on the UHC store, and recurring transactions will be processed by Unitedhealthcare. Members can pay using the credit card, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The idea behind the UHC store is to complete the advantages offered by employers.

“The Unitedhealthcare store is really our first foray for focusing on driving a choice of consumption in the health care landscape and benefiting,” said Amy Jordan, vice-president of consumer experience in UNITEDHEALTHCARE, in an interview. “We frequently hear our members about how they want more choices in their advantages, wanting to have more flexibility in their offers, and we have seen the opportunity to offer adjacent offers to integrate in the context of our experience.”

In some respects, the UHC store is similar to the Amazon health benefits for health benefits, which connects people to digital health programs for weight loss, mental health, diabetes, musculoskeletal care and more. Some of its supplier partners include Teladoc, Hinge Health and Omada. However, patients can use their insurance for these programs.

For at least one health expert, this new digital shopping experience by Unitedhealthcare does not add much value.

“I do not think it is so important, because you essentially ask people to go buy products that they can get elsewhere from the health industry, and in the end, good or bad, most Americans may not know who their health insurer is,” said Ari Gottlieb, director of the A2 Corp. Corp. them.'”

He also wondered if there would be a large part of an expensive advantage for the UHC store. He noted that with Unitedhealthcare Vision, he could have bought contacts at a reduced price, but he was still much more expensive than buying them elsewhere like Costco and Ezcontacts.

Another health expert noted that this reflects a broader trend: payers are increasingly recognizing the importance of using technology to engage consumers. However, Unitedhealthcare faces growing competition on this front.

“United is not only in competition with other payers to influence the behavior of members – he is in competition with Chatgpt,” said Seth Joseph, founder and general manager of Summit Health Advisors. “The greatest determinant of success or failure will be the extent to which the initiative is motivated by consumer -oriented technological executives compared to the constraint by the Léviathan of Entreprise Unitedhealth.”

In other words, Joseph wonders if Unitedhealthcare has a framework with experience of technology and legitimate consumption leading the charge. If this is led by a leader of Unitedhealthcare with minimum consumer experience, this initiative will probably fail, he said. In addition, consumers are increasingly using the Chatppt to carry out their research on the questions they have.

He added that he was a little skeptical about this particular initiative of Unitedhealthcare.

“Unitedhealth is a vertically integrated health giant whose basic skills include subscription, risk stratification, mergers and acquisitions and company eliminations (or accounting practices),” he said. “What happens when they conflict with the way a consumer makes decisions at the time depending on a tap or at a time?” Unitedhealthcare is a massive bureaucratic organization, and their main skills are very different from what calls on consumers, he added. Technological companies that can quickly perform experiences and make changes – for example, eliminate programs or technologies that do not work – are generally better placed to respond to consumers.

A health teacher, on the other hand, is a little less skeptical. Dr. Robert Pearl, former CEO of the Medical Group permanent and currently a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Graduate School of Business, said that it simply seems to be a low cost opportunity for the insurer to receive additional income.

“I see that it is essentially a support tool [for] Members’ retention, [with] Some profits are generated on the transaction, “he said.” I see that it is something they will be able to do to extend their definition of what an insurance company is. “”

According to Unitedhealthcare, however, it is only a way to give members more choices in their health support.

“We also hope that this helps to stimulate engagement in our digital tools, which is a key strategy because we are thinking about how we can really help improve and make the health system better and be easier for everyone,” said Jordan. “We focused on investment massively in our digital experiences to try to provide tools and resources to really facilitate navigation for the complexity of the health care landscape.”

And perhaps if the company is able to forge a closer link with consumers, it could help a little change what people think in the health insurance industry, whose reputation has been injured by a perception – rightly or wrongly – whether they delay or refuse care.

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