Using Consumer Analytics to Market to
the Retail Market Place
Technologies to Prepare us for
Health Care Reform
Panel Members
• Tyler Cox - Manager of Consumer Analytics,
Regence BlueCross BlueShield
• Jim Schoebel - Director of Member Information
Solutions, Health Care Services Corporation
• Tim Yaeger - Web Data Analyst,
BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama
• Stephen Jones, PhD – Senior Research Scientist,
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee
Using Consumer Analytics to Market to
the Retail Market Place
Panel Objectives
With health care reform on the horizon many changes are coming that will
directly influence how health insurance companies currently do business. Much is still unknown;
however, a shift from traditional Business-to-Business (B2B) to Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
purchasing is a strong possibility. This shift has potentially wide-reaching implications,
including new marketing strategies, technology and data enhancements, and improved analytical
expertise. The purpose of this forum is to discuss different areas of focus various health plans are
considering in order to prepare for these changes. We will cover how Health Care Service
Corporation (HCSC includes BCBS Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas) is building
predictive models to better understand consumer behaviors and preferences, how BCBS
Tennessee is employing advanced geo-spatial techniques along with internal and external data
sources to determine areas most suitable for retail store locations, how Regence BCBS is
leveraging consumer analytics to understand and best meet shopper and member needs online,
and lastly how BCBS Alabama is leveraging online behavior and segmentation data to reach the
right consumers at the right time in the right digital marketplace.
Using Consumer Analytics to Market to
the Retail Market Place
Questions
•
•
•
•
How is HCSC leveraging existing and new data to support success in the retail market place, both preand post-October 2013?
Online retail consumers are demanding convenient features and preferences of how and when they want
to get information. BCBS of Alabama is addressing this through online behavior analysis, consumer
segmentation and an integrated digital strategy. What does an integrated digital strategy mean for
Alabama and how does that support using online behavior data and consumer segmentation to reach
consumers in the digital marketplace?
With more and more consumers accessing health and wellness related information online, it is essential
that health plans are able to track, understand and respond to consumers’ needs and desires in a way
that is impactful to them. As a result, Regence is dedicated to leveraging consumer analytics to
understand and meet shopper and member needs online. What data and techniques does Regence
leverage to accomplish this, what insights have they gained and what actions have they taken to meet
online and mobile needs?
Because of the need to better reach current and future customers, one of the many changes on the
horizon is how health plans will physically conduct business with the public. One such change under
consideration at BCBS TN is to open retail stores throughout the state. First, what is
geo-spatial analytics and how can it be used to help determine optimal site locations for
these potential store sites?
Panel Members
Tyler Cox
Manager of Consumer Analytics,
Regence BlueCross BlueShield
Tyler Cox is the Manager of Consumer Analytics for the eBusiness Strategies and Services
department at Regence BlueCross BlueShield in Portland, OR. His team is responsible for using
quantitative and qualitative data and research to discover key consumer insights to be leveraged
across a variety of online and offline channels to provide the ideal customer experience. This
includes: driving e-channel analytics, KPIs and reporting strategy for all Regence web portals;
streamlining processes for tagging and tracking use of website tools in order to measure ROI;
forecasting growth and engagement of web properties; and conducting user experience research
to uncover consumer needs and wants. Tyler earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business and
Communications from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington and a Masters in
Integrated Marketing Communications from the Medill school at Northwestern University in
Evanston, Illinois.
Panel Members
Jim Schoebel
Director of Member Information Solutions,
Health Care Services Corporation
Jim Schoebel is Director of the Member Information Solutions domain in Health Care Services
Corporation's Analytics and Information Management Division. Jim leads a team tasked with
identifying business information needs centered around consumers, and developing solutions to
deliver information to meet those needs through an iterative prototyping approach. These
solutions may take the form of data integration and reporting, or analytic models built through
the team's partnership with a dedicated analytics team. Jim's career at HCSC spans 20 years,
and has included roles in customer service, application development and support,
and information management.
Panel Members
Tim Yaeger
Web Data Analyst,
BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama
Tim Yaeger is the Web Data Analyst in Marketing for BlueCross and BlueShield of
Alabama. Tim co-developed the first web analytics program for BCBS AL in 2009. Through this
process he established relevancy among several operational areas within BCBS AL, created
metric standards, dashboard styles, and led the project to select then implement IBM
NetInsight On-Premise. He is responsible for maintaining the overall structure and strategy
that support digital initiatives and ensure information is used to improve the online customer
experience. Tim’s past experience includes search engine optimization, web development and
raising four homeschooling children with his marvelous wife of 9 years, but we’ll save that topic
for another day.
Panel Members
Stephen Jones, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee
Dr. Stephen Jones is the senior research scientist for predictive analytics at BlueCross
BlueShield of Tennessee, focusing on research and analytic efforts in population health
management. Some of his work includes spatio-temporal modeling of infectious diseases,
building proactive disease identification and decision support models for care management
programs, enhancing disease surveillance activities through the use of administrative data,
assessing the long-term impacts of food and water borne enteric infections, and utilizing geospatial analytics to strategically prioritize outreach efforts to support improved health outcomes.
He received a BS in biology and art history from Wofford College, and a MS and PhD in biology
from Clemson University. His post-doctoral research was in spatial epidemiology with the
Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School.