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Tag: Medicaid

The State of Health Disengagement

Posted on by mPulse Team

How do we unlock digital to get more people enrolled, lower costs to serve, and improve health outcomes at scale?

That question sums up a major challenge and business imperative to lift programs and people. To frame up that challenge, three key gaps must be considered for meaningful innovation:

The Health Programs Gap

There’s no shortage of solutions or investment focused on the problem. By 2027, the global corporate health and wellness market is expected to exceed $100 billion.

From health coaches to wellness programs, EAPs to DPPs, 401k to HSA, there’s a lot of shorthand around programs that are too often short on utilization.

By the Numbers

At a time when nearly half of U.S. adults report struggles with mental health or substance abuse, only 5% of employees reach out to their EAP. Plus, 6 in 10 are unaware of wellness programs that offer incentives just to engage.

Meanwhile, better convenience and reduced risk of illness are driving more health consumers to telemedicine for mental health and routine care than ever before.

Bottom Line

You likely have many programs in place to support the rising need for total-person care. The opportunity is now to connect your offerings and streamline the digital path to serving the right ones based on need.

By aligning your human services alongside your digital experience journey, you can start shifting from push-based efforts across disconnected programs to a pull-based model that assesses and adapts to the individual’s needs.

The Health Literacy Gap

Patty Starr at Health Action Council sums it up: “Health literacy is the key to lowering healthcare costs and better education is the key to health literacy.”

By the Numbers

As just a sample of an increasingly global problem, 88% of U.S. adults lack health literacy skills needed to manage their health and prevent disease or other illness. 70% of healthcare costs come from lifestyle choices, and people with lower health literacy report worse outcomes.

Bottom Line

Back up. Nearly 9 in 10 adults lack health literacy? That’s a huge number. And part of the problem is that people don’t know their numbers, from reading nutrition labels and measuring medications to understanding lifestyle factors and personal health history.

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 to a WebMD article (designed to sell ads) to a pamphlet to take home, 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. In doing so, it can help us solve the health program gap and the health literacy gap at the same time.

The Latent Health Gap

When we look at health programs and services offered today, we see a spectrum from prevention to intervention.

On one side, wellness and benefits offerings are trying to expand beyond hand raisers to help more people quit smoking, move more, or talk to a health expert to start us down a healthier path.

On the intervention side, disease management, care coordination and a host of point solutions are trying to reach people before major issues occur.

That movement to the middle is by no mistake. The vast majority of people show up in the middle. Except, they don’t show up. That’s the problem.

So now that we’ve covered key gaps behind health disengagement, how can we align with evolving consumer behaviors to lift engagement at scale?

Keep Reading: The Future of Health Literacy

What Plans Need to Know About DHCS Latest Release of Guiding Principles

Posted on by Andrea Amelse

In March 2022, DHCS released key guiding principles and considerations Medi-Cal plans will need to consider when designing programs for their Medicaid members, specifically youth and families. With 1 in 3 Californians insured under Medi-Cal, and over 13 million members at stake, these principles will become key focus areas for plans in 2023 and beyond.

The Challenge

To set the stage, in 2019–20, Medi-Cal brought in more than $65 billion in federal funds and accounted for nearly 16% of all state general fund spending. People with disabilities comprise 9% of Medi-Cal enrollees, and account for 31% of total spending. Children account for 17% of enrollees, but only 6% of the total spend.

And quality measures haven’t seen much improvement, with more than half of the measures staying the same or declining from 2009 to 2018. In summary, quality of care has declined on four measures, and hasn’t improved on 12 measures. What’s worse, three of the four measures that did decline were related to the care of children covered under Medi-Cal. Six of the nine measures related to children declined or stayed the same, with only three measures seeing improvement. The decline in quality prompted state-wide action, which led to DHCS creating 8 guiding principles to improve health outcomes at scale.

This article will look at three of the eight principles and provide plans with insights and opportunities to apply DHCS strategy in supporting families and children covered by Medi-Cal while enhancing health outcomes for the nation’s most vulnerable population.

