Technically, the annual insurance reverification period (often known as blizzard) lasts just a handful of weeks. However, reality tells a different story.

We know our customers spend months preparing for each January, when patients’ access to medication can be put into question because of changes to formularies, deductibles, and out-of-pocket requirements. 

With this year’s blizzard in the rearview mirror, we’re taking a moment to dive into the data and share some of what we learned in January and February 2024. Here’s what we saw.

Entering our fifth year, we were pleased to be able to ensure patients had access to the medications they need, and to be able to support over 1,000 different medications and therapies.

Helping our customers ensure their patients have access to the medications they need meant the Infinitus digital assistant spent more time calling payors – Eva completed 2.2 times more calls in Blizzard ‘24 compared to 2023. And Eva also spent more time getting access to payor agents too; we found that the average time spent navigating IVR increased by over a minute and a half per call compared to last year.

We weren’t surprised to see increases in the average time spent waiting on hold or to the average length of conversations with payor agents. Benefit verifications are only increasing in complexity, as insurance plans continue to evolve. Fortunately, the Infinitus digital assistant is able to handle these longer, more complicated conversations.

There are only so many hours in the day providers can make manual calls to payors – and only so many payor agents standing by at any given time. The good news is that the Infinitus digital assistant doesn’t mind waiting on hold.

The Infinitus digital assistant was in action bright and early this blizzard, as the busiest single day of blizzard ‘24 was January 2. While the rest of us were getting back into the swing of things (and topping off our coffees) following the new year holiday, Eva was at her peak. 

That early efficiency extended across all of blizzard, as the busiest time of day was on average the 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET hour … which means manual callers might want to wait a beat before picking up the phone to reach a payor during next year’s blizzard, or risk extra long waiting times. 

Our mission today is the same as when we started Infinitus in 2019: To work toward a future of instantaneous healthcare, while providing value for our customers today. 

We’re excited to share that in January, we officially surpassed 2.5 million total calls made by our digital assistant since the beginning of Infinitus. And to date, we’ve processed a staggering 46,025,752 minutes of audio. That’s the equivalent of more than 7,666 days without sleep. (What were we just saying about coffee above?!)

Those minutes represent actual time that human healthcare workers haven’t had to spend on the phone – bringing us ever closer to a world where reverification season isn’t an annual period of (potential) havoc. 

In the meantime, though it’s true reverification takes place only once a year, we know that’s not exactly the case for the providers working to ensure patients get the treatments they need. As Brooke McClain, the senior director of operations at Infinitus customer Cencora says, “As soon as one [reverification] season ends, the planning work begins for next year.”

We’d love to help you weather next year’s blizzard – and would be happy to show you how. Reach out to us today! 

Analysis for this post was provided by Infinitus’s Cecilia Zhan and Prithvi Sriram.