Membership Growth

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The Road Taken

Deck: 
20 years of national program results

Story body part 1: 

Workforce Planning and Development

Key accomplishments

  • Program enrollments in Kaiser Permanente’s two education trusts grew from about 3,000 in 2007 to nearly 62,000 in 2016. 
  • Tuition reimbursement course applications nearly tripled, from less than 20,000 in 2008 to more than 57,000 in 2016, largely benefiting members of unions in the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.
  • Critical skills training launched in June 2017 with a Digital Fluency pilot program for more than 2,000 employees.

Going forward

  • A top priority will be addressing the impact of economic, social and technological changes on care delivery and future KP staffing models. (Learn more at kpworkforce.org.)

Workplace Safety

Key accomplishments

  • Since program inception in 2001, KP’s injury rate has been reduced by 69 percent.
  • Injuries associated with patient handling and/or mobilization have decreased by 32 percent since 2011.
  • The program-wide workplace safety strategy was strengthened in 2016, based on the National Safety Council’s model.

Going forward

  • The strengthened safety strategy will be implemented, with the goal of closing the gap between KP’s injury rate and the Bureau of Labor Statistics adjusted injury rate for health care.

Total Health

Key accomplishments

  • More than 76,000 employees have taken the Total Health Assessment (THA) since 2014.
  • Ninety percent of eligible employees completed their recommended health screenings in 2014 and 2015, earning a $40 million payout under the Total Health Incentive Plan.
  • More than 3,000 UBT health and safety champions helped teams across the organization conduct 1,756 wellness projects in 2016—a 45 percent increase from 2015.

Going forward

  • New awareness campaigns, including one focusing on prediabetes education, will inform and empower employees to take charge of their own health and wellness.

Joint Marketing and Growth

Key accomplishments

  • Helped secure more than $108 million in revenue for Kaiser Permanente in 2016.
  • Supported the 20-year growth in the number of employees represented by a union in the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, from 57,000 to 116,000, and in Kaiser Foundation Health Plan membership, from 7.4 million members to 11.8 million. 
  • Since 2012, mobilized 51 union ambassadors who attended more than 300 community events and engaged more than 70,000 KP members and potential members—many of them unionized—increasing community knowledge and understanding of KP.

Going forward

  • Through the expansion of health plan membership, support job security and the continued growth of the coalition.

Attendance 

Key accomplishments

  • Enhanced time-off benefits to provide incentives for appropriate use of sick leave.
  • Developed the Time-Off Request Tracking System to provide greater flexibility and responsiveness in managing planned time off.
  • Achieved 21 percent fewer lost workdays in high-performing UBTs. 

Going forward 

  • Attendance data, systems and results will continue to be assessed and improved.

 

 

KP and Union Growth

When people join Kaiser Permanente, good things happen. Kaiser Permanente and our unions gain strength and stability. Good jobs become more available and secure. More people in our communities benefit from KP’s affordable, quality care. That’s why the Labor Management Partnership helps spread the word on KP’s better model of care.

How Partnership Helped KP Reach the 10 Million Member Milestone

Deck: 
Union leaders, unit-based teams and frontline workers help attract and retain KP members

Story body part 1: 

“I was almost devastated,” says Karen Cardosa, a grocery clerk in Albany, Oregon, “when UFCW told us they were no longer offering Kaiser Permanente as an insurance option.”

Cardosa and her family had been KP members for years through the union’s Local 555 Employers Health Trust. That changed when a variety of issues resulted in KP losing the account, which covered many Local 555 members. The union continued to represent nearly 2,000 Kaiser Permanente pharmacy and radiology employees, who—as KP staff members—continued to have KP health care.

But today, Kaiser Permanente is again an option for up to 15,000 UFCW members and dependents in the Northwest region who are covered by the health trust.

New way to compete

An affordable price, high quality, a new hospital, expanded clinics and a new billing system helped win back this account. But something else was also at play.

