This project was led by Irrational Labs’ Richard Mathera and Abi Warren.
One Medical and Irrational Labs Work to Advance the Member’s Health Journey
Meeting with a provider on a regular basis is associated with increased chronic disease recognition and treatment, improved patient-reported outcomes and lower cost. And yet, according to 2021 data from RANDS, 12.5% of people report reduced access to basic checkups. One Medical and Irrational Labs partnered to re-think a seamless digital experience for new One Medical members to help close that gap. The goal was to increase preventative care by making it easier for members to connect with a provider right when they sign up for membership.
The Irrational Labs team conducted a rigorously controlled experiment in collaboration with One Medical that sought to evaluate the effect of changing the onboarding flow for One Medical members who have their membership sponsored by their employer.
The new onboarding process offered One Medical members an immediate opportunity to connect with a provider. It suggested appointment times that a recommended provider could meet with them. If the member was not available at those suggested times, the member had the ability to see more times available and choose a future date for the appointment.
The result: Small changes to the One Medical onboarding experience for new employer-sponsored members drove a 20% increase in bookings relative to the control. The increase in bookings signifies an interest in and intention to get medical care.
The Lesson? Make it Easy
How digital experiences are designed makes all the difference. When members don’t see a time that meets their needs, it takes them 4x longer to book, compared to when they immediately see a time that works for their schedule.
And speed isn’t the only thing that changes when people are exposed to too much choice. Too much choice can also delay decision-making. People who picked a time from the available list of appointments were 2.5x more likely to continue with the booking process compared to people who needed to hunt for available times. Making it easy matters in healthcare and it can be the difference between getting care and not getting care.
“One Medical believes talking with a doctor should be simple.You shouldn’t have to work for your healthcare. We always analyze every single step to make sure our members get the best care possible, in the shortest amount of time” — Anjali Johnson, VP of Product, One Medical.
One Medical offers access to telehealth services, allowing people to take an appointment from the comfort of their home. In this experiment, over 50% of new members booked a Remote Visit option for a same-day video visit, a 67% lift compared to the control. This signals that where/how appointments are offered matters. Members are more inclined to engage with healthcare when access is made easy.
Patient decision-making and behavior play an increasingly critical role in every aspect of health. According to the CDC, up to 40% of premature deaths in the United States could be prevented and the leading causes of death are heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, and unintentional injuries. Everyone has the intention to be healthy, but our actions don’t always align.
One Medical and Irrational Labs recognize the need to accelerate the development of behavioral solutions to drive health outcomes. This partnership brings together deep skills in behavior change to help support patients through successful healthcare engagement.
“A scientific approach to health decisions and behavior is critical to solving the major health crises facing our country,” said Richard Mathera, Director of Health for Irrational Labs. “We’re thrilled about this work with One Medical, who shares our vision of healthcare rooted in behavioral science and is well positioned to implement innovative solutions that will reach hundreds of thousands across the country.”
The Irrational Labs and One Medical collaboration focused on providing members with an enhanced healthcare experience and driving improved outcomes. By strengthening preventative care, One Medical and Irrational Labs aim to improve the foundational health of patients to support longer and healthier lives.
Supporting Assets
People in the control condition would go straight to the One Medical homepage after verifying email and answering some basic questions. People in the experimental condition would get the chance to immediately book.
Control Condition
(Representative concept. Not actual design used in test.) New members landed directly on a page that suggested a variety of ways to get started.
Experimental Condition
(Representative concept. Not actual design used in test.)
New members first landed on a page that recommended a specific provider they could meet with and suggested times.
About One Medical
One Medical is a membership-based and technology-powered primary care platform with seamless digital health and inviting in-office care, convenient to where people work, shop, live, and click. Our vision is to delight millions of members with better health and better care while reducing costs. Our mission is to transform health care for all through our human-centered, technology-powered model. Headquartered in San Francisco, 1Life Healthcare, Inc. is the administrative and managerial services company for the affiliated One Medical physician owned professional corporations that deliver medical services in-office and virtually. 1Life and the One Medical entities do business under the One Medical brand.
Special thanks to the One Medical team. including: Molly Glauberman, Arielle Slam, Christine Chang, Michael Tran, Yuji Xie, Anne Aula, Mark Stuenkel, and Austin Hastings for their partnership and collaboration.