Creating a Community of Users

When you adopt Pareo®, you gain access to a large community of health plan professionals offering shared expertise.

From time to time, we like to remind our readers that “you don’t have to go it alone.” That isn’t just an empty catchphrase we use to market to new clients. In fact, when you adopt Pareo® at your health plan you’re actually getting much more than an advanced payment integrity solution. You’re also gaining access to shared expertise. The industry terms this a “community of users,” and here’s why we think Pareo users especially benefit from ours.

Tech Comes to Life

Pareo is more than a “pile of code.” Numerous health plans — of all different sizes, with different lines of business, etc. — all working within a common platform is a feature of the SaaS model, not an accidental by-product. The ability to socialize with other users is the ultimate cherry-on-top for health tech solutions, according to Harvard Business Review. In an increasingly digital age, we value the ability of our payment integrity technology to come to life through a community of users.

But what is a user group, exactly? It’s a tiered-group comprised of users that form an association (the user group) hosted by the technology developer. These groups serve to aggregate knowledge and as others have pointed out “at its best, this model delivers constructive and purposeful relationships between and among all three players and remains symbiotic in nature.”

What’s more, when you find a payment integrity tech solution that has a community of users associated with it, you know it’s truly something special. As a self-described “user-group junkie” says: if a product is truly great, users want and benefit from a community (case in point: Apple). For those considering building their own payment integrity technology solution, the benefit of accessing a community of users alone may be big enough to compel them to buy into an existing platform instead.

Not a First Mover? Become a Fast Follower.

If you’ve ever been a part of a community of users (and chances are, if you’ve visited on online forum for a piece of technology, you have), you’ll notice some subsets within the group. Those that are early adopters to the technology may be the most vocal, offering input through whatever channels are available. We call this group “first movers.”

Being a first mover on exciting tech means that you often get to shape overall platform direction. As we’ve said before, some of our best ideas are born from our user ideas and expertise. Connecting with those early adopters of Pareo was an experience that continues to drive our passion for disrupting the industry. We learned early on from our users that our solution was unique.

Of course, we know not everyone can be a first mover. We term the second subset in a user group “fast followers.” Being a fast follower means that you get to benefit from the work first movers put in while still providing input as part of iterative software development. Our user groups today are a mix of first movers and fast followers, and we couldn’t be more grateful for their efforts to help us make Pareo even better. However, we aren’t the only one benefitting from the diverse group who leverage Pareo.

How You Benefit from a Community of Users

There are professional and personal benefits when you join a community of users. Because Pareo solves such a specific market niche, we think the shared expertise our users gain access to is unique to the market. It’s easy to see how a business benefits from uncovering solutions to industry problems, but there are other, softer benefits to be gleaned from being part of a community of users.

Professionally, employees engaging with a community of users are actively sharpening their problem solving skills while also networking with other industry professionals. This level of engagement grants you the opportunity to check you’re staying on the same page as other health plans. Payment integrity is such a focused skill set that networking opportunities are small, albeit mighty.

Still, sometimes these payment integrity efforts are so siloed at organizations that it can be difficult to connect with others facing the same problems. The more out of touch you feel with the industry, the greater the impact aggregated communal knowledge can have.

That’s why many believe the benefits of community extend to the workplace. But engaging with a user group isn’t just a professional box to check off. There are meaningful personal benefits to be had when you’re part of a community.

For example, we speak with some PI staff that find themselves burned out after trying and trying (and failing) to move the needle on recoveries. We find that they respond particularly well to the community of users within Pareo; they’re finally able to engage with those that not only understand their struggles but also appreciate their triumphs. That kind of energy may just be the invigorating force that helps you through the next work slump.