Lean Management and Six Sigma Potential on Customer Satisfaction in Health Insurance

To provide health insurance to the millions of Americans without health insurance coverage, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Provisions of ACA include financial incentives favorable for fully integrated health insurers -- insurance organizations where ownership owns all health care delivery and insurance components. Leaders of less integrated health insurers (LIHIs), health insurance organizations where ownership/exclusive contracts with health care delivery does not occur, face substantial dissatisfaction from suppliers, government entities and buyers to the extent many Americans are demanding major changes in the health insurance industry. Leaders of LIHIs must adjust to ACA along with other environmental/social competitive forces while providing services that customers desire. Implementation of lean management and Six Sigma (LMASS) might provide a solution for leaders of LIHIs to accomplish such an effort. The problem was business leaders of LIHIs are uninformed about the effects of LMASS on customer satisfaction in the health insurance industry which is interfering with strategies to improve customer service. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a LMASS strategy on customer satisfaction in the health insurance industry. A quantitative causal comparative nonequivalent group study design served for implementing an empirical research method study. The independent variable was leaderships' application of a LMASS program at Health Insurer A where the independent variable had two levels: (a) prior to LMASS implementation taking place in 2010 and (b) following LMASS implementation in 2012. The dependent variable was archived customer satisfaction data from both year sets. A Mann-Whitney U test was conducted to evaluate differences in customer satisfaction data from 2010 (prior to LMASS implementation) and 2012 (following the LMASS implementation). Findings indicated that a statistically significant increase in customer satisfaction occurred after implementation of LMASS. Practical recommendations and future research recommends were offered. The results from this study might benefit leaders of health insurers, government payers, providers, consumers, and subsequent researchers with decision-making and policy development regarding health care delivery.