Andrea Amelse, Author at mPulse

4 Largest Barriers to Treating Mental Health and Solutions to Address Them

Posted on June 21, 2021May 5, 2023 by Andrea Amelse

1 in 5 U.S. adults live with mental illness which means that likely you or someone you know is struggling with a mental health condition. We’ve come great lengths in destigmatizing mental health in the past several years and the pandemic brought forward the need for access to mental health services. Still, over half of U.S. adults with a mental illness don’t receive routine treatment.

Untreated mental illness accounts for $113 billion in annual health expenses. Identifying barriers to treatment and helping fill gaps in care for those living with mental illness will not only lower costs but allow us to provide resources, support and guidance.

We’ve identified the 4 largest barriers and practical strategies to begin addressing each:

1. Availability

Challenge: The shortage of mental health practitioners in the U.S. is staggering, with some patients waiting between 3 months and 1 year before receiving treatment. Longer wait times put patients at a higher risk for having a mental health crisis and increase likelihood the patient will be a no-show.

Solution: The availability and development of digital mental health programs and services has helped solve this challenge. The app market for mental health tech is predicted to reach $149.3 billion by 2028. Teletherapy apps such as Better Help and Talkspace offer therapy and mental health resources on-demand. Meditation apps like Calm and Headspace have gained popularity rapidly, with combined 165 million downloads in 2020 alone. What consumers expect from their favorite apps and brands, they’ll begin to expect from their health plans and systems.

Having user-friendly digital tools and resources that are on-demand and easy to navigate will drive access and utilization. Communicating and building relationships with your population through conversations allows you to understand their needs while also creating awareness. mPulse uses experiential and existing data to deliver these programs, resources and education to each member while meeting them where they are.

2. Inequity

Challenge: Minority populations, the elderly and people with disabilities are at a higher risk of developing a mental health condition, and also experience greater barriers to care. Accessibility to services despite limitations is crucial.

Solution: Ensuring the services and programs you offer are easy to navigate, multilingual, and are indicative of the populations you want to reach allows your members to feel seen, heard and accounted for. At mPulse, we factor in several elements on each member’s profile including language, religion, gender, background and more. We send tailored dialogue and resources that support their preferences and allow them to access care that reflects each of their preferences. Learn more about how we tailor programs for each individual.

 3. Cost

Challenge: The leading causes of stress among U.S. adults is financial insecurity. Poverty and economic strain create a number of elevated health risks, particularly disparities in mental health.

Solution: Offering financial support services, financial education and low-cost programs can help give patients and members the support they need. Offering low-cost digital programs and creating awareness of these resources will also increase accessibility. mPulse can help identify cost barriers and send financial support programs or low-cost resources to members in need of these services.

4. Education

Challenge: Knowledge gaps are the biggest contributor to misunderstanding mental health. Roughly 90% of people living with a mental illness say that stigma and discrimination have had a negative affect on their lives.

Solution: Mental health is vital part of overall health and educating your population will encourage members to seek help. Education helps destigmatize mental health, provides condition-specific knowledge and can support gaps in care, medication management and more. The Big Know is mPulse Mobile’s streaming health education capability. We leverage popular health experts to teach high-value topics that range from holistic wellbeing to condition-specific content. The commercial-quality education uses our trademarked learning model and behavioral data science to inspire health literacy at scale. To sample some of our mental health streaming content, click here.

Interested in learning more about how our solutions and capabilities can help solve engagement and barrier challenges for your organization? Contact us to learn more.

The Evolution of Member Engagement

Posted on April 2, 2021January 19, 2024 by Andrea Amelse

Healthcare member engagement plays a crucial role in the success of health plans. With over 80% of healthpayers investing in member engagement, it’s clear that leveraging innovative technology, integrated care models, and frictionless communication is vital.

This article explores how health plans can enhance member engagement, focusing on:

Member retention
Improved health outcomes, and
Cost reduction.

Member engagement in healthcare involves creating meaningful interactions between health plans and their members. It’s about delivering personalized experiences ensuring members are informed, involved, and motivated to manage their health.

The importance of healthcare member engagement

Effective member engagement increases member satisfaction, better health outcomes, and reduced healthcare costs. It also contributes to positive survey results and protects the financial viability of health plans.

