Transcript

Amy Shaffer:

Working remotely across borders is increasing among multinational organizations, especially with the end of the COVID public health emergency. This means companies are sending more employees on foreign assignments than in recent years and now into a new healthcare landscape on top of it. Did you know that company, standard domestic, or US-based health plans often only cover medical emergencies when outside the US?

So how do you know when your client needs comprehensive international coverage, and what do you do to make sure their globally mobile workforce has the benefits and support that could be the difference between a failed or successful work assignment? Today we'll take a closer look at how Aetna international continues to stand out on the global benefits marketplace while elevating the member, client experience and how you can make the most of it.

I'm Amy Shaffer, and joining me today is our host for the Aetna International Podcast, Jaime Connahan, Executive Director of Aetna International Business Solutions. Jamie leads the sales support, product and marketing teams. In addition to Jamie, we're joined by Todd Lazar, President of Aetna International Americas.

Prior to joining Aetna International, Todd was the Chief Growth Officer of Aetna's North Central region and President of Aetna's Great Lakes Market. He's also held leadership roles in Aetna's individual business, national accounts and service operations. Today, Todd's leading Aetna International with a growth focus while delivering on strategic business objectives. Now I'm going to turn the mic over to Jamie. With that, take it away Jamie.

Jaime Connahan:

Thanks, Amy. Hi, Todd. Thanks for joining me today.

Todd Lazar:

Hey, Jamie. Happy to be here.

Jaime Connahan:

So we're hearing a lot about some of the changes that have been occurring in Aetna International, the market's asking quite a bit of questions. Can you take a minute and just tell us a little bit more about that and also what's new for us as a business?

Todd Lazar:

Yeah, happy to. It is an incredibly exciting time to be here right now. When you think back about Aetna International, we've been in the market for 60 years serving global businesses. Throughout that time, there's been one constant and it's change. So when I joined the organization 18 months ago now, we had just finalized two major decisions. The first was we made the decision to divest our non-core businesses so that we could create more focus and investment on our Americas region.

And then the second was we made the decision to more closely integrate with CVS Health and Aetna to bring the very best of our global company into a one carrier solution. For me personally, it was an exciting opportunity to lead an important growth engine for the organization. It also provided an opportunity to work with an extremely talented team who are passionate about serving the global market.

And then for our customers, I think it signaled a focus on integration. So the ability to bring together the very best assets from CVS Health and Aetna to create a truly differentiated experience. What's clear to me is I don't think there's any other global carrier that has the ability to draw upon the diverse collection of consumer assets that CVS Health has as a Fortune six company. In the coming years I think you'll see us use this to our full advantage as we invest in our member experience.

Jaime Connahan:

Todd, you mentioned integration and it's such an important part of our value proposition. For you, what are some of the ways you're seeing us increase access through integration inside the US?

Todd Lazar:

Yeah. I can give you a great example and then just given your role, Jamie, would love to hear your perspective as well. When I think about integration and integrate, it truly is an area of differentiation for us, but it starts with our CVS Health assets. To put this in perspective, over 77% of the US population lives within five miles of one of these CVSs.

So as an added benefit for our Aetna International members, we recently launched a product benefit that provides no or low cost access to the MinuteClinics that sits with inside these stores. What that means is our members get ultra affordable and convenient access to care for our US-based dependents, our US in-patriots, and our returning expatriates.

Jaime Connahan:

Yeah. Todd, I couldn't agree more. Our ability to demonstrate our integrated value is something I'm so, so proud of. So I have to jump in, steal the mic and add one more example on top of yours. Our new CVS virtual primary care product is a new service that we're super excited about. First, our ability to offer virtual primary care is first for us in Aetna International. Think about this program in terms of ability to access your own PCP and extended care team on your terms.

So whether you prefer video, phone, or text message, we're making it easy for our members to access care. But sometimes a visit with your PCP can't be all virtual, right? So think about this as a nice connection point to the no-cost MinuteClinic benefit Todd just spoke about. You're in a consult virtually with your PCP and they feel like they need to see you in person, that primary care physician is going to send you to your nearest MinuteClinic so that they can see you live and in person.

Todd Lazar:

It's that power of a large Fortune six company that allows us to bring in these new assets so quickly and deliver them to our members.

Jaime Connahan:

Absolutely. So Todd, if we stay on the topic of accessing care, but we've spent our time at the beginning of this chat about our US capabilities, let's turn our focus and talk a little bit about when you leave the United States and what care and coverage means for our members.

Todd Lazar:

Through an innovative partnership with Allianz, we've been able to expand both our network and our services to bring more breadth and access to our members.

