Most Americans get their health insurance through their employers, but that still leaves millions who don’t, and the options can be confusing.
At KindHealth, based in Austin, TX, new AI is being put to use to help untangle the complexities of health insurance for consumers who are on their own.
Combining backgrounds in health IT and health insurance, the company’s four founders say they’ve developed an AI-driven platform that simplifies the process of assessing needs and finding and managing the best healthcare coverage.
"People's expectations are on the rise, and so are the myriad complications related to health insurance," noted Albert Pomales, the health insurance veteran, in a recent article. "At the heart of our AI-based platform is simplicity. That is our ultimate guidepost.”
As co-founder Andrew Tomasik sees the AI landscape, there are three branches – process automation, cognitive insight and cognitive engagement – and KindHealth’s AI weaves them all together.
The team’s experience in health insurance sales and customer support informs what the company’s AI need to examine and what paths to follow, while their tech experience enables them to hone specific solutions to individual consumers’ preferences and needs.
"It starts with truly understanding the consumer's problems, and what causes them, and then designing a solution to solve those problems," Tomasik said. "In general, consumers share the problem that buying health insurance is complex, expensive and frustrating -- but it doesn't have to be that way.”
As for Pomales, he noted that KindHealth's AI can draw on a vast array of information, such as history of health care usage, ages of any children and tolerance for risk. "We can look at that data and generate smart insights that don't require humans and are instantly scalable," he explained, adding, "My background helps KindHealth connect the dots among opportunities and truly make a good recommendation for someone.”
Overall, the company aims to use AI to create a better, more robust user experience. By focusing on individual preferences, Tomasik said, they’re able to get to know their customers better and thus determine how they like to shop for coverage.
"The ultimate goal is the best, most intuitive user experience that weeds out the irrelevant for you,” he said. “AI is just a tool to achieve that.”
And to date, the company says, it has helped over a million people shop, compare and purchase health insurance plans, collectively saving $5 million in health insurance plans.
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