2023 User Experience Awards in Healthcare

Latest awards focus on tools and platforms

As we start a new year, CI is looking back on the firms that set themselves apart with our 2022 Monitor Awards for healthcare firms. Now in its 24th year, CI’s Monitor Awards program highlights the best tools and features offered by firms across a variety of areas critical to customer experience. This year’s awards in healthcare recognize best practices in UX features across the industry, including those that help clients understand costs and submit claims. We distribute awards in gold, silver and bronze based on the quality of exceptional features and tools. These awards are solely about these features; we do not attempt to rank healthcare firms overall.

In this blog post, we spotlight two gold medal award winners in healthcare: UnitedHealthcare in the Cost Estimator Tools category, and Anthem BCBS in the Online Claim Submission Platforms category.

Cost Estimator Tools – UnitedHealthcare takes gold

UnitedHealthcare’s cost estimator tool generates comprehensive treatment cost results and includes many value-added features, earning the firm a gold in this category. The tool, findable via the Get a Cost Estimate tile within the homepage Spotlight section, offers a guided search process and predictive search tool that allow members to easily look up costs without inputting any text. A well-organized result page displays a plethora of information about the member’s plan balances and the selected service as well as a detailed cost breakdown. The firm goes beyond providing cost estimates by offering members educational information about the procedure.

The tool’s landing page displays five icons—All; Office Visits; Vaccines; Tests, Imaging and Screenings; and Find by Condition—and accompanying brief descriptions. The Office Visits; Vaccine; and Tests, Imaging and Screenings options lead to specific guided processes about the service. Selecting the Find by Condition icon produces two options: Area of the Body and Type of Condition. Area of the Body generates an alphabetized list of body parts, while Type of Condition leads to a page with a predictive search bar and letter jumplinks. The All option similarly displays a predictive search tool and letter jumplinks that help members sort through an extensive list of services and treatments.

After selecting a specific service, such as Cataract Removal with Lens Implant, the firm displays two final selections: We Find the Providers and You Choose the Specialist. Clicking We Find the Providers opens the Cost Estimate page for providers and facilities the firm chooses based on various factors, such as the member’s distance from the provider, the availability of cost-saving facilities and whether the member’s primary care physician can provide the service; this information is housed within a lightbox findable via a Learn More link on the Cost Estimate page.

Key attributes considered in this category include:

Findability and organization
Inputs and functionality
Results information

Online Claim Submission Platforms – BCBS wins the gold medal

Anthem BCBS takes first place in this category for its robust in-house claim submission capabilities. Multiple access points throughout the member site—such as the Submit a Claim buttons on the homepage and Claims page as well as a dedicated link on the main menu—lend to strong findability of this functionality. Notably, the firm’s Sydney chat bot brings members directly to the claim submission form if they type or select Submit a Claim. The firm stands out for providing a variety of value-added features, such as sample documents for members to reference, tooltips and the ability to submit claims for dependents.

The firm provides several pieces of prepopulated member information to help speed up the process of entering information, including the member’s name, ID number, address and phone number. Members can indicate whether the payment is for themselves or their providers. Anthem BCBS is the only firm to allow members to choose between direct deposit and a paper check for the payment, if they are the payment recipient.