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Affordable Care Act

Anthem Blue Cross Research Head Confronts Post-ACA Unknowns

Posted by on 15 October 2014
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Insights Chief: Tried-and-True Tools Aren't Enough

By Marc Dresner, IIR
We've seen industries turned on their ears these past 20-some
years, but if I had to cast a vote for 'Most Disrupted,' I think I'd go with U.S.
healthcare.
More than four years after President Obama signed the
Affordable Care Act (ACA), whatever you think of the law, it continues to wreak
havoc.
At health insurance companies, for instance, acutely
uncertain footing has of course compelled decision makers to crank up the
pressure on their market research folks for answers.

The challenge for people like Doug Cottings, Staff VP of
Market Strategy & Insights at Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield (formerly WellPoint), is that new rules require fresh tools.

Doug Cottings

'Past approaches that have
been tried and true are not as effective as they used to be.'

'Everybody wants
to know what the future looks like and to project business results,' said
Cottings.

'Unfortunately, predicting the future by relying on what I used to in
the past'approaches that have been tried and true'they are not as effective as
they used to be.'

'The consumer is
so different and the environment has changed so much that it just doesn't make [what
we've done before] as relevant and meaningful as it once was,' Cottings
added.
In this
refreshingly frank podcast interview for The Research Insighter series, Cottings
discusses how dramatic changes to the U.S. health insurance landscape have
affected the insights function, including:

-
Incorporating
'safety nets' in research design

-
Starting
from the ground up when norms no longer apply

-
Making
the most of technology, and more!


Listen to the
podcast!





Read the
transcript!

The Research Insighter: Doug Cottings, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield (WellPoint)


Editor's note: Doug Cottings will present 'Leading Insights in Times of Change' at The Market Research Event 2014 taking
place October 20-22 in Boca Raton, Florida.


For information or to register, please visit
TheMarketResearchEvent.com.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR/INTERVIEWER
Marc Dresner is IIR USA's sr. editor and special communication project lead. He is the former executive editor of Research Business Report, a confidential newsletter for the marketing research and consumer insights industry. He may be reached at mdresner@iirusa.com. Follow him @mdrezz.

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