Challenges in healthcare member engagement

Many health plans face challenges in engaging their members due to fragmented communication, lack of personalized experiences, and evolving consumer expectations.

4 Strategies for improving healthcare member engagement

1. 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; quality health content will keep them engaged in their care. To engage today’s health consumer, you need to begin looking at modern trends to inform your strategy.

2. Simplified and unified care models will be mandatory to increase satisfaction

Your favorite social channels and online shopping experiences 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 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, 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 the 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.

3. 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 the knowledge to prevent chronic conditions, determine the right care level, and navigate their benefits.

Through rich media, we can educate members on key topics such as medication adherence, nutrition, exercise, mental well-being, 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.

4. 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 improve 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. Promoting and adopting innovative, streamlined, accessible resources and technology is the key to a lasting and impactful member engagement strategy.

Role of technology in member engagement

Advancements in technology, like conversational AI and streaming content, are transforming member engagement. These tools allow health plans to create personalized, engaging experiences at scale.

Measuring and evaluating member engagement

Monitoring key metrics and KPIs is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of member engagement strategies. This data helps in making informed decisions and refining engagement approaches.

Best practices to follow

Implementing a patient-centric approach from the onset, particularly during onboarding.
Utilizing digital platforms for effective communication and education.
Integrating behavioral science to understand and influence member behavior.

Health plans must adopt innovative strategies for healthcare member engagement to stay competitive and effective. Health plans can significantly enhance member satisfaction and health outcomes by focusing on personalized, technology-driven solutions.

For health plans looking to revolutionize their member engagement strategies and achieve sustainable success, Contact us to discover how we can transform your approach to healthcare member engagement.

How Education Leads to Activation

Posted on January 29, 2021October 31, 2022 by Andrea Amelse

Health Literacy is the key to activating health consumers and lowering costs to serve.

As it stands today, 9 in 10 US adults lack basic health literacy. This gap in knowledge leads to poor lifestyle choices, which drive 70% of healthcare costs.

Educated health consumers feel empowered to make choices that create better health outcomes and lower costs to serve. But how can we ensure we’re reaching the right people at the right time and delivering quality, tailored content that gives consumers the confidence to own their health?

We’ve identified three key areas that need to be addressed in order to drive healthy behavior change that scales.

Bring Content to Your Consumer

Hosting good educational content on a portal or website and hoping for your consumers to stumble upon it is not a winning strategy. Neither is blasting out mass messages that they begin to tune out after the 5th or 6th message to watch a video about a condition they don’t have, or a problem they already solved. With rich data available, we now have the insights needed to understand health consumers on an individual level and tailor not only what is said, but in what format the message is sent. This is particularly critical when addressing health disparities, or other health barriers.

By aligning your digital experience journey, you can assess and adapt your communication strategy to the individual’s needs. If we want health consumers to learn to make smarter health decisions, we have to meet them where they are.

Shift Content from Informational to Educational

Video streaming services account for over half of global time spent online. With streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu making highly-produced cinematic content the norm, other industries need to meet rising consumer expectations. Viewers are 9 times more likely to retain information from video versus text.

Quality content not only holds our attention, but also ties into credibility. Healthcare is no exception. Personalized educational content delivered to consumers when and where they need it is the future.

So if education drives lifestyle choices, and choices drive costs, shouldn’t we invest in better education? Yes. But that’s not the problem. From Dr. Google and WebMD to a take-home pamphlet a nurse gives you, most health “education” is built to inform—not to teach.

We know from adult learning theory that simply telling someone to read, watch or listen is not enough. These are inherently passive ways to impart information. If we want real learning and change to occur, we need to design learning experiences that give us ways to reflect, process and apply what we’re learning.

Across need state or wellbeing dimension, a properly designed digital learning experience can personalize to the individual’s needs and guide them to the right programs.

Provide Actionable Next Steps

In order to close gaps in care and deliver those key metrics, action is needed and action equals outcomes.

Now that we’ve gotten a consumer’s attention through their preferred channel and taught them something of value, how do we want them to apply this information? Directing users to appropriate calls to action and applicable programs, resources or services drives confident decisions inspired by health literacy.

Ready to revolutionize the definition of health engagement? Talk to us.