Want to read about all 8 of the Guiding Principles and recommendations for implementing each one? Download our Medi-Cal Brief »

Strengthen the Coverage Base for California’s Children

  • Premiums will be reduced to zero to ensure accessibility for all Medi-Cal families.
  • Presumptive eligibility will expand to ensure families and children in need can receive care more quickly.

Opportunity

California has ensured a simplified enrollment and eligibility process for Medi-Cal, which has enabled the state to rank among the top third in the county in its child health coverage rates. California reduced the uninsured rate for Latino children to less than half the national average. Unfortunately, progress has declined in recent years, and the uninsured rate is beginning to gradually increase. With zero-dollar premiums and presumptive eligibility, plans will need to onboard and educate members about their benefits faster.

mPulse Improves Member Knowledge of Plan Benefits by 91%

Strategy: Deploy 2-way text messaging to gauge new members’ understanding of plan benefits and available resources, educate and improve utilization of plan benefits.

By using demographic datasets from our SDoH Index, we assessed and segmented the target population. Interactive polls, on-demand resources and open-ended questions were sent to members to continually gather insights while pointing them toward tailored resources.

Outcome: 91% of members found the text messages helped improve their understanding of the plan’s benefits and services. The number of members who reported they would visit the ER for a minor condition dropped from 11% to 4%. The engagement score, based on response and sentiment, was 2.5 times higher than the control group.

Fortify the Pediatric Preventive and Primary Care Foundation

  • A new population health management (PHM) strategy will be implemented to establish a checklist for plans to identify and serve children in need of care coordination.
  • New resources will be implemented in practice transformation for pediatric providers and primary care providers serving pregnant and youth members.
  • An educational outreach campaign will be deployed for EPSDT for members, providers, and MCPs.
  • Improve criteria and procedures used to determine when children receive behavioral health services, specialty mental health services, and substance use disorder treatment.
  • Expansion of preventive pediatric dental benefits.
  • Participate in CMS infant well-child visits learning collaborative for health care payment learning and action network state transformation collaborative (STC).
  • Continued support for the ACEs Aware Initiative and provider training grants.

Opportunity

Early Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) is the foundation for necessary adolescent care. Contract requirements in the upcoming Medi-Cal MCP procurement will create greater visibility and enforcement of EPSDT services under DHCS. Ensuring members receive education and information on the importance of these services is essential in building member self-efficacy.

mPulse Drives 66% Well-Child Visit Attendance

Strategy: Better manage children’s health outcomes by driving awareness of well-child visits, immunizations, and primary care visits via 2-way text messages.

Outcome: 66% of members attended at least one well-care visit. 83% of targeted members had their child vaccinated. 29% of members aged 18-21 successfully transitioned from a pediatrician to a primary care provider.

Get more outcomes and guiding principle recommendations by downloading the complete content »

Strengthen Access to Pediatric Vaccinations

  • Deploy COVID-19 pediatric vaccines to meet California’s “Vaccinate All 58” goals.
  • Develop a Vaccines for Children (VFC) plan with CDPH to increase vaccinations and increase vaccine education.
  • Increase vaccination rate of pregnant Medi-Cal members.

Opportunity

The United States saw a country-wide decline in vaccination rates throughout the pandemic with a 40% reduction in childhood vaccination rates in April 2020. California saw a vaccination rate of 35% in children for 2020. To prioritize increasing the Medi-Cal vaccination rate, more work will be required by plans in developing programs and initiatives that support vaccine education and helping overcome vaccine hesitancy.

mPulse Uses Streaming Health Education to Increase Vaccine Readiness

Strategy: Build self-efficacy and increase vaccine readiness by providing visual storybooks and using behavioral science techniques to help overcome barriers and vaccine hesitancy. 2.6 million messages were sent, and 1.8 million dialogues were initiated in both English and Spanish translation.

Outcome: 18.9% of members replied to a message or clicked a link. 72% of members who interacted with our vaccine storybook were more likely to get vaccinated.

Why Plans Should Leverage Text Messaging Outreach

In 2019, more than 94% of California households had internet access, although significant gaps remain with families of color and lower incomes having less access than white households. With organizations like iFoster, the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), and California LifeLine working to provide internet access and cell phones to those who need it most, cell phone and internet access will only continue to increase.

