Better Benefits for Women and Families with Maven Clinic

by Leslie Harding | May 10, 2021

Women and growing families have healthcare needs that often fall through the cracks of today’s healthcare system. Maven Clinic’s healthcare solutions provide critical support across fertility, pregnancy, parenting, and pediatrics so that working parents can be healthy and productive. Sonia Millsom is Chief Commercial Officer at Maven Clinic, where she leads their growth efforts, revenue, and customer lifecycle. Sonia is a veteran of the healthcare space and is a sought after speaker, advisor, and mentor.

Sonia’s Journey in Healthcare

Sonia’s interest in working in healthcare started early as she was a Peace Corps volunteer working in maternal health after she graduated from college. She saw firsthand some of the issues that exist with healthcare delivery as she assisted with 27(!) births. She experienced the reality of a lack of appropriate prenatal and postpartum care and how it can impact mother and child. This fueled her passion for helping vulnerable populations. Since then, she has worked in a wide variety of healthcare roles before joining Maven Clinic last year.

Problems Facing Women in the U.S. Healthcare System 

Sonia reports that there are three major buckets of problems that women experience in the U.S healthcare system.

The first bucket is cost and outcome. Despite the significant amount of resources spent on maternal healthcare, the U.S. ranks highest of developed nations in maternal mortality, and that rate is 2.5 times higher for Black women and 3 times higher for Hispanic women. From a demographic perspective, that has huge impacts on care for women in this country.

The second bucket is the healthcare system. There is fragmented care, which makes it hard for women to coordinate the care they need. Nobody's journey to parenthood is the same, and everyone approaches healthcare in a different way. Right now it’s hard to get comprehensive care.

The third bucket is a lack of consumerism. This is something that can be seen throughout the entire healthcare system. It is a system that wasn’t designed with women in mind, even though they make many healthcare decisions for themselves and their families. 

How Maven is Addressing Healthcare Challenges

Maven Clinic thinks about healthcare in a comprehensive way to deliver better care at a lower cost. They offer support with pre-conception, paths to parenthood, prenatal care, postpartum care, parenting, and pediatrics up to age ten. They also think about care from a global perspective, particularly as employers are thinking about parity between international and domestic benefits. That gives them a unique perspective on creating a great experience for their customers.

Maven’s Three Core Pillars:

1. Care advocacy - Care advocates hold your hand virtually throughout your whole experience with Maven, guiding you to the best quality care in your area and helping you take advantage of all your health insurance benefits. This helps facilitate trust and builds relationships with members, so they know they have someone they can turn to when they need care.
2. Telehealth - Built before virtual care was more of the norm, Maven’s telehealth offers 25 different specialties, with a diverse group of providers that can meet the unique needs of all members. Telehealth facilitates on-demand care that supports members when they need it.
3. Content and community - Maven curates information that may be relevant to members delivering the right info at the right time. Community is so important during the process of growing your family. Maven creates support groups for many diverse topics and situations so they can deliver a best in class outcome in clinical, financial, and personal satisfaction.

How the Pandemic has Impacted Maven 

All of the communities that Maven works with have been impacted by the pandemic, including employers, employees, and the Maven team. Sonia shared with us, “We also think about the 8 million women that we’ve served since we were founded and our own community within Maven that is 160 employees and going strong.” Serving this diverse group of people during the pandemic has been a guiding light for Maven. 

Employers have also been asking for new programs in light of the pandemic. Things like weekly benefit meetings to talk about current issues and manager training for HR professionals. The team at Maven Clinic is nimble, open to listening to customers and innovating to deliver what they want. 

What’s Next for Maven 

Next up is a new program called Maven RX, a specialised pharmacy network that allows women to get discounted fertility prescriptions sent to their home same-day or next-day. They can also get advice from pharmacists on any questions they may have. Maven is also looking to expand on a global basis, creating parity with other countries' healthcare offerings. 

Maven Clinic is also thinking about vulnerable populations as they build new programs. Medicaid is a huge opportunity to help parents and change outcomes for women’s health. Not everybody is getting healthcare from work and they still need solutions like Maven Clinic.

Hear more from Sonia in the full episode:

Sonia's Resources 

For Sonia, people are the greatest resource. That’s why she recommends the Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation (WBL), a nonprofit connecting women business leaders in the healthcare industry. The WBL is all about providing mentoring, networking, and career growth opportunities. Now more than ever, women helping other women is so important. 

If you want to get in touch with Sonia or learn more about Maven, visit MavenClinic.com. Note, this episode is for informational and educational purposes only. Sonia Millsom and Maven Clinic are not endorsed, affiliated with, nor compensated by Greenhouse Life Insurance Company.

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