Kathy Warling-Smith, PMP Healthcare and Health Plan Services & Education | Health Informatics and Care Management Non-Profits | Foundations | Philanthropy | Strategic MarketingComm | Program & Project Mgmt.
I'm an expert integrated communications professional, superior program manager, natural collaborator and leader
who is recognized for establishing long-lasting authentic relationships with external and internal stakeholders.
I'm passionate about:
A. Implementing program and product solutions efficiently and
B. Executing impactful strategic campaigns to achieve business goals.
As a self-starter, I am driven to complete tasks with precision and meticulous attention to detail.
This ensures that every project is executed with the utmost reliability and trustworthiness.
Simply put, I get things done.
Proposals | Program Material
Content | Campaign Results | User Guides
Product Launch & Communications | Ops FAQs
I thrive identifying potential opportunities, validating, and collaborating internally
and externally to see solutions come to fruition.
Various in-house agency upsells have afforded me the opportunity to evolve my
digital marketing significantly; partnering with development teams, leading client-facing sprint
planning meetings, and cunducting UAT.
With an increased number of projects between Program Communications and the Development team, we established a standard workflow as reflected in this PDF.
Project | 01
BCBSA Healthy Families Program
As a result of our effective, client-specific branded Nurse Advice
Line and Care Management program communications, BlueCross
BlueShield Association requested that we expand beyond our
contracted programming to produce targeted health and wellness
campaigns on behalf of the Office of Personal Management.
The natural up-sell increased program communications revenue
between $400K - 1.2M annually, and our team earned several
national awards for engaging, educational content.
Overseeing thirteen separate initiatives provided professional growth opportunities as I became a product owner developing the Health Families roadmap for new programming and enhanced features. I was responsible for developing user stories and outlining acceptance criteria. Internal stakeholders (7) included user design, program developers, creative manager, clinical content, legal, and finance/accounting at a minimum.
Often, these campaigns assisted the health plan in achieving Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) metric goals associated with the National Committee of Quality Assurance (NCQA). For measurement purposes, the member data was exchanged
allowing the plan to conduct claims analysis.
The illustrations below highlight two different award-winning campaigns.
In both instances, based on industry statistics, response rates outperformed
standard campaign performances.
Illustration One
A two-phased pediatric healthy lifestyle campaign to educate
kids and parents on why and how to improve eating habits and be
physically fit. It was a result of the US pediatric diabetes epidemic.
This topic was addressed twice with two complex, unique campaigns.
I highly encourage you read this campaign executive summary, as it highlightsresults.
Attached is BCBSA's Press Release promoting the Jump 4 Health
campaign as an illustration of their commitment to member health.
Illustration Two
This is the second part of a two-phased parent/teen mental health
campaign
encouraging open conversation about adolescent stressors.
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Phase One involved families completing the postage-paid reply card to receive printed educational packets based on the area of concern(s).
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Phase Two involved 4 different targeted postcards directing members to the portal. Teens were directed to one micro-site, while parents were directed to the main portal.
These campaigns were initiated due to the increasing number of costly
Mental Health Stays.
The campaign success is reflected in the attachment summary.
For the Nurse Advice Line and Member Portal,
campaign analysis allowed
the Program Communications team to:
• Measure effectiveness and establish benchmarks
by lines of business
• Create a value proposition for purchasing our
marketing services by demonstrating positive ROI
• Identify opportunities for improvement such as
frequency, messaging, format, and leave behind
(magnet, key fob).
An excerpt regarding client-specific performance metrics
in comparison to the line of business benchmarks read as
follows:
"Foremost, we find that the symptomatic call type percentage
averages 69%, which is slightly higher than the benchmark
symptomatic percentage of 64%. Combine symptomatic calls
with the general health information call type and 79% of BCBS
Minnesota’s calls directly pertain to health care needs. Moreover,
as in previous years, the 24‐Hour AHL continues to experience
lower percentages of benefits calls. As a comparison, the average
McKesson client experiences benefit call percentages between
15‐18%, compared to BCBS Minnesota’s 10%. These positive
results continue to be driven by strong symptomatic messaging
in the mailings and that BCBS Minnesota members have a good
understanding of when to call the service."
Attached is a report for one annual campaign.
See examples of different leave-behinds used to keep the service's top of mind for when a need arises.
Nurse Advice Line Metrics/Assessment
• Marketing response rates (call volume impact). Assess individual outreach impact, seasonality, and year-over-year campaign performance.
• Call type (emergency, symptomatic, general health information, benefits, provider selection, literature, other). Is our messaging influencing members to call for the right reason(s)?
• Caller demographics (age, gender, and language distribution of members and callers). Why is the Latino population, which reflects a large percentage of the membership, not using the service, and what can we learn about the cultural nuances that may deter members from calling?
• Caller Redirection (of the symptomatic calls, comparing the member's pre-intent
(going to ER/ Urgent Care/PCP/stay home) and post intent. We quantify health plan savings by calculating the number of callers redirected and applying the associated fees.
With clients making financial investments in our program communica-tions, we were committed to producing the best marketing campaigns. Here is one of the focus group reports that significantly influenced are programming.
