Errol Pierre

I think those are the two levers.

The financial incentives are aligned, so that we're not just doing tests for test's sake.

Also, the quality program ensures that every member is getting the care they deserve.

The focus on digital was a big deal.

We saw behavior health claims increase through telehealth.

We saw our members using Zoom for the first time and being more comfortable with our cell phone.

So, I think those are things that won't go away in the future.

We want to continue to embed that into all the things we do, even post the pandemic.

Another thing that we realized is the power of collaboration.

There were different community groups, health plans, for-profit plans that were getting together in New York to help service the community that probably would have never collaborated in the past.

And COVID was a health issue, right?

COVID is a virus.

However, it sort of exacerbated the social determinants of health that impact health.

So yes, it was a virus that hit

us.

However, the biggest issue we heard from our members was access to food was a big deal, or shelter and having a home was a big deal.

So I think another lesson learned is how big of a deal the social determinants of health are, and that at anything we do in the future, we have to look through a health equity lens, thinking about the services and the needs of our members that go beyond just a health first ID card.

When the website came out for people to get testing and then also to get vaccinations, the websites were primarily English only, and you had to access them on a desktop.

And so when you talk about health equity, we built the access to COVID tests and to COVID vaccinations in a way that excluded the most vulnerable populations.

And we didn't learn that until too late.