Why is the "Old School" Healthcare Approach Still Winning? | Mike Castleberry, CRO of Consociate

What happens when a pharmacy system denies a prescription for a sick patient? Or when a member battling a serious illness is buried under a mountain of confusing medical bills? In healthcare administration, code and software can only do so much. Sometimes, you just need a human to pick up the phone.

In this episode of Care Beyond Code, we sit down with Mike Castleberry, CRO of Consociate, to discuss the critical balance between operational efficiency and human empathy. Mike shares two powerful stories from the front lines of benefits administration that prove why the "old school" method of personal advocacy is still the most effective way to solve complex member problems.

In this episode, we cover:

-- The Pharmacy Glitch: Why simple prescriptions get denied and the manual intervention required to fix it.
-- The "Big Stuff": How TPAs can relieve the administrative burden for members facing catastrophic health events.
-- Balance Billing: The specific steps administrators take to reconcile provider bills so members don't pay what they don't owe.
-- AI vs. Humans: Why technology should handle eligibility, but humans must handle the care.

00:00 Introduction: The Spectrum of Life
00:53 Meet Mike Castleberry & Consociate
01:49 Story 1: The Prescription Problem
07:11 Why the System Breaks at the Pharmacy Counter
10:04 The Value of "Old School" Communication
12:08 Story 2: When Medical Bills Stack Up
17:43 Resolving Balance Billing Issues
20:59 The Future of AI in Benefits Administration
24:52 Conclusion: Instituting Care Beyond Code

Learn more about VBA's solutions for TPAs and health plans at vbasoftware.com. Don't forget to subscribe for more insights into the future of healthcare tech.

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