Member engagement is the foundation of payer success. Without innovative technology, integrated care models and frictionless communication, health plans will struggle to engage their members and achieve these three success indictors:
- Member retention and satisfaction
- Health Outcomes and positive survey results
- Cost reduction and protection
Over 80% of Health Payers are investing in member engagement. Over half of Payers have said they’ve boosted member engagement staffing and have made significant investments to support member engagement goals.
There are scalable ways to create member engagement experiences that tailor to the individual needs of each member while reaching them through their preferred channels. If you want to engage today’s health consumer, you need to begin looking at modern trends to inform your strategy.
Here are 4 key factors to keep in mind when building a scalable engagement model for your organization:
What consumers expect from their favorite brands, they’ll expect from healthcare.
The average US adult spends an average of 12 hours a day on media. This number continues to increase annually and highlights a clear message: if we want to engage members, we need to communicate with them through their preferred channels.
With consumer brands continually evolving their UX and products to get ahead of the competition, health plans will be expected to follow suit. Members associate quality and credibility with content and communication models that exceed their expectations. Preferred channels will help you reach your members, and quality content will keep them engaged in their care.
Simplified and unified care models will be mandatory to increase satisfaction
When you think of your favorite social channels and online shopping experiences, they more than likely have one thing in common: They are designed to bring you back to a single destination. You only log in once, and the experience feels effortless and caters to your preferences. When you’re frustrated with a product’s website interface, you probably won’t make a purchase now or in the future – this same principle applies to health care. A seamless member experience drives higher HEDIS ratings, HOS scores and satisfaction surveys. Fractured and misaligned experiences will yield poor outcomes, stunted new member growth, increased complaints and appeals, and higher customer service line utilization.
This begins with the onboarding process. Straight out of the gate, establishing clear communication with new members will help them feel welcomed, inform them about their plan information and provide the opportunity to confirm data and encourage members to submit an HRA. Setting high engagement expectations early on increases the likelihood of engagement throughout membership.
Ensuring all of your programs and services are accessible, easy to navigate and play together nicely will save both you and your members time and money.
Focus on education, specifically for latent unhealthy populations
Empowering members throughout their health journey with tailored learning experiences will impact health outcomes and satisfaction. Patients forget over 80% of what they’re told during POC, and often will visit doctor Google to learn more about their health, which doesn’t always yield accurate results. The days of print-outs are coming to an end: streaming content accounts for over 50% of global time spent online and viewers are over 9 times more likely to retain information from video vs text. Cinematic, tailored education delivered to members through their preferred channels will absolutely win your org brownie points while empowering members to own their health journey and sustaining member engagement time.
This is particularly important when reaching latent unhealthy populations and providing them with knowledge to prevent chronic conditions, determine the right level of care and navigating their benefits.
Through rich media we can educate members on key topics such as medication adherence, nutrition, exercise, mental wellbeing and more. For those living with chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, health literacy increases quality measures, and lowers costs for plans and members.
Sustained engagement = rich data
Gathering rich data across member services from specific populations will increase engagement and scale your efforts into the future. Sharing this data across your organization will strengthen internal efforts and increase alignment, ensuring better outcomes and higher quality of care.
The ecosystem of how members interact with their plans is evolving to meet the growing demand of what consumers expect today. Promotion and adoption of innovative, streamlined and accessible resources and technology is the key to a lasting and impactful member engagement strategy.
