Customer experience at HCA

Customer experience is the complete path a person takes when they connect with Health Care Authority (HCA) over time. It includes every step, every person or system they interact with, and how those moments feel to them. Customer experience isn’t only about what services we provide, it’s about how easy, clear, and supportive it feels for people to get the help they need.

What we mean by customer

We use customer as an inclusive term for anyone interacting with our services. Terms like member, patient, client, provider, enrollee, person with lived experience are other common terms we use to talk about customers, and each emphasizes different ways people can relate to HCA.

HCA plays a central role in improving customer experience for Washingtonians. Millions of people interact with our services each year, including Apple Health (Medicaid) clients, Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) and School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB) members, and physical and behavioral health care providers.

Why customer experience matters

Customer experience improvements help:

  • Make services easier to understand and use.
  • Reduce barriers for communities already facing more challenges.
  • Offer more self-service options to save time for customers and staff.
  • Make faster, more accurate decisions about eligibility and coverage.

This work is about more than process improvements. It’s a commitment to serve.

Tell us about your experience

Public input is essential to improving customer experience. HCA offers many ways for people to share feedback, participate in engagement opportunities, and help shape HCA services and policies.

Your Washington

In 2025, Governor Bob Ferguson signed Executive Order (EO) 25-06: Transforming Customer Experience and Service Delivery in State Government Operations. This Executive Order requires state agencies to make improvements to how they serve residents. It calls on state agencies to put people first by delivering accessible, responsive, and user-friendly services—whether someone is interacting online, by phone, or in person.

This work supports our mission to provide equitable, high-quality health care and connects with what we are already doing. When we make the customer experience better, we reduce barriers, make services fairer for everyone, and help build trust in government.

Your Washington was established by Governor Ferguson through EO 25-06 as the primary customer experience hub for Washington State agencies*.

Your Washington:

  • Guides and coordinates customer experience efforts across state agencies.
  • Helps agencies learn from customer feedback and improve continuously.
  • Hold agencies accountable for making service improvements.

* “Results Washington” is now “Your Washington.”

This change focuses on people, not just numbers. It helps us understand how well we serve you, learn from your feedback, and keep improving.

HCA’s role in improving customer experience

Customer experience is being woven into how HCA plans, measures, and delivers services. By embedding it into our agency strategic plan, we are making this work sustainable—not a one-time project, but a core part of how we operate.

This work builds on long-standing efforts at HCA, including:

  • Using plain language in communications.
  • Improving notices, letters, and online information.
  • Redesigning services based on customer feedback.

Executive Order (EO) 25-06 strengthens and aligns this work by providing clear direction and statewide coordination, allowing agencies to move forward together rather than in isolation.

Key service: Apple Health application process

As part of EO 25-06, agencies are required to identify key services for focused improvement. HCA has selected the Apple Health application process as our first key service.

We chose this service because it is one of our highest-volume interactions and often the first point of contact people have with HCA. Improving this experience will help people:

  • Apply more easily.
  • Get coverage and stay covered.
  • Access benefits and services.

HCA chose one key service to focus on for this phase but identified many other important services along the way. In the future, these services will help guide improvements through the agency so we can better understand your needs.

Tracking progress and improving services

HCA is taking a full-journey view of how people interact with us. By mapping end-to-end customer journeys, we can better understand where people struggle, why systems break down, and how we can simplify and improve experiences.

We are committed to sharing our progress with you, including:

  • What’s working.
  • What we’re learning.
  • What changes are needed.

This will help build a statewide picture of better service for all Washingtonians.