Conducted by Susanna.
I called the Customer Service department for WebMD to ask about their programs for non-group individuals. They work with companies of all sizes. Company contacts WebMD to set up a wellness program and work together to set it up and create the program – both content and display. Each company is different – gift cards, insurance premiums other kinds of rewards. It is worked on through the benefits department of the company in conjunction with WebMD. Benefit to company: she couldn’t explain it, tried to talk in a circle about people becoming healthier and maintaining their health. 888-321-1544 WebMD Customer Service.
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Conducted by Susanna.
I talked to a health coach on the phone for a pre-scheduled appointment as part of a Company-sponsored wellness program. Topics discussed: my goals Once you complete a health assessment for the year, it gives you a risk level: low, medium, high risk. Then depending on that, you might be transferred to a health coach. The coach helps work with the employee to achieve their goals. This includes personal trainers, stress coaches, dieticians, etc. Coaches reach out every 2 months, but employees can call in any time for free. Chevron is a client of WebMD. Chevron offers employees’s spouses coaching as well if they are on the employee’s benefits plan. Each coaching session counts for 20 wellness points and it takes 250 points to get the $250 wellness credit for the following year. Date: November 9
Interview by: Megan Interviewee: Jeff - Millennial, target customer segment Why/how we interviewed this person: Interview conducted in person. We wanted to start testing initial thoughts on App prototype. What hypothesis did we test? We wanted to gauge user experience with App. What did they like? What did they think should be improved? Any changes? We really wanted to learn about this: Since this is our first tested prototype, we really wanted to learn initial thoughts. We learned from the interview: Jeff liked the App overall and could visualize the workflow moving through all the screens. One of the first questions he asked was about our name. Why MedGate? Also, Jeff favors some apps over others and needs to be reminded to complete activities, etc. I was reminded of the nudges we briefly talked about and Jeff seemed very interested in that capability. We polled 13 people to get input on our new company name. It was important to us to include the description of the company in order for our new name to be appropriate. And the winner was... "PlentiWell."
Interview was conducted in person by Megan. Team Name: Medgate
Date: November 7 Interview by: Joe Interviewee: Blake- Insurance Account Negotiations and Analysis Why/how we interviewed this person: Interview in person. Blake deals directly with insurance companies and analyzes contracts with them. We learned from the interview: After explaining our insurance partnership plan with Blake, we reviewed the potential insurance companies we could partner with. He recommended the trio of Blue Shield of California, LA Care, and Health Net from the options on Covered California. These three plans consist of approximately 5 million California members. One of Blake's points about these plans is that they are all effective at communicating with their members and have the ability to influence the California market. Team Name: Medgate
Date: November 3 Interview by: Samantha Interviewee: Syliva- Behavioral Change Specialist/Wellness Project Manager Why/how we interviewed this person: Interview by phone. I am interested in learning more about how to make our business and consumer outcomes more sustainable. What hypothesis did we test? People lose willpower over time, and get bored with their daily routines. We really wanted to learn about this: How to create successful behavioral change. We learned from the interview: People are likely to sustain behaviors that are essential in their day to day lives in immediate and noticeable ways. It is important to define the primary reason for making a health change. This can be an excellent predictor of long term results. A must versus a should can make a huge difference in long term results. The right reasons give energy, focus, elevated mood and a sense of connection with others. Because it feels good, people stay motivated and are more likely to continue the behavior, leading to success. The pursuit of daily wellbeing is more sustainable than pure willpower for a goal to, for example, decrease blood pressure 20 points. Consumer to answer Why, How and What to Do in goal setting to create a beneficial outcome. We were surprised by: It takes approximately 30 days to develop a new habit. Other interesting outcomes; what did you learn about interviewing This was useful-I think we should have a section that asks questions regarding the reasoning behind the proposed health change for an individual, how to achieve this (diet vs exercise), and what to do (commitment daily, weekly, etc.) to meet this goal. Team Name: Medgate
