In this issue: California legislative updates; looking back at 2020; anti-harassment training; UnitedAg programming recap; 2021 HealthChats schedule

President’s Message

Our Philosophy

A member reaches out to our Member Services department. This is not the first call and will definitely not be the last. Betty Knatcher’s son is terminally ill with stage four lung cancer. Betty is managing his care and juggling his finances, dealing with her own emotions. While she was on the phone with Sonia, she expressed how kind everyone from UnitedAg has been to her
and her son during this incredibly stressful time.

She told Sonia that talking to anyone at UnitedAg feels like she is talking to a member of her own family. Everyone treats her with dignity, empathy and patience and she does not feel rushed, overwhelmed or confused. She said that she’s called other places, doctor’s offices, billing agencies, other insurances, and no one has treated her as kindly as UnitedAg has.

“She said to me that the fact that she can call me and I know her by her name impresses her. It shows that she and her son are not just a number to us.”

- Sonia Roldan, Member Services Manager, UnitedAg

When Sonia told me this story, I was reminded of a quote by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos. He said, “Our philosophy is delivering happiness to customers and employers. People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they always remember how you made them feel.”

Sonia, and the rest of our team at UnitedAg, live and breathe this philosophy. 2020 has been a tough year for all of us, and making our members feel safe, supported and less anxious is more important now than ever before.

Similar to the culture at Zappos, UnitedAg does not hold our member services reps accountable for call times.

We care only whether our rep goes above and beyond for every member. That is how UnitedAg measures a successful call metric.

We are here to develop a personal emotional connection with each and every member who calls us, and we are here to create more stories such as Betty’s.

During the pandemic, our Health & Wellness Centers have helped build connections within the community by being a resource to our members. We added a telehealth service at the centers to supplement the services we provide through Teladoc to match the increase in demand for virtual care. Early on in the pandemic, we realized the need to address our members’ behavioral health needs and committed our entire innovation budget to offer these services to our members at no cost.

In his book, Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh quotes Morpheus from the movie The Matrix, “There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

Let’s walk the path.

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