Thanks to the Labor Management Partnership, the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions and Kaiser Permanente take a joint approach to winning and keeping health plan members that is almost unheard of elsewhere in this country.

Bringing together union members and KP sales and marketing teams, the campaign helped win, expand, win back or retain 33 accounts covering 125,000 KP members in 2014, with a focus on public-sector accounts.

A broad reach

The effort spans almost every level of the organization and the unions.

Leaders of the local and international unions that belong to the union coalition play an active role in advocating for KP as the preferred health care provider when negotiating contracts or benefit programs with employers.

In addition, some 45 frontline union ambassadors spoke to 25,000 KP members and potential members at outside union and community events in 2014. “I have enjoyed working side by side with the sales and marketing representatives to promote Kaiser Permanente,” says Sera Jordan, a medical assistant, union ambassador and SEIU Local 49 member in the Northwest. “It has enabled me to share my firsthand knowledge of Kaiser Permanente and the care we provide.”

UBTs are a selling point

And unit-based teams, by giving frontline workers a voice in improving quality, service and affordability, are a big selling point for union purchasers of care. UBTs launched more than 8,000 performance improvement projects last year at every point on the KP Value Compass, including thousands of affordability projects that saved, on average, more than $40,000 per project.

“Working with our union partners, we’ve been able to come to the table with customer solutions that meet everybody’s needs—including the unions that aren’t part of KP, who have tremendous influence in purchase decisions,” says Kate Kessler, a Member Sales and Service Administration director. “We are unique in having a strong labor partnership in our own business, and we can speak that language.”

Find out why record membership matters to our current and future members on InsideKP.

'One and Done'—It's the Super UBT

Deck: 
Faster than a speeding billing question, more powerful than a local center, able to resolve member needs in a single call!

Story body part 1: 

The dread is familiar: You have a question or a problem, and you need to call a service center to get the matter cleared up. Will the issue be fixed quickly? Or will the call be transferred from one person to the next—to the next—to the next?

As the second open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act approached, Kaiser Permanente’s Customer & Member Services team knew that it didn’t want the thousands of new members joining KP to have that sort of frustrating experience. Just the year before, C&MS’ Member Service Contact Centers (MSCC) had been swamped by three times as many calls as expected. That had led to many handoffs to Membership Administration, which works with the MSCC customer service representatives to get questions answered. 

And so the first-ever “super unit-based team” sprang into action in September 2014. Its mission: To combat long wait times and better handle the anticipated surge in calls that would come with open enrollment.

What made it “super” was that it transcended locations and time zones, bringing together on a single team representatives from across the country—from the MSCCs in Denver, Colorado; Fulton, Maryland; and Corona, California, and from Membership Administration in Denver and San Diego. In the past, an individual UBT at one of the centers might develop a good practice, but it was left largely to chance that other centers would learn of it and follow suit. But under the umbrella of the Open Enrollment 2015 Readiness Initiative, 29 frontline and managers, supported by regional and national leaders, took a fresh approach to testing initiatives and spreading best practices.

Unifying approach

The combined team helps everyone operate as one team instead of separate entities, says Deashimikia Williams, a customer service representative at MSCC-Fulton and an OPEIU Local 2 member.

The collaborative effort was important because members don’t distinguish between different centers or different divisions. “They see us as One KP,” says Marie Monrad, vice president of strategy and operations for the Office of Labor Management Partnership, “and with this, we are doing performance improvement as One KP.”

The Super UBT’s biggest success so far is known as “one and done”—meaning that the member’s question is taken care of by the representative who picks up the phone. Before, a member’s request to stop an online payment, for example, might have taken up to a half-dozen calls. But with the introduction of the one and done process, the MSCCs were able to reduce the number of handoffs by 60 percent from January 2014 to January 2015.

