Problem
Imagine you’re a patient with a chronic dermatological condition, ready to start treatment. You find a platform that takes insurance, but entering your details is confusing. Meanwhile, the care team is overloaded, constantly fielding insurance questions. This was the challenge with the Central App’s outdated insurance flow—frustrating for both patients and the care team. We needed to optimize, not just migrate, to make it work better.
Discovery
Talking with key stakeholders, especially the care team, revealed that confusing terminology like “out-of-pocket” was causing frustration. It became clear that this wasn’t just about small tweaks; it needed a complete redesign to simplify and clarify the experience.
Patients who select insurance...
44% submit their insurance information
25% choose to pay out-of-pocket without submitting insurance information
17% go backwards to payment options
14% immediately bounce
Explorations
QUIZ FORMAT
FACET | OCTOBER 2022
Optimized Insurance Flow
Prior to joining the Central App team, I worked on Cove (migraine specialist) which was the first brand at Thirty Madison to accept medical insurance. Facet was the first brand on the Central App, and was built with the basic insurance flow that Cove implemented. Over the past year, I made improvements to the Cove insurance experience, which hadn’t been applied to the Central App yet.
Challenge
While reviewing the flow, we noticed that patients often switched from insurance to cash payments, indicating potential issues with the insurance option. My experience with Cove made it tempting to dive into a full redesign, but I decided to hold off. Instead, I created a backlog of ideas for future testing, saving those concepts for later iterations to stay within scope.
Results
The optimized flow improved conversion rates by 12.7%. Patients felt more confident about their choices, and the care team no longer had to handle as many payment-related questions. The process became smoother and more user-friendly, giving patients a clearer path to using their insurance.
Reflection
This project highlighted the importance of understanding users and the impact of refining details like language. Involving stakeholders and iterating based on feedback made our solution both practical and effective. I saw how small changes can significantly improve user experience and the value of cross-functional collaboration in tackling complex issues.
LEARNINGS
The more prominent focus on insurance succeeded in catching users' attention. However, patients still leaned slightly towards the cash payment option. Interestingly, reframing “Out of pocket” as “Pay without insurance” may have made this option more transparent and approachable, possibly increasing its appeal.
Users in the variant group were slightly less likely to select insurance as their payment method, but they demonstrated a higher overall conversion rate. The simplified navigation and terminology adjustments seemed to make the decision-making process easier, helping users follow through with their choices more readily.
Future Opportunities
USER TESTING | AB TEST
Moving forward, additional testing could explore ways to increase insurance adoption specifically, possibly by fine-tuning the insurance form experience further. This approach could help maximize the usability and appeal of insurance as a payment method for high-acuity patients.
Solution
After brainstorming and reviewing with stakeholders, we settled on a quick, low-effort option for an A/B test with patients. We highlighted the insurance option, added a separate insurance form for easier input, and changed “Out of pocket” to “Pay without insurance” for better clarity. The goal was to reduce cognitive load and make choosing insurance the easy, intuitive option.
