Recently, a health insurance conference sponsor asked me to give a talk about “The Ethics of Ecosystems.” This topic is definitely timely: Healthcare product and service delivery via digital channels rapidly achieved acceptance during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to strengthen. Pandemic-driven technological advances in data storage, aggregation, and analytics also continue, enabling new ecosystem platforms and enhanced opportunities for health insurers to partner with health and wellbeing products and services providers.
This topic is also quite meaningful for me, as for the last three years I have been leading an RGA team in developing a comprehensive digital health and wellbeing solution. The platform delivers a myriad of customer-friendly value-added digital health services, including:
The invitation for me to speak clearly shows how attractive ecosystems have become, both as a delivery model for products and services and as an integral element for conducting business in the digital health space. The proliferation of these systems also raises important concerns.
How do ethical concerns factor in? An ecosystem can provide several positives for health insurers, especially given high consumer interest in wellness and wearables. Services form the heart of such an ecosystem, and data drives not just its functionalities, but also how that ecosystem can best serve its users. A clear basic responsibility for health insurers is to make sure customer data is treated respectfully – that is honestly, transparently, and with integrity.
Although health insurers are increasingly using ecosystems to present products and services to their customers, skepticism still exists around the ethics and motives for providing such a platform. Concerns range from “Won’t our customers wonder why we (their insurer) would offer them health services?” to “I wonder if customers would think ecosystem network doctors offer cheaper treatments or deny certain medical services because of the expense?” Standards and guidelines can ensure all data collected and used by an ecosystem is treated honestly, transparently, and with high standards of integrity.
During the past few years, data privacy concerns that used to be paramount have lessened somewhat. Recent research is finding that customers are more willing than they were before the pandemic to allow companies to aggregate their personal data and use it for analyses, as long as it is anonymized.
That being said, the most recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, especially around generative AI, are raising new concerns around technology in general, which is seeping into perceptions around ecosystems.
For insurers, soothing these concerns starts with a strong ethical profile. This means taking the time to formulate and codify a set of guidelines and rules that govern permissible and prohibited use of data for both insurers and their ecosystem participants. It also means incorporating specific items related to ecosystem data and its use, and strongly adhering to the rules.
Guidelines should lay out rules around data use that focus on what is right for a company to do, morally and ethically, rather than what data and current technology advances make it possible to do. In a nutshell, what insurers should do, rather than what they can do.
How do insurers achieve transparency, honesty, and integrity around data? All these elements require clear communications with partners, clients, and customers about data received and plans for its use. Insurers should inform customers and stakeholders of the ethical use guidelines and ensure their own adherence.
The goal of developing or participating in an ecosystem should be to support and improve customer health journeys by enabling faster access to ecosystem benefits such as considered care pathways, remote monitoring, and coaching.
Ecosystems can enhance customer offerings and engagement. Aggregated insights from available data may help improve service capabilities, product design, pricing, positioning, and the overall customer journey.
A company’s values should flow into an ecosystem to ensure it has strong ethical underpinnings. Whether an insurer is a developer, sponsor, or participant, a strong ethical foundation supported by company leadership can create a path to success.