Compliance Considerations

When it comes to healthcare, communicating with members through text messaging can be somewhat daunting. mPulse Mobile is HITRIST, HIPAA, and TCPA-compliant and has deployed programs with leading Medi-Cal plans while ensuring compliance and member privacy is top of mind.

The TCPA healthcare exemption enables health organizations to deliver messages without prior express consent, as long as they abide by the following rules:

  • Must be HIPAA compliant, and not promotional or soliciting.
  • Messages can only be sent to the phone number provides and must state the name and contact information of the sender.
  • Voice messages must be under 1 minute, and text massages less than 160 characters.
  • Messaging frequency needs to be less than once per day, and no more than three times per week.
  • Messages must offer an opt-out and opt-outs must be honored accordingly.

As a company 100% focused on health engagement, security and compliance are mPulse Mobile’s highest priority, and all our solutions are designed with compliance as the foundation.

Conclusion

To improve quality measures and enhance outcomes for Medi-Cal youth and families, DHCS will be enforcing these policies and principles alongside Medi-Cal plans to increase utilization of new resources and services. mPulse Mobile’s suite of solutions are designed to drive engagement and increase utilization of plan benefits. Our frictionless engagement methods are proven to empower health literacy and self-efficacy. By partnering with us, plans can proactively implement DHCS principles into their enterprise strategy to deliver outcomes that matter most: healthier communities and greater quality of care for California’s most vulnerable members.

7 Ways to Use Streaming Content in Your Health Communication, Part 2

Posted on by mPulse Team

In part 1 of this blog series, we looked at the power of Fotonovelas, Interactive Content, and Animations to drive action in health consumers. All this content does the same thing: it goes beyond just telling a member or patient that taking an action is important. It teaches someone why it’s important and what can be gained or lost by action or inaction.

There are more types of content that can be used to solve some pervasive health challenges, though. In this post, we’ll tackle four of the top performing content types that can be used to do this: Courses, Expert Led Lessons, Stories, and Self-Assessments.

Courses to Manage Anxiety and Depression

The World Health Organization estimates lost production as the result of anxiety and depression costs the global economy over $1 trillion every year.  And, of course, it isn’t just a productivity issue. Mood disorders make it harder for people to stick with treatment plans, manage chronic conditions, and keep doctor appointments, which can have an overall impact on health and cost of healthcare treatment in the long term.

This makes it an important topic for plans and providers to discuss with their health consumers. Our 5-part course, Living with Anxiety and Depression, taught by author and mindfulness guru, Elisha Goldstein, PhD, teaches self-care strategies for navigating the negativity loop that can serve to keep many of us stuck in negative patterns and behaviors making it a truly powerful learning experience. Healthcare organizations can license the content to provide it any number of ways, including in their own branded content portal.

And anxiety doesn’t just affect adults. According to the CDC, approximately one out of every 10 kids (ages 3-17) have a confirmed anxiety diagnosis. The Parenting Kids with Anxiety course led taught by child psychologist and author, Renee Jain, contains five lessons focused on helping parents help their children transform their feelings of anxiety so they can all find calm, courage, and resilience.

Expert Led Lessons to Empower Consumers

Patients can often feel powerless when they engage in the healthcare system. They leave appointments confused. They have care plans they don’t want or know how to follow. They might not know how to advocate for themselves.

To address this and help them take charge of their care, healthcare organizations can provide expert-led video lessons from trusted experts to educate their members and patients on how to take control of their health. For example, Preparing for a Diagnostic Conversation features Dr. Archelle Georgiou who teaches members how to ensure every health decision is their decision, they leave every interaction feeling heard, and that the decisions made reflect their values and priorities.

These lessons can be embedded online, delivered via SMS messaging, or available on a streaming platform. Giving access to content led by reputable and trusted professionals is the first step to ensuring your members and patients take ownership of their healthcare.

Interactive Stories Encourage Diabetes Eye Exams

Started by Snapchat and copied by Facebook and Instagram, stories are now everywhere. Optimized for mobile delivery, they are auto-advancing snips of videos and images which healthcare plans and providers can take and use on social media as another channel to communicate with their populations or repurpose them for SMS delivered solutions. Our diabetes eye exam story below was promoted to at risk populations and is a great example of how the use of stories can educate.