The secret to success was looking to the customer service representatives for answers, says Jerry Coy, senior vice president of Customer & Member Services. “We asked the people who actually take the calls, ‘What questions are members asking?’ and ‘What would make your job easier?’” he says. “We are the front door to KP. We welcome the members and want them to be a member for life.”

“All of this work is in line with the Labor Management Partnership’s commitment to grow and maintain membership for KP,” notes Janelle Williams, consultant specialist for frontline engagement and growth. 

Answering calls from all over

The call centers that participate in the Super UBT answer the majority of KP member calls from the entire organization, fielding questions on a range of topics from billing to details of the health plan to helping members who haven’t received their membership cards.

Super UBT members received additional education and created a rapid resolution team within Membership Administration. While the representative stays on the phone with the member, he or she can consult with specialists via Lotus Notes SameTime chats or by opening another line. From mid-January through early March, the MSCCS handled nearly 5,400 calls—and more than 5,000 of them were successful rapid resolution calls, with the members helped in a single interaction. In addition, through staffing changes, operational improvements, and the implementation of the rapid resolution team, Membership Administration has reduced mean processing time for member issues from 26 days in January 2014 to three days in January 2015.

While Kaiser Permanente members benefit from the work, the frontline staff members benefit, too.

“We have a better understanding about the changes in different regions,” says Deashimikia Williams, who is the Fulton UBT’s labor co-lead. “Before the Super UBT, it was hard to get everybody engaged. Being engulfed in this work motivated us.”

LaDondra Hancock, senior account administration representative for Membership Administration in San Diego, also says the initiatives started by the Super UBT have improved the way she and her teammates work. “It has lessened the calls we get in from the different Member Services Contact Centers,” says Hancock, who serves as her local team’s labor co-lead and is a member of OPEIU Local 30.

Model practices

The success of this collective effort provides a model for other teams and departments looking to share and spread best practices, and underscores the importance of reaching out to other teams doing the same or similar work.

“Not only is this work of the Super UBT critically important for improving the member experience,” Monrad says, “but it also shows that it is critically important to test, model and explore new ways to bring improvement through our partnership that cuts across not only multiple regions, but multiple unions and multiple functions.”

How to Help KP Grow

Deck: 
Everyone wins when health plan membership increases

Story body part 1: 

Good things happen when more members join Kaiser Permanente.

Kaiser Permanente and our unions gain strength and stability. Good jobs become more available and secure. More people in our communities benefit from KP’s affordable, quality care.

And all KP employees can help make those things happen.

For example, the Labor Management Partnership and KP’s sales and marketing organization work together in unique ways to build KP health plan membership. Thanks to their efforts, in 2014:

  • 125,000 KP members joined or stayed with the health plan. 
  • 100,000 KP members or potential members got letters from their local unions encouraging them to select KP during open enrollment.
  • KP union ambassadors reached 20,000 potential KP members at worksite, community and union events in five regions.

Workers tell their story

In addition, thousands of KP workers, managers and physicians in unit-based teams win and keep KP members by delivering great care and service every day.

Louise Casa, a nurse practitioner, UFCW Local 400 member and union ambassador in the Mid-Atlantic States, says all workers have stories to tell about what makes KP a better place to give and get care.

“I share the story of being part of a partnership that values union workers and their ideas,” she says. “I talk about our unit-based team work on goals for care improvement, problem solving and workflow improvement in our departments. People in the community been very interested in the UBT process.”

What you can do

Everyone has a role to play in helping Kaiser Permanente grow and retain its membership. It starts with the work we do every day to serve members and patients:

  • Deliver the best member experience. If you know someone is a new member, take an extra minute to explain how things work.
  • Encourage members to sign up for kp.org. Surveys show that members who sign on are more likely to stay with Kaiser Permanente.
  • Look for ways to improve work processes or cut waste, to help keep KP affordable for the people we serve.