How We Tailor Healthcare Engagement Content

Posted on January 15, 2021March 28, 2023 by Andrea Amelse

As consumers, most of us have grown to expect personalized and relevant messaging from the companies we interact with. Think of the pleasant surprise when you receive a coupon for a product you wanted, or by contrast, the irritation of irrelevant messages about something you were never going to buy cluttering your email inbox before you eventually flag as spam. There are two ways for organizations to provide the better experience: a lucky guess (really a broadcast message that at least a small percentage of the audience will find useful) or aligning outreach with individual-level data. In order to earn and maintain consumer attention and ultimately drive action, successful organizations understand that each touchpoint must happen as part of a coordinated, long-term relationship, not in one-time campaigns. This means each piece of content delivered in any given consumer engagement program must be timely and tailored.

Healthcare organizations must deliver this same integrated experience in order to truly engage members and patients. With multiple outreach programs in place, often across departments with competing schedules and priorities, this poses a unique challenge. Barraging members with excessive information only causes frustration and damages trust, especially if some of the messages aren’t relevant to each person. Getting members to engage with content and ultimately act upon it requires first knowing what content will be important to them, and delivering it at the right time.

mPulse Mobile built our proprietary content recommendation engine, mCare, to solve this problem a few years ago. Our customers were engaging members in dialogue via text, but were struggling to leverage the insights from their responses to inform the next touchpoint days or weeks later. Since most 3rd party recommendation engines are not focused on healthcare or conversational engagement, we built our own to fit with the kinds of activation-focused solutions that healthcare requires.

mCare not only delivers relevant content designed to drive action, but it also orchestrates each touchpoint over time, so that members are engaged rather than overwhelmed. We get a lot of questions about mCare and the Activation Intelligence process that it drives, so we put together a quick overview here.

Understanding, Tailoring, and Activating

The first step in this process is understanding the individual. We maintain persistent and dynamic profiles of members that combine a range data attributes, including demographics, health status, psychographics, engagement data, and more that can depend on the customer and solutions. Member profiles constantly evolve as we learn more about each individual, including information gathered through dialogue interactions automated by Conversational AI. This comprehensive understanding is key to determining the right topics for each member.

mCare matches members to content by comparing key profile attributes to our content libraries, and then selects the single next best content topic. Say you have a new member who we know to have a chronic condition such as diabetes. mCare will search all available content and dialogues to match this individual to topics that are relevant—a new member welcome, prompts to schedule an eye exam, or educational health tips.

While all of these subjects are pertinent, receiving several messages, or even several multi-message dialogues, at once could overwhelm and frustrate the member while dulling the impact of each. mCare uses rules configured for each customer and population that are informed by mPulse’s behavioral data science principles. It selects the best topic and prioritizes that conversation – for instance, a new member welcome over an immediate ask to schedule the eye exam. As the person engages (or doesn’t), their profile will update, along with any new data we get directly from the customer. So at the next touchpoint (e.g. a week later), mCare will make an even better informed decision.

This is also where automatically tailoring content can become very powerful. In that diabetic member example, the person may not have responded to the welcome dialogue. So when mCare runs again, it notes the lower engagement level and selects an eye exam reminder that has been written to target hard-to-reach and lower engagement populations instead of a more standard one. Whether mCare sends a follow up eye exam reminder, or changes tailoring tactics later on, would depend on whether the member engages and takes action.

Tailored and timely delivery of content is the beginning of effective engagement. mCare starts with the most important topic first and ensures that all subsequent touchpoints are delivered in a coordinated, prioritized fashion over weeks, months, or years. The ranking and importance of each topic within mCare is determined customer business goals and desired program results, as well as input from our team of behavioral data scientists to drive health outcomes. This means that a series of diet and exercise tips for a member population would be superseded by a vaccine reminder at the beginning of flu season.

Starting a conversation with the right message at the right time earns members’ trust, attention, and builds stronger relationships. To truly deliver optimal engagement, mCare handles diverse types of content and can send them across channels. Flexible and scalable, these content libraries can expand and the content recommendation engine can adjust based on shifting business needs and priorities. Rather than starting over for each campaign, mCare views each person in the context of an ongoing and evolving relationship to ensure your consumers are engaging with valuable, tailored content to activate healthy behaviors.

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Author: Andrea Amelse