A quick eye exam can detect early signs of diabetes or pre-diabetes. Because of that, getting members to their eye doctor every year is a priority. To help members really understand why doing so matters to them, we could simply send a text or an email telling them it’s that time, and that might work.

We want to help members really connect to the reality of life with eye disease, though, so to take it a step further and ensure the member or patient really understands the reason behind these exams, you can embedd this video you’re your communication program, and it includes a powerful, easy to follow call-to-action.

Self-Assessment to Determine a Need for Preventive Care Screenings

Increasing regular health screenings is an important goal for every health plan. We have an entire library of assets to help members understand when, why, and how to get the most common health screenings (like mammograms, colonoscopies, eye exams, and more).

Below is an example of a simple interactive self-assessment we provide to help members identify which health screenings are most appropriate for them based on what they tell us. Plans may already know what screenings the member is due for, but by providing this activity, it helps the member connect how their personal characteristics connect to their screening recommendations. Once the member receives their recommendations, we then connect them to additional content to help them better understand how the screening works and what their options may be.

The Bottom Line

Health content in the past has largely been underwhelming where pamphlets, brochures, and information documents were the norm. In today’s environment of social media, streaming content, and digital-first experiences, that won’t work. Healthcare organizations have a wide-open world of rich media experiences they can take and adapt for health education, and it’s imperative they do so! Consumers are not impressed with static (and oftentimes boring) content when the rest of their life is starkly different from that.

These are the top 7 content experiences we’ve seen work, but there are more than just these at healthcare’s disposal. Reach out to us to see what else is available for health outreach!

Frictionless Healthcare, Part 3: The Power of Reciprocity in Healthcare

Posted on by Eden Brownell

Don’t forget to catch up with Part 1 and Part 2 of this blog series first!

______________________

So, readers, let’s talk more about theory and research. Robert Cialdini has been studying the science of persuasion for over forty years. In 1984 he wrote Influence, which reveals 6 principles of persuasion. It was an instant success and sits on the desks of advertising executives, copywriters, and marketeers everywhere, and reciprocity is the first of Cialdini’s six universal principles of persuasion. Why? Because the evidence shows that it works. 

Free coffee and donuts help car salespeople close deals. A couple of unexpected candies in the check at a restaurant gets the server a bigger tip (particularly if they come back to the table and hand deliver the second candy to “you lovely, special people”). When the hotel donates to charity on your behalf, you reuse a towel that you’d normally throw on the floor.  

Reciprocity in Healthcare

You are probably thinking to yourself, “Cool, but what the heck does this have to do with healthcare?” Healthcare organizations have a real need for information or action from members, and it’s not always easy to get. By using a value first design to your approach (which means you provide the member with something valuable first and ask for the return favor later), you increase the likelihood of success.

We don’t just think and talk about these concepts, though. We put it into practice, and the Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) for Medicare beneficiaries is a perfect example of a healthcare initiative in which reciprocity can play a big role.  

We innovated on the standard HOS solution by applying value first design, so instead of asking members to answer a questionnaire by telling them that it’s very important (it’s important to the health plan, not the member, by the way), we first provide them with a fun, engaging digital experience designed to be valuable, personal, and unexpected. Most importantly, it includes changes members can make easily and quickly in their own lives. It’s only after we provide this experience that we ask members to provide their feedback, allowing us to identify high risk members so the plan can act.

Useful tip: Don’t only give first (it isn’t enough). Aim to also give a gift unexpectedly. In a study, customers who were given surprise discount coupons upon entering a shop spent on average 11% more than those who were given the coupons in advance. The unexpected nature of the gift amplified customer responses. Ensure that what you give is unexpected relative to the norm of what’s expected. 

Want to learn more about using reciprocity in healthcare? Watch the on-demand webinar » 

Something Unexpected 

Enter streaming health content. It’s something unexpected from healthcare but familiar to the member because it resembles media they consume every day, such as Tik Tok and Instagram stories. In this HOS example, the unexpected and helpful gifts are Fotonovelas, which are stories told through auto-advancing images (much like the snapchat or Instagram story experience). 

