SureCo Health & Technology: Creating alignment across the healthcare ecosystem
From the entertainment industry to grocery shopping, nearly every sector we’ve come to understand is transforming into a subscription-based economy. From SaaS to XaaS, even Ford is making it clear it doesn’t sell cars and trucks — instead it’s a “mobility company”. So, why not healthcare?
In the American Healthcare ecosystem, with an estimated annual waste of nearly $1 trillion, disruptive technologies and new approaches are sorely needed. SureCo founders Matthew Kim, Matt Christopherson, and Marc Bablot are on a mission to save healthcare by increasing engagement and realigning incentives for patients, providers, and payors alike through its emerging CaaS platform.
In the American Healthcare ecosystem, with an estimated annual waste of nearly $1 trillion, disruptive technologies and new approaches are sorely needed. SureCo founders Matthew Kim, Matt Christopherson, and Marc Bablot are on a mission to save healthcare by increasing engagement and realigning incentives for patients, providers, and payors alike through its emerging CaaS platform.
Focusing on Delivering the Best Healthcare
In 2009, Matthew Kim and Matt Christopherson decided to venture into business together. Starting in Matt C.’s condo and sharing one phone between the two, they quickly learned that they would need help to maintain their rapidly growing business. Luckily, they met their third partner, Marc Bablot. From there the three co-founders started a small-scale insurance brokerage company that focused on solutions for individuals and small businesses fraught with healthcare costs. SureCo officially began in 2016 as a health technology company, building platforms to reimagine the healthcare ecosystem. Right away, the founders identified another need; to find an alternative for the high cost of healthcare. From that point on, the true mission of SureCo was founded.Initially, SureCo’s focus was to be the best health care brokerage for their members. However, the leadership team discovered that the brokerage was just another cog in the wheel of America’s broken healthcare system. To make large scale change, they needed to reposition the company to focus on the major pain points of the ecosystem. While the company is still in its early years, they’ve managed to place their start-up among the leading healthcare companies.
Today, the team at SureCo is working on delivering a digital solution that connects patients, payors, and providers together to create transparency and efficiency. They’re on a mission to create deliberate alignment across the ecosystem that will deliver better care to the patients, lower utilization for the payers, and add efficiency for the providers. To achieve this, SureCo is focused on providing an end-to-end experience. By controlling the whole experience, SureCo will be able to improve the lives of their members and ultimately begin improving the whole healthcare ecosystem.”
The pandemic has made it all too clear how vital it is that we reimagine how we access and interact with our healthcare system. SureCo is leaning into this paradigm shift and looking at telemedicine as the way of the future. So much so that they acquired a telemedicine company with 300+ providers servicing and licensed in 48 states. They want to bring a proactive approach to healthcare and feel telemedicine is the perfect vehicle to do so.
SureCo’s vision is to create what they call Engaged Healthcare, where everyone has the ability to navigate and thrive in our healthcare ecosystem. Engaged healthcare starts with providing people access and information as to how they can and want to engage with their providers. Throughout this past year it has become all too apparent how vital that link is and SureCo is hoping to make that bond tighter, quicker, and just one click away.
Creating Omnichannel Communication
SureCo is on a mission to transform the healthcare ecosystem, directing its services and solutions towards the same goal. However, to transact business in today’s world, the company has had to change its ways. When SureCo started, clients wanted to communicate via phone call. But now, that is one of the least popular options. SureCo needs to be able to speak to their clients across all platforms. This is why creating omnichannel communication is critical. SureCo has transformed into an omnichannel communication platform with methods like texts, emails, webchat, social media, and more to make sure their business is accessible to all.“We’re not in the health insurance business hoping to save people money. We’re in the saving healthcare business, giving people hope,” says Matthew Kim, CEO.
‘Trial by Fire’ From the start, SureCo had to deal with a fair share of challenges before locating itself on the map. Since the team lacked knowledge of the systems and processes needed to effectively operate, the team had to endure what Matthew Kim quotes as ‘trial by fire.’ However, these years were key to forging a culture of resilience and commitment. Despite that, the SureCo team has new challenges to overcome.
Just as getting a business off the ground isn’t easy, bringing transformation to the healthcare ecosystem is even more difficult. To make the changes, SureCo wants to get people engaged in their health, which is a huge feat. Consumers need to have the tools, resources, and motivation to do so. To achieve this, SureCo is striving to build a platform that becomes the intersection of all things healthcare.
Considering the digitalization and advanced technology of today, the changes are swiftly taking place at SureCo, but the same cannot be said for the overall healthcare system. The urgency to integrate modern methodology in the overall healthcare system is apparent. Presently, the same has been highlighted by the pandemic. When the world was pushed overnight to virtual platforms, the healthcare industry was left with zero alternatives.
Maintaining the Momentum The COVID-19 outbreak has drastically affected the health and economy worldwide. The challenges forfeited by it are never-ending. One of these challenges was remote work. For SureCo, it was one of their biggest. Despite the challenges, the company managed to grow revenue by over 200%. With exponential growth, it becomes important to maintain the momentum all while keeping employees safe and happy.
Times like the global pandemic have a heavy toll on mental health too. While ensuring that the employees are safe and happy, SureCo made sure to stay in contact with their entire staff by hosting virtual games, all-staff video conferences, writing internal newsletters, and sending company swag care packages to each employee. They also arranged a virtual happy hour hosted by professional musicians. “We continue to remind employees that we value our teamwork even though we cannot be together in the office” shared Matthew Kim.
Building Relationship with the Community
ven during the pandemic, SureCo’s TPA division was among the first to triage symptoms via telemedicine. Moreover, it provided mail-order, in-home options for remote patients in need of COVID testing. SureCo and its partners effectively built relationships with the community by leveraging its telehealth platform for essential organizations and their staff for free throughout 2020. SureCo ensured that all can get the care they need in these challenging times, especially essential employees.Future Projects
In the upcoming years, SureCo aims to get clients the information they should have in real time. After a doctor’s visit, all members should know what amount a doctor is going to charge, how much the insurance will pay, the amount they will pay out of pocket, and how to get assistance in order to facilitate that payment if needed.Additionally, one of the future projects is to create an innovative way to provide prescriptions to clients. SureCo is looking to partner with Pharmacy Benefit Managers and create a digital Rx card. Through this, both the employee and employer could benefit. Unlike other competitors in the market, SureCo wants to create a seamless way for the employer to add their contribution and for the Rx network to provide its pricing discount; making it easy for the patient employee to obtain affordable prescriptions. SureCo hopes to make big strides in changing how people are engaged in their health by focusing their platform and services in these areas.