Date of Interview: October 30 Conducted By: Samantha Interviewee: Anita, nutritionist and fitness coach Why/how we interviewed this person: Face to face. I wanted to learn about the issues related to maintaining compliance with a health program application What hypothesis did we test? People tend to lose interest in health programs over the long run We really wanted to learn about this: Specifically, what are the barriers that prevent people from reaching their health goals with today’s applications. We learned from the interview: Anita reported that many of her patients have reported that self-tracking feels like work. There is too much information to enter and this becomes arduous and time consuming. Many patients feel that their blood values will show progress, or lack of, so why enter what they do and eat on a daily basis? She also sees that patients are already dealing with anxiety and guilt related to their health issues. If they eat poorly or skip a day or two of exercise, they feel increased guilt in not meeting goals and stop trying. We were surprised by: How difficult it is for her successful clients to keep their health goals in the long run Other interesting outcomes; what did you learn about interviewing Anita has researched motivational techniques and recommended feedback on performance, goal setting and social support. She has learned to give rewards contingent on positive behaviors and still feels it is difficult to assist patient with long term results (years) vs. short term accomplishment of health goals. If we can streamline our device to keep information gathering as simple as possible, and add a “group” component for support, this community could help long term results. Interviewee - Theo Brower, Engineering Team at Fitbit
Date of Interview - 11/4/2016 Interviewer - Abhijeeth Linganagari Why/how we interviewed this person? Theo works with Fitbit’s engineering teams and is responsible for product development (Phone Interview) What hypothesis did we test? Will wearable companies be interested to partner with us ? We really wanted to learn about this: We wanted to understand what value we needed to bring to the table for our partners ? Is it cost sharing/money or just having a large user base suffice to convince wearable companies to partner with us ? We learned from this interview: Fitbit has regular partnerships with companies by either selling their product at a discount (target etc;) or by providing access to their data (go through users approval for this). To partner with Fitbit and having their product distributed amongst our users through discounts/promotions/rewards for their activities we will need to have a strong value proposition that aligns with their company motto. Thus, we might need to be more creative than just try and accrue users and start by creating a strong and holistic brand that attracts users for our core service. This way we create a tangible value add to our users that shows Fitbit that it might be beneficial for them to partner with us. The benefits may not be quantitative by showing up on their balance sheet but more subjective. We were surprised by: It was surprising to know that it might be easier to convince Fitbit to partner with us if we can start by getting some of their users to adopt our platform rather than aim at securing a large individual user base directly. Other interesting outcomes; what did you learn about interviewing It was interesting to know that Fitbit also has working partnerships with insurance companies and other data mining companies in this space. Interviewee - Charles Hua, Wearables Division at Intel
Date of Interview - 11/1/2016 Interviewer - Abhijeeth Linganagari Why/how we interviewed this person? Charles works in the wearables division at Intel and provides us with valuable insight into how Intel develops partnerships in this space. (Phone Interview) What hypothesis did we test? Can we partner with big companies in the wearable space ? We really wanted to learn about this: We wanted to understand what value we needed to bring to the table for our partners ? Is it cost sharing/money or just having a large user base suffice to convince wearable companies to partner with us ? We learned from this interview: We learnt that Intel’s wearable division is currently partnering with big consumer brands like Tag Heuer, Nike etc;. They follow NRE and pays for the initial product development costs but once the product is ready partners buy it from Intel and distribute it to their consumers within their channels. To partner with bigger firms like Intel, we will need to provide proof of an extremely large and unique customer base or sign large contracts like their bigger brand partners. It shows that we might not have much leverage in the partnership without a large consumer base. We were surprised by: We were surprised that even Intel’s wearable division may not be fully HIPAA compliant. It shows that there could be lots of regulations & clauses within HIPAA for different use cases that we need to thoroughly consider. Interviewee - Renae, Cisco Benefits Specialist
Date of Interview - 10/28/2016 Interviewer - Abhijeeth Linganagari Why/how we interviewed this person? Renae is Cisco’s Benefits Specialist and is responsible for handling Cisco Health Benefits program. (Phone Interview) What hypothesis did we test? Can we scale our product to Large & Medium scale businesses ? We really wanted to learn about this: Does Cisco use the data from its Redbrick Health (administrator for its wellness programs) to negotiate a better rate with insurance provider ? Are there any cost benefits for employers in general ? We learned from this interview: We learnt that based on HIPAA regulations Cisco doesn’t have access to the employee health data. The data from the wellness administrator is not shared with any insurance provider. Though Cisco does negotiate with insurance providers for better group rates based on its conducting wellness programs. This shows that with our existing model, we may not be able to replace existing wellness providers at big companies. We will encounter obstacles in getting individual permissions while trying to service large groups. This can become messy while implementing and we need to rethink how to refine the business model in this space. We were surprised by: We were surprised that this information isn’t shared with Insurance providers, as it could have benefitted them greatly. Other interesting outcomes; what did you learn about interviewing It was also interesting that the funds Cisco allocates for its wellness programs are tax deductible, which is one way Cisco tries to benefit by getting tax breaks. |
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