One of the biggest mysteries of neuroscience is how we create meaning out of the world. Stories are deep-rooted in the core of our nature and help us create this meaning.

Information presented in a story-based format is more easily remembered than plain statistics or facts. According to Stanford Graduate School of Business’ research, stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone. This is likely because stories universally activate brain regions dealing with emotional processing and memory.

A powerful communication tool, stories can capture attention, build trust and credibility, and deliver messages and insights with impact. In the next installment in our Frictionless Healthcare blog and webinar series, we will go more in depth into storytelling effect, the psychology behind storytelling, and how to leverage it within your organization, so stay tuned and maybe sign up for our newsletter below (nudge nudge). 

Speaking of attention, dear readers, I’m probably losing yours. So, let’s wrap things up with some key takeaways about reciprocity.   

  • It’s how relationships are built ​ 
  • It’s not a trade or negotiation​ 
  • Follow the order of events: give, then ask​ 
  • Give something unexpected, personal, and valuable to increase the impact 

To learn more about using reciprocity in healthcare outreach, watch the full webinar below.

Read part four of this blog series!

6 Innovations in Streaming Health Content that Improve Member Experience

Posted on by Nicole Lopez

The logic behind streaming health content is simple. Just telling someone that it’s time to get a mammogram or renew a prescription isn’t always enough to get them to do it. There are numerous barriers to consider: social determinates of health (SDOH) factors, health beliefs, the health literacy gap, apathy, and more. Sending a well-timed, well-written text message can sometimes do the job, but often we need to go further and help the health consumer understand why taking an action matters and how they are benefiting from it. Or we simply need to get their attention for long enough to even hear us out.  

Streaming health education, when thoughtfully integrated into engagement solutions, can achieve all of these things. It infuses current and innovative types of content into member outreach in new ways. The same way we have seen the biggest brands integrate streaming content into the consumer experience, healthcare can mirror and change the way they interact with their populations and, more importantly, change the way their populations interact with them.  

6 Innovative Best Practices in Streaming Health Content

 

Innovation 1: Types of Content

The most innovative aspect of content in the last few years just may be the format it’s delivered in. Overall, there are four major content categories we’ve seen work well when brought into healthcare outreach. 

Gifs

A lot can be said with a well-timed gif, and using humor to capture attention, as gifs usually do, are an effective way to focus the member on a very real issue, such as fall safety in our example above. 

Self-Produced Videos

Self-produced videos are often short, recorded in selfie mode, and have less focus on production value. These qualities make them more personal, fun, and more able to capture attention and connect the creator with the audience.  

Licensable Streaming Content

Spotify, YouTube, Netflix, and more! Streaming is the main delivery method for content today and used by a huge amount of the population. With the option of licensable libraries of streaming health education content now on the market, healthcare organizations can enter the game and have a better chance of meeting members where they are and in the ways they already live their lives. 

Stories

Started by Snapchat and copied by Facebook and Instagram, stories are now everywhere. Healthcare can take stories and use social media as another channel to communicate with their populations or repurpose them for SMS delivered solutions. 

Innovation 2: Making the Ask 

Now that you have your content format ready to go, you’ll want clear, robust calls to action embedded within the streaming health experience, which is our second innovative best practice. Think about it this way: all the content delivered quickly falls short if you aren’t ultimately making the ask. 

When crafting your call to action, make sure it is not only closely tied to the content being delivered but it is also specifically based on that recipient’s needs.  

Interested in learning more? Access the guide to get the full version of this content » 

Innovation 3: Integrating Your Content into Your Programs 

When you combine conversational AI capabilities with health content, you can uncover barriers to action through the consumer’s response and in turn deliver bite-sized educational clips to address their specific obstacle. This way, you are not only educating them on why they should take a certain action, but you are delivering tailored content which educates around the specific reason that individual is not complying. And because this is built on conversational AI technology, all of this is done at scale, yet individualized, for your entire population. 