Our members still benefit from the expertise of our international care management and service teams who provide in-depth local market knowledge and pre-trip planning. So think about supporting our members in accessing the medications that they need overseas, making sure that they can find the right doctors or care in their current location.

And the new offerings that are focused on what our customers are requesting most right now, which is behavioral health, maternity care, and support for chronic conditions.

Jaime Connahan:

So Todd, when you mention maternity care, that's a great way for me to bring up one of the new products and programs that we're looking at for 2024. It's really, really important that we are holistically looking at our offering and we're staying global.

And with that, we are looking at expanding our existing care management maternity program that's available in the US and making that a global capability with access to maternity providers, fertility clinics, a ton of new offerings that we're really thrilled to roll out next year.

Todd Lazar:

The other thing, Jamie, that I would just add to that is for our domestic producers who may be listening to this, we also are rolling out the Transform suite of chronic condition products to our international members, and we're starting with Transform Oncology.

Jaime Connahan:

Yeah. Todd, if we just stay on the topic and the thinking of our members leaving this country and moving abroad, right? Living and working abroad, they might feel unsure about their care options when they're just in unknown territory.

When I sit with my team, we're thinking about how do we deliver peace of mind to our members. One way we do that is we've moved all of our coverage, all of our plan designs to 100% coverage for care outside of the US. That means no deductible, no copay, and no co-insurance. This means a better healthcare experience for expats with low or no upfront costs at the time of service. Ultimately, it's delivering that peace of mind.

Todd Lazar:

Yeah, couldn't agree more.

Jaime Connahan:

All right, Todd, let's move on to the next question. What tips can you share that will help our listeners identify international customer opportunities?

Todd Lazar:

Let's start with who our customers are today, right? When you think about that, our customers certainly span all industries, but if I look at our book today, the largest distribution of our customers comes from a few sectors. The first is certainly professional service in technology firms

Our second-largest industry vertical is manufacturing and then followed closely by financial institutions. And then I'd also mentioned we also have a deep portfolio of faith-based organizations as customers as well. So if you're out there talking to a client and they fall into any of those industries, there's probably a fair chance that they have some international coverage needs.

I think the key characteristic though, to look at when you're out in the market is any clients with either global offices or those who incur business travel overseas are obviously a good candidate for having a global coverage.

Jaime Connahan:

So I'm going to share a bit of a story here with everyone listening, and it's when you first joined Aetna International from your market president role, and you came to me and said, "Jaim, I didn't know a lot about Aetna International when I was a market president." As the keeper of the brand, I took a deep, deep breath, I calmed down, and I thought, "Okay, how do we fix that?" And you and I teamed up to fix that, how? We came up with the theme of a one carrier solution. Can you talk a bit about that?

Todd Lazar:

Yeah, and it's something that I care deeply about is I think it provides real value for our customers. It also is ultimately, I think our biggest area of differentiation, right? And it's ultimately, it comes back to that integration concept that we've been talking through. And I'll speak to it in two ways. For our plan sponsors, an integrated one carrier solution provides them with administrative ease versus the complexity that's introduced by dealing with multiple carriers.

So examples of that include if you're issuing both healthcare coverage for a domestic population and a global traveler population, we provide the ability to do that through one proposal or one contract. We provide the plan sponsors with a single ID for both their international and US domestic policies. We have the capability to provide single and integrated eligibility files, a single bank account for claim wire reimbursement.

And then for our members, offering a seamless integrated experience takes a couple of different flavors. So if you're a member who may shift between being on a domestic plan versus being on an international plan, you'll carry with you the same member ID card. You'll have access to the same digital websites, the same tools, the same apps, whether you are on a domestic policy or an international policy.

The other thing that I would mention as it relates to a one carrier solution is we're also sharing cost savings opportunities for our customers who purchase both domestic and international coverage lines through a cross-sell discount. So make sure to ask your customers about that, if that's of interest.

Jaime Connahan:

Thanks, Todd. Hopefully we've grabbed the listener's with things like cost savings and discounts, but you gave me a perfect segue to wrap up this podcast and you really got us to the call to action. What's the thing we leave people with as they walk away from this podcast? And it's really our ability to deliver that one carrier solution right? For your clients that need US and international coverage without the headache of managing it through multiple carriers.

I just want to let everyone that's listening know that you can always find out more information on our website at aetnainternational.com, and I strongly encourage you to follow us on our LinkedIn page. And as always, please reach out to your Aetna representative for more information about our international business and the opportunities you might have. Thanks, everyone.