Project | 02
Nurse Advice Line Campaign and Metrics,
plus Portal Utilization
Project | 03
Care Management Year-over-Year metric improvements,
achieving CMS Health Plan accreditation standards
For the McKesson Care Management program, it was Program Communications' responsibility to reinforce the education taking place between the member and nurse advisor. Our organization's ultimate goal was to produce improved patient outcomes and generate health plan savings.
For these high-cost high-risk target groups, direct mail and interactive voice response (IVR) were often leveraged. Messaging would provide a specific call to action to increase metrics associated with an activity such as:
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Establishing a medical home
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Taking medications consistently
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Getting influenza vaccination each year
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Diabetics getting an A1C test biannually
IVR technology captured member responses so we could quantify items like:
A. The member already received a flu shot this season
B. The member has an appointment to get their flu
shot, or
C. The member is choosing not to get a flu shot.
For those members with associated PCP, reports would be supplied to ensure all parties were abreast of care plan activities.
Reflected in the PDF are sample metrics.
Project | 04
Member Portal Relaunch with HRA incentive, chronic condition education, EOM financial statements, health tracking
Opportunity:
For my existing national Blue's enterprise client, through a competitive
request for proposal submission, we won a new state-of-the-art Member
Portal product launch. Through multiple in-house solution development
sessions and a significant team effort, our vision and the associated
business value were successfully presented.
Solution:
Along with ten other stakeholders including a critical partner vendor,
we designed a personalized, central health information portal
encompassing eleven major components.
A Personal Health Record (PHR) provided a secure, automatically updated
view of a member's important healthcare activities. This online tool also
allowed members to access, update, store and track health-related
information
and benefits.
Some of the Features
A. Continuity of Care Record is a summary of all current medical information
contained within the member Personal Health Record.
B. Page breakouts detail medications, condition management, provider visit
summaries, procedures, immunizations, and more.
C. Benefit Statement outlines available healthcare benefits and out-of-pocket expenses
and details current processed Plan medical and pharmacy claims.
Product Owner Role:
Using an Agile methodology, as a key implementation stakeholder I worked with the Scrum Master and development team to ensure Program Communication deliverables were correctly implemented during the various sprints.
With three contractors and two internal team members, we successfully developed user interface design and content.
Skill Set Illustrations
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Led discovery sessions with key stakeholders to elaborate and design
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Solution Architect, Business Analyst, and UI Designer for multiple wireframes (process flows)
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Messaging needs/strategy with web copywriter for the content development
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Art Director on graphic standards which in turn shared with the print graphic designer and partner vendor
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UI Designer for the production of page mock-up for client sign-off
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Collaborating with a Business Analyst in 1:1 sessions, I detailed acceptance criteria (necessary functionality, data tables, client data exchanges, etc.).
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As the primary client-facing speaker, I guided the client through:
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Multiple wireframes (process flows) in the design phase
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Mock-up sign-offs
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The user acceptance testing (UAT)
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Oversaw internal Quality Assurance review process
Outcome:
Adhering to the framework, effective communications, proper time management, and good problem-solving skills allowed us to obtain Client sign-off by December 15th and launch the portal on January 2nd. Meeting expectations resulted in a highly satisfied Client.
Post-Implementation, as a key stakeholder/contributor, we received Member Portal URAC accreditation. I produced a Policy and Guideline detailing required annual Program Communication and Clinical team activities to ensure compliance standards are maintained.
View elements of the new member portal implementation.
An online 'How to Guide' a described in great detail why and how to use features.
This gould be downloaded for review offline. The Flash tutorial is highlighted
in the B2B Strategies section.
A Flash Tutorial was developed, highlighting
the new tools' benefits.
See the Engagement tab
for details.
For the program, I led the program name and logo development, conducting brainstorming sessions through client approval.
Also, I earned Client Satisfaction Employee Recognition for mitigating risk by producing a contractual one-of-a-kind provider manual outside of my job duties.
Opportunity:
Due to a client transition from one leader to a more demanding leader, during the implementation process, intuitively knew an agreed upon work around for Provider Manual would be unacceptable.
Solution:
Escalating the concern and encouraging the appropriate department take ownership, there was no movement. Consequently I took it on, drafting the content based on client brand standards.
Outcome:
By avoiding a two phased mailing, McKesson experienced a $5000 cost savings and the client never experienced frustration us as their partner vendor.
An addition, non-standard contractual requirement, was incorporating a robust amount of state specific resources on the member and provider portals. I successfully lead this initiative and guided the client in the User Acceptance Testing.
Mid-career, outside of my professional work,
I created an e-commerce website to sell custom sport-themed arena pennants that display a loved one's photo and key statistics. I created the LLC, produced prototypes with a California-based printer, produced the website, and attended street fairs/markets to promote and sell the product.
View examples of the custom banners (product) and website.
Click to view Centaurus Safe Night After Prom Site
More recently, Winter 2023, I streamlined the non-profit's WordPress site that educates the student and parent audiences. A quick code on printed material drove the users to the waiver forms required for participation.
Project | 06 All Star Custom Banner Entrepreneurial Endeavor & High School After Prom Website