 

Innovation 4: Creating Surround Sound

Most of the daily lives of health consumers is digital– emails, websites, apps, social media, text messaging, phone calls, streaming content, and more. This makes it easy to apply our fourth innovative technique: create surround sound by producing a digital omnichannel experience. 

In action, it might look like this: If we were heading into winter and you were trying to drive flu vaccinations, you might post an interactive FAQ to your organization’s social media story, send the mini lesson video through email or text message, and have the full vaccine lesson available through your website portal. Your audience would likely run into your content multiple times, which serves to reinforce the educational message and makes it more likely they’ll act on it. 

Innovation 5: Targeting Your Content to Clear Business Goals 

Your streaming health content is only as effective as it is in line with your goal. So, when producing and deploying content, you should tie it to the areas of your business you want to see an impact on—Health Outcomes Surveys (HOS), preventive screenings, diabetes prevention, and gaps in care just to name a few. Plainly, if your content isn’t addressing the action you’re trying to drive, you won’t drive that action. 

Innovation 6: Data, Data, Data 

Metrics regularly tracked still apply, such as text messages delivered, response rate, and completion rate of the desired action. Integrating streaming health content into your outreach, though, broadens the data you have access to for outreach performance and reporting. Now we can look at clickthrough rate to videos or activities, total views, engagement time, pages or lessons viewed per person, average number of course enrollments, average view time per piece of content, and so much more.

Integrating Health Content into Your Engagement Programs 

When healthcare organizations take the innovative approach of creating educational health content (videos, bite-sized content, interactive FAQs, polls, quizzes, and more) and incorporate it in their outreach, we see much longer engagement times, the underlying problem of health literacy improve, and the fostering of better relationships between healthcare organizations and health consumers. 

Our hope is this new frontier of educational health content creates a change in the health literacy of our society as a whole and improves the engagement and investment of individuals in their own health and well-being. 

Interested in even deeper insights into this new way of outreach? Download the guide, 6 Innovations in Streaming Health Content that Improves the Member Experience, to get the full version of this content.

How to Address Changes in Patient Engagement and Motivate Flu Vaccination Fulfillment

Posted on by mPulse Team

Flu season is coming back around, and in a post-COVID world, that means changes in how members engage when it comes to being vaccinated. Lingering perspectives related to vaccine hesitancy may influence members’ reluctance to be vaccinated for the flu despite vaccinations being even more critical to their continued health. Health plans, providers, and pharmacies will have to work harder this year to ensure their health consumers are vaccinated and protected against the flu than they have in years past.

In the 2022–23 flu season, vaccination coverage with ≥1 dose of flu vaccine was 57.4% among children 6 months through 17 years, similar to the 2021–22 flu season (57.8%), and flu vaccination coverage among adults ≥18 years was 46.9%, a decrease of 2.5 percentage points from the prior season (49.4%).

With the unpredictability of flu severity from season to season, outreach and patient engagement to provide information and identify resources for access to vaccinations is integral to a health plan’s ability to proactively communicate with diverse populations through targeted content.

Annually, unvaccinated individuals will cost the healthcare system over $10.4 billion and an additional $17.6 Billion in lost worker productivity.

Flu vaccine patient education can help to prevent:

  • 5 million flu-related illnesses
  • 7 million flu-associated medical visits
  • 105k flu-associated hospitalizations, and
  • 3k flu-associated deaths 

So, what can the healthcare industry do to combat this? With tools like behavioral science, interactive flu vaccine education, and conversational AI at their disposal, it’s possible to see significant increases in flu vaccination rates among members.

Let’s take a closer look at why.

The Foundation: Science of Human Behavior

Let’s start with the basics for any outreach program we run: behavioral science. In this mega-study conducted by The University of Pennsylvania and Walmart, 22 different behavioral science techniques were tested. These 22 varied techniques were embedded into messages delivered through SMS to over 650,000 Walmart pharmacy patients to determine which boosted vaccination rates the highest. Overall, including all these techniques increased flu vaccination rates by an average of 6.7% over a three-month follow-up period.

