There was a transportation study done once that corroborated what drivers knew from the frustration of being struck in traffic: despite claims to reduce traffic, building more highways actually creates more congestion. For every percentage increase in highway capacity there is an equal increase in the amount of traffic. Complexity did not deliver simplicity.

Marin Hoffman is vice president of member success at Transcarent.

I used to think about that when I was a corporate benefits manager reviewing RFIs and RFPs during the annual cycle to select health care vendors, whose offerings ran the gamut from comprehensive care management to point solutions, from clinical intervention to wellness regimens. I worked for a large Midwest self-insured company that employed several hundred thousand people, and the span of our health care needs did feel as vast as the L.A. freeway system. The challenge to provide better health care for a population that ranged from executives living in mansions to line workers who were sometimes homeless was daunting. Every spring, I struggled to navigate the multiple lanes, cloverleafs and ramps of vendor noise that created more congestion in our benefits programs, when what we needed was a simple, straightforward ride. Yet, simple was nowhere on the map. Every year it was the same. 2021, however, can and must be different.