Elizabeth Rice

Administrator, Mayo Clinic Complex Care Program

Mayo Clinic

Elizabeth Rice is the Administrator for the Mayo Clinic Complex Care Program, a customizable Centers of Excellence Offering for employers that helps individuals with complex and serious health conditions access Mayo Clinic’s high-quality, cost-effective care. With more than 15 years of experience at Mayo Clinic, Elizabeth is responsible for the program’s business plan and performance, partnering with internal stakeholders, and leading the team to advance strategic external relationships. Prior to this role, Elizabeth was the director of channel marketing for Mayo Clinic and had responsibility for improving brand performance and generating patient demand. She also led the launch of Mayo Clinic’s first-ever national advertising campaign. Elizabeth has a bachelor's degree from Drake University and an MBA from Augsburg College. Elizabeth and her husband reside just outside Rochester, Minn., and when she’s not working, she is usually driving to and from sports practices and games for their three children.

Speaker Questionnaire

What is the biggest thing you learned in 2020?

Flexibility and patience.

What do you feel are the two most important benefits or areas that need to be a top priority in 2021?

Building a strategy for complex care. Ensuring members are not delaying necessary care/treatment.

Can you share a story on an area of your healthcare program or employee benefits where you were able to create significant savings or stop costs from rising?

Based upon record reviews for more than 1,000 patients across multiple employer groups who were referred into the Mayo Clinic Complex Care Program in the past 5 years, nearly half (49%) had a chance to their diagnosis – either a clarification, addition, or complete change. We’ve even seen several patients with the most common cancer types who did NOT have cancer. Additionally, 80% of the patients reviewed had a change made to their treatment plan – this could mean a complete change, adding additional therapies, or offering options that weren’t available locally like proton beam therapy, CAR-T, or preemptive kidney transplants. For employers with a mandatory spine benefit through Mayo Clinic, we typically see more than 50% of patients who were recommended for surgery locally, do not need surgery. Based on our experience, an employer with 100K covered lives, could experience $2-$5M in annual cost savings from spine surgical avoidance alone.

If you could automatically receive a 10-20% reduction in costs in three areas/programs, what would your dream list be?

What is the most innovative program you will focus on in 2021 and/or 2022?

Expanding the reach of the Mayo Clinic Complex Care Program.

How are you re-imagining corporate culture & well-being?

What virtual care solutions did you roll out during the pandemic? How valuable were they and why?

Due to the current state of emergency, Mayo Clinic has had the ability to perform virtual care via video visits with subspecialized experts across state lines. As the executive order expires, we are considering how to continue to provide virtual care with the expansion of state licensure and/or via eReviews (medical record reviews with a travel recommendation).

If you look at our 3 Moonshots - Costs, Culture, and Care; In one sentence, tell us what would be something positive for us to take from 2020 and bring into this new year?

2020 brought to light the importance of health and health care in every aspect of our lives, as well as the need to seek cost-effective solutions that impact the bottom line. Keeping this focus, employers should seek sustainable ways to manage and control health care costs, including getting the right diagnosis and care plan at the right time and increasing the value of their benefits package.

What are your top priorities for employee health and well-being in 2022?

What are the most innovative programs that you will focus on in 2022 and 2023?

Looking at our three moonshots surrounding costs, culture, and care, which do you align with the most? What are you doing in this area?

If you could automatically receive a 25% reduction in costs in three areas/programs, what would your dream list be?

Is there an area where you were able to either create savings or stop costs from rising?

Are you doing anything to reimagine corporate culture and wellbeing?

If there were two physical solutions that could be turned into virtual or remote care instead, what would those be?

If you look at our 3 Moonshots - Costs, Culture, and Care; In one sentence, tell us what would be something positive for us to take from 2020 and bring into this new year?

2020 brought to light the importance of health and health care in every aspect of our lives, as well as the need to seek cost-effective solutions that impact the bottom line. Keeping this focus, employers should seek sustainable ways to manage and control health care costs, including getting the right diagnosis and care plan at the right time and increasing the value of their benefits package.

Sessions Speaking

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1 Conference. 3 Moonshots.

Remember the mission to reach the moon? In 1962, President JFK set forth a vision. He initiated a movement that outlived him! Even in his death, the mission was accomplished seven years after his famous speech. Now we’re on a five-year mission, and it's not about us. This is a mission for you – the individual, the stakeholder, the employer healthcare and benefits professional. Join the mission to reduce costs, reimagine culture, and reinvent care.