However, the endowment effect was the most effective technique, which encouraged patients to visit Walmart for a flu vaccine reserved specifically for them. By telling a person a particular flu shot is ‘reserved for you’ and already belongs to them, the vaccine becomes a tangible thing of value that they own. The Endowment Effect is an emotional bias to put a higher value on owned objects. This approach also uses the technique of Loss Aversion, a bias that makes us care nearly twice as much about avoiding loss than receiving an equivalent gain. In this case, if you don’t claim your flu shot, you’ll lose something you own.

We use behavioral science in every program we deploy for our clients, but this study specifically and the endowment effect itself was the basis with which we built our flu vaccination solution for the 2022-2023 flu season. What UPenn and Walmart didn’t have, though, was the following few factors that pushed our flu program beyond even this study.

Streaming flu vaccine patient education

With so much flu vaccine hesitancy in our post-COVID world, flu vaccine patient education about the safety and efficacy of vaccinations is a necessary step, and departing from the mundane pamphlets and brochures of the past by utilizing streaming health content is an extremely effective way to do this.

fotonovela to help improve flu vaccine patient education

The content we’ve produced for flu vaccine education is a series of fotonovelas, which are auto-forwarding image-based stories with a visual interface similar to the stories feature on Instagram. Fotonovelas are ultimately a health literacy tool, but at the same time, they make learning fun and easy (80% of learners on our platform report liking or loving the fotonovela content type).

In this specific flu fotonovela below, the characters featured resonate with diverse audiences, the storylines detailed transcend linguistic and cultural barriers to deliver essential information, and the tone provides empathy and support on the path toward the desired call to action. The best part is that health patients who view a Fotonovela are 72% more likely to get vaccinated.

2-Way conversations uncover barriers

Having 2-way conversations allows you to gather insights about your members that can inform future communication.

  • What is their sentiment toward the program and plan?
  • Why haven’t they been vaccinated?
  • Have they already been vaccinated, and we don’t know?

Knowing why they haven’t been vaccinated allows the plan to respond with education and resources to assist.

  • Do they need help figuring out where to go? Send them the information to their nearest pharmacy.
  • What about if they’re not sure they need a flu vaccination? Send them a Fotonovela to educate them!

Multiple channels, multiple languages

The UPenn and Walmart mega-study tested SMS messages, but why stop there? A large part of an effective engagement strategy is meeting members where they are. As such, our solution includes SMS, IVR, and email channels. Take the concept of meeting members where they are one step further, and you’ll get the ability to deploy this vaccination solution in both English and Spanish. This means reaching more of your population in the way they want to communicate.

Tackle flu early and effectively

The CDC recommends that everyone six months and older, especially people at higher risk, should get a flu vaccine annually to reduce their risk of contracting seasonal flu, alleviate the severity of symptoms, and decrease the likelihood of experiencing major health complications if infected. The importance of each individual vaccinating against the flu needs to be communicated to members through targeted, succinct, and easily understandable materials delivered through channels to reach them where they are most apt to respond and be motivated to act. Studies have found that patients who are informed and effectively motivated are also more likely to adhere to their treatment recommendations.

Our flu vaccination solution

mPulse Mobile’s flu vaccination solution uses proven behavioral science, dynamic content, and an omnichannel approach to overcome common vaccine barriers and get more members vaccinated. With over 15M Flu vaccination touchpoints sent to Medicaid, Medicare, and Commercial members by mPulse in the last two years using its 2-way Natural Language Understanding platform, we have learned from millions of past vaccine conversations in both Spanish and English. We use behavioral science in a relatable and quick experience and employ Fotonovelas to empower members to act. We can help overcome common barriers and resistance by listening for vaccine readiness.

For more information on this flu vaccination solution and a live demo on how we can improve your flu vaccine patient education, register for our webinar, Double Your Vaccination Rates for Your Health Population.

Frictionless Healthcare, Part 2: Using Reciprocity to Increase Motivation

Posted on by Eden Brownell

Behavioral science describes the study of behavior through experimentation and observation. Behavioral scientists study when and why individuals engage in specific behaviors by examining the impact of factors such as conscious thoughts, motivation, social influences, contextual effects, and habits. This week, we will look at how reciprocity can be used in healthcare design and content.