Quick links to additional resources

  • Get additional tips to help promote KP at: Be KP [KP intranet].
  • Answer questions people may have about KP: Become a KP Member [KP intranet].
  • And get insights and updates on KP’s business success: Marketplace Focus [KP intranet].

Teams Collaborate to Ease Growing Workload

Deck: 
Two lab teams found a way to meet increased demand

Story body part 1: 

The Molecular and Cytology Lab unit-based teams in Stapleton, Colorado, were facing a challenging trifecta. Increased membership, changes in guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and slow work processes made it tough to quickly process two widely used tests.

Membership in the Colorado region has grown by more than 60,000 members since 2013 in part because of the Affordable Care Act. Total membership in the region is now at its highest ever, with more than 600,000 members. The influx of new members is a strain on the system, and teams are digging in deeply to meet those members’ needs, from the first point of contact in the medical office to the last encounter as they pick up their prescriptions on the way out.

The lab teams are feeling the pressure, too—especially since they also process samples for the Georgia region, which is expected to grow, and they still do some work for facilities in the former Ohio region, which was sold to another health plan last year.

“We knew there would be an increase in the number of tests we would be doing. We also knew that our process was very labor intensive,” says Roxanne Whitesides, the Molecular and Specialty Testing manager. “Already this year, we’ve increased our workload 10 percent because of an increase in membership.”

Preventive care approach

The screens in question are for the human papillomavirus (HPV) and the Papanicolaou (Pap) test. Both detect disease at an early stage when treatment is highly effective, and so are central to Kaiser Permanente’s preventive care approach. As of June this year, the Molecular and Cytology teams—each of which has a role in processing the screens—already had processed 23,300 Pap screens and 16,800 HPV screens.

Meanwhile, CDC guidelines on HPV were revised in recent years and now recommend that women age 30 to 64 have an HPV screening and that girls as young as 11 receive the vaccine. The agency says HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Some strains can cause cancer, and the CDC says about 21,000 of the HPV-related cancers each year could be prevented by the vaccine.

Because of the changed recommendations, even before the enrollment jump, the labs were seeing an increase in the number of HPV screens they processed. In 2012, the labs processed 650 HPV screens a month. By this spring, the monthly average had more than quadrupled: the average for March, April and May 2014 was 2,800 per month. In May alone, 3,354 samples were processed.

Labor-intensive processes

The final hurdle the teams faced was that their processes were labor intensive, requiring significant hands-on time from the technician. There was frequent back and forth between the Cytology and Molecular departments, which caused delays and interruptions. The complex work processes added to the pressure of the growing workload and caused frustration and tension.

The teams began an intensive study of what other labs were doing, including researching the latest technology. They visited other sites and vendors and decided to go with a cutting-edge Roche instrument. The pathologists—who work closely with the labs—supported getting the new equipment, and the lease was fast-tracked for installation. The instrument was in place within two months.

At that point, the teams set to work to figure out how their processes would change with the new equipment.

Cross-training provides insights

“We trained each other on the new equipment and on the processes within the two departments,” said Luann Martin, a cytology technologist, UFCW Local 7 member and co-lead of the Cytology unit-based team. “I could appreciate things going on in both departments.”

The collaboration between the Molecular and Cytology departments enabled them to improve their work processes and interactions—and ensured that as one problem was fixed, another wasn’t created.

“It’s important to keep talking. People have different expectations and comfort levels,” says Beth Fisher, a medical technologist, UFCW Local 7 member and co-lead of the Molecular UBT. “Be patient with one another,” says Melissa Baca, a cytologist lab assistant, SEIU Local 105 member and union co-lead of the Cytology UBT.

Most important, Fisher says, the new equipment is enabling the teams to meet the growing demand.

“The big payoff is that we're able to process all those HPV samples in less than half the time it used to take, so we've been able to absorb the workload increase with no new staff,” she says. “And we're able to identify the HPV strains that are most linked with cervical cancer as part of the initial screening. That saves money, because we don't have to send out all the positives for additional testing.”

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