Patrick Conway

But in all seriousness, I think that perspective of being a physician matters in running our health insurance business and all the related health solutions companies that we work with.

But also when we work with providers, it's a different dynamic when you're in a negotiation or a discussion with a provider that they know that you actually understand care delivery as a practicing physician.

I've worked in systems, for example, Cincinnati Children's, that had value-based contracts, and it allows you to focus on what you would want.

Instead of focusing on volume, you're focusing on better health outcomes at lower cost and a great service experience for the patient.

At Cincinnati Children's, that meant if the patient wanted to be cared for at home by telehealth, we did that.

If a very complex child or adult needed an hour office visit with multiple specialties, we arranged that because you're no longer getting paid by 15-minute office visits or by procedure.

You're getting paid to care for a population of adults and children over time.

And that's really our focus at Blue Cross in North Carolina is to work with providers so they can focus on what they do best, which is caring for patients over time.

We started by talking about being a model blue very early in my tenure.

I'm now nine months in.

We're now often talking about that plus being a model of health system transformation.

So focused on higher quality, lower cost, best in class experience.

And then I'd call out areas that we're working on.

One is these deep provider partnerships and really having payments and advanced alternative payment models.

The provider and us are jointly accountable for quality and total cost of care.

Second is the data and analytics, where we're making major investments in data and analytics.

Third, in terms of social determinants of health, we are investing in communities across North Carolina on things like housing, food insecurity, transportation.

Fourth, we want to be the best customer experience of any health plan in America and a seamless customer experience.

Actually, it'll be six areas, sorry.

Five, we're making major investments in primary care, both working with primary care practices in North Carolina, also in-home primary care.