________________________

Dear reader, have you ever wondered what could make you not want to drop a hotel towel on the floor after the first use? Well, a card in a hotel bathroom might do it if it were written the right way. My good friend, Robert Cialdini, and his colleagues investigated this (okay we aren’t really good friends, but a girl can dream, right?) by testing multiple different card appeals to see which would lead to the highest rate of behavior change. They found that neither the basic environmental-protection message urging us to save some no name penguin (although, feel free to name him whichever way you like) nor the message with cooperation appeal could hold a candle to a different kind of push – our need to reciprocate. 

 The most effective way to induce the desired response was to give the donation first then ask a guest to cooperate in this effort. The message with reciprocation appeal, giving first read: 

 “WE’RE DOING OUR PART FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. CAN WE COUNT ON YOU? Because we are committed to preserving the environment, we have made a financial contribution to a nonprofit environmental protection organization on behalf of the hotel and its guests. If you would like to help us in recovering the expense, while conserving natural resources, please reuse your towels during your stay”.

 This method reported almost a 47% success rate, which was significantly greater than the cooperation condition. Why? Because the hotel donated money first on behalf of its guests and only then asked them to join in on it. You didn’t need to reuse your towel, but you felt sort of obliged to. If you didn’t recycle (help them claim the money back), well, you would probably feel a little bad, which is reciprocity in a nutshell. 

Reciprocity in Healthcare

But what does this story have to do with healthcare? The principle of reciprocity means you are more likely to comply with a request if it comes from someone who has previously done something for you, and in healthcare, obtaining compliance is a constant goal. Whether it’s urging members to get their preventive screenings or convincing patients to diet and exercise to bring down their A1C, driving healthy action is important to plans and providers, and reciprocity is a powerful tool to get this done. Let’s review one other case study before taking a deeper look at this in healthcare setting.

Want to learn more about using reciprocity in healthcare? Watch the on-demand webinar » 

 In this next example, the British Behavioral Insights Team joined forces with the NHS Blood and Transplant, the Department of Health, Government Digital Services, and DVLA to investigate a way to increase signups to the organ donor registry. It ended up being more complex than expected and was one of the biggest trials in the history of the UK public sector.

 Given the subject of this blog, you might have already figured they used reciprocity in a clever way to reach their goal. They inserted short phrases with various behavioral science techniques embedded into an existing vehicle tax webpage, and linked it to the organ donor register, which appeared after a user had finished obtaining their vehicle tax. The best-performing behavioral science technique (surprise, surprise) was the reciprocity appeal, which outperformed the existing webpage by roughly 100,000 registrants per year. Here is how it read: 

 “If you needed an organ transplant, would you have one? If so, please help others.”

 Oftentimes, healthcare organizations can approach a lot of healthcare problems with an eye towards getting members to provide them with information (even though they have a tendency not to). The trick is to flip this process by providing the member with something valuable first and encouraging them to think about these issues on their own before we ask them to share their thoughts and feelings, which is called value first design.

 In the context of digital product experiences, users are more likely to engage with your product if you first provide value to them. They’ll be more likely to trust you and reciprocate. This concept is even more important when you’re about to ask for something big from your users, such as signing up for something or closing a healthcare gap. In part 3 of this blog series, we’ll dive into the specific architecture of outreach and how to build in reciprocity by combining behavior science and streaming health education to create a value first design.

7 Ways to Use Streaming Content in Your Health Communication, Part 1

Posted on by mPulse Team

In healthcare, engaging health consumers effectively is becoming increasingly complex. Health plans, providers, hospital systems, and pharmacies deploy various communication strategies – from emails and text messages to phone calls and live events – all to motivate health consumers toward better health decisions. However, the key to capturing attention and prompting action often lies in overcoming knowledge, skill, or motivation gaps. This is where streaming health education, a nuanced form of digital health content, emerges as a vital tool.

But getting someone to stop, pay attention, and act can be challenging. There are many barriers that stand in the way. When one or more of those barriers reflects knowledge, skill, or motivation gaps, streaming health education might supply the nudge that helps move them in the right direction.

Streaming health content, a sophisticated approach to health literacy, merges the strengths of digital content