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2023 Annual Report

President and Chair Message

Aloha,

In 2023, HMSA commemorated 85 years in the community.

It’s an honor to have provided quality health plans to the people of Hawaii since 1938. It’s why we started, it’s what we do today, and it’s what we’ll continue to do tomorrow.

To showcase 85 years of HMSA, we’ve shared stories from members, businesses, providers, community partners, and communities. Learn more about HMSA’s milestone anniversary and watch inspiring testimonials at hmsa.com/alwaysthere.

The beginning of the year marked a continued return to normalcy as the COVID-19 federal public health emergency ended. Throughout the year, we saw a growth in people’s need for health care and use of services as they resumed normal activities and care that was paused during the pandemic.

Across the state, we helped to improve access to care and provide support where it was most needed. This was especially significant on Maui, which faced an obstetrician shortage and later, the impacts of the devastating West Maui wildfires. More on our support for Maui is included in our report.

Our dedicated employees play an important role in caring for our members and advancing our mission. To invest in HMSA’s workforce, we introduced an initiative called We Care that is building a better workplace and will ultimately benefit the people we proudly serve.

On our milestone 85th anniversary, we continue our work as Hawaii’s health plan of choice and a health organization that strives to improve the lives of our members and well-being of our communities for a more sustainable health care system.

Thank you for being a part of our journey in the past, today, and in the future. We appreciate your support.

Mahalo,

Signature of Mark Mugiishi

Mark M. Mugiishi, M.D., F.A.C.S.
President and Chief Executive Officer

Signature of Robert S. Harrison

Robert S. Harrison
Chair of the Board

Photo of Mark Mugiishi and Robert Harrison

Our Hearts are with Maui
 

Support for Maui

In 2023, Maui faced health and health care challenges like never before. From access to maternal care to aiding in the wildfire response, HMSA was there to support our members and Maui communities.

In early 2023, there were growing concerns about prenatal care on Maui because of a severe shortage of obstetricians. HMSA worked with our health care provider partners, Malama I Ke Ola, Queen’s University Medical Group (Queen’s), and Hawaii Independent Physicians Association (Hawaii IPA), to establish a solution to provide expecting moms on Maui with ongoing access to prenatal and obstetric care on island.

In response to the devastating wildfires in August 2023, HMSA’s Maui Wildfire Taskforce coordinated support to the Maui community by:

  • Deploying teams to immediately reach out to our members in the most affected areas to ensure they were able to access care.
  • Coordinating with Maui providers to facilitate member access to medical care and medications.
  • Sending outreach teams to temporary shelters to offer health coordination services, including pharmacy access, for displaced Maui residents.
  • Deferring premiums for affected employers.
  • Waiving prior authorizations and approving early prescription refills for Maui County members.
  • Providing grief counseling services through our mental health vendor, Carelon Behavioral Health℠, for those affected by the wildfires.
  • Donating airline miles to help offset travel costs and ensure providers could get to and from Maui.
  • Providing monetary donations to community organizations to support relief and recovery efforts.

Community Giving and Health Initiatives

HMSA invested more than $1.4 million in various organizations and initiatives that advance community health and well-being.

Highlights include:

  • $220,000 invested in nonprofits that address the social determinants of health (the major factors that impact health), including Aloha United Way, Family Promise Hawaii, Hawaii Foodbank, and more.
  • $111,000 invested in kauhale (group of houses) projects and other programs that address homelessness.
  • $50,000 invested in Boys & Girls Clubs of America in partnership with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and all Blue plans. This was a first-of-its-kind partnership to create a systemwide trauma-informed training program for Boys & Girls Clubs.

Organizations supported include:

  • After-School All-Stars
  • Aloha United Way
  • American Diabetes Association
  • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
  • Blood Bank of Hawaii
  • Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders
  • March of Dimes
  • Navian Hawaii
  • Project Vision Hawaii

As part of these efforts, HMSA and our employees and retirees donated more than $132,000 to Aloha United Way through a workplace giving campaign. HMSA also supported the ALICE (asset limited, income constrained, and employed) Initiative with a donation of $100,000.


HMSA Kaimana Awards & Scholarship Program

In 2023, the 18th annual program honored 15 students who each received $5,000 scholarships and nine Hawaii public and independent schools that received $1,500 awards. An in-person luncheon brought together recipients, parents, and school representatives from across the state.

Community Giving and Health Initiatives

Access to Quality Care for Members

HMSA is proud to offer quality health plans to individuals and families.

In 2023, HMSA Centers in Hilo, Honolulu, and Pearl City celebrated 10 years of serving members with in-person customer service, member education, and sales support. The HMSA Centers in Kahului and Lihue opened more recently to serve members.

Additional highlights:

  • The centers provided additional Medicare services and resources.
  • Continued to partner with CVS Caremark® to provide health education and hypertension classes for members and the community.
  • Return of in-person well-being and pre-retirement workshops at our centers.
  • Neighborhood center employees provided community and in-center support and services for our Maui community.

HMSA continues to provide tools that help members access quality care. With HMSA’s Online Care®, Hawaii-licensed doctors, including behavioral health providers, provide convenient non-emergency care to anyone in Hawaii through a computer or mobile device. In 2023, visits to Online Care increased 7% from the year before. Visits represented the highest use of the platform to date.

Member

792,055
members
(As of Dec. 31, 2023)

Laptop

146,586
HMSA's Online Care visits
(As of Dec. 31, 2023)


Working with Employers
 

Working with Employers

Employer groups faced continued economic challenges, higher costs for increased use of health care services by employees, and the Maui fires. Here’s how HMSA continued to provide value to employers statewide:

  • Worked with employers to provide options to mitigate an industrywide increase in medical trends following the pandemic, which helped manage health care costs.
  • HMSA service and sales teams prioritized supporting impacted Maui members and employer groups, providing health plan solutions and in-person member support.
  • Delivered a comprehensive proposal to our largest client, the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF). HMSA was later awarded a multiyear contract extension to continue to provide benefits to state, city, and county employees.
  • Expanded in-person and virtual options, health and well-being tools, and educational materials for employers and their employees.

In 2023, HMSA was proud to continue to receive high net promoter scores and customer satisfaction survey results from employers.

Our Provider Partners

HMSA is grateful for our large network of health care providers, health systems, hospitals, pharmacies, and provider organizations that we partner closely with to accomplish our shared goal of improving health in Hawaii.

Highlights of working with and supporting providers:

  • Value-based care: With our health systems partners, we continue to advance value-based care through clinical transformation and tighter financial integration with new value-based payment models for HMSA Medicare Advantage and commercial health plans.
  • Administrative burden reduction workgroup: We continue to meet regularly to work toward solutions to reduce administrative burden on providers.
  • HHIN+: Launch of new provider portal, Hawaii Healthcare Information Network+, with self-service features scheduled to be deployed in 2024.
  • Provider mobile self-service: Launch of new mobile self-service tool to conveniently check membership eligibility and claim status.
  • Provider call center: Enhancement of staffing and training tools resulted in calls being answered in under 60 seconds.
Our Provider Partners
Aligning with the Government
 

Aligning with the Government

Partnering with government leaders and advocating for positive changes in public policy is one of the many ways HMSA is improving the health of Hawaii.

2023 Hawaii State Legislature updates:

  • HMSA worked with the state’s Med-QUEST Division and key legislators to support increased reimbursements for Hawaii’s Medicaid providers, which will expand access for all QUEST Integration (Medicaid) members.
  • The 2023 legislative session also resulted in the passage of a bill to streamline the process for out-of-state physicians who want to practice in Hawaii, and another that would provide loan repayment assistance to new providers who commit to practicing in Hawaii. These efforts support Hawaii’s need for more health care providers, particularly in rural and underserved areas.

HMSA QUEST Integration and HMSA Medicare Advantage

HMSA offers state health plans for QUEST Integration (Medicaid) members and federal health plans for Medicare members. Highlights include:

HMSA QUEST Integration:

  • In 2023, HMSA welcomed over 7,500 new QUEST Integration members and ended the year providing health care and support for over 234,000 QUEST Integration members, the most in our organization’s history.
  • HMSA supported members and the state’s Med-QUEST Division through the eligibility renewal process, which began in April. The goal was to ensure that anyone who was eligible and relied on QUEST Integration remained covered and anyone who was no longer eligible found alternative health insurance for continued access to care.

HMSA Medicare Advantage:

  • In 2023, HMSA Medicare Advantage plans earned a 4-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for 2024. This achievement means HMSA Medicare Advantage plans are high performing when compared with other plans and reflects our commitment to improving the health and well-being of our members.
Investing in Our Employees
 
 

Investing in Our Employees

Caring for the people of Hawaii starts with caring for our employees. This strategy, branded We Care, is about building a culture that helps make our purpose a reality – supporting a healthier Hawaii for our friends, families, and neighbors. It includes working to achieve our culture vision by focusing on our purpose, people, work, and total rewards.

2023 highlights: More than 85% of employees provided input to leaders through a culture survey, total rewards survey, and virtual focus groups. This resulted in a comprehensive roadmap of initiatives to improve the employee experience at HMSA.

Circle of Caring: Team HMSA in the Community

Our Circle of Caring program gives employees opportunities to volunteer for community activities and programs. Many employees also volunteered on their own with organizations that they’re personally passionate about. In total, employees volunteered more than 1,600 hours.

Additionally:

  • HMSA supported events such as community health fairs, senior fairs, family-friendly events, community festivals, high school mock interviews, career days, and mentorship programs.
  • HMSA employees supported causes including volunteering with youth, board service, and environment, housing, and faith-based endeavors.
  • 102 employees donated 87 pints of blood for Blood Bank of Hawaii.
  • In September 2023, more than 500 members of Team HMSA participated in Out of the Darkness community walks held in person and virtually on Hawaii Island, Kauai, Maui, and Oahu. The walks helped raise awareness of mental health issues and suicide prevention and were HMSA’s largest community events since the pandemic started.
Investing in Our Employees
Investing in Our Employees
 
 
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2023 Financial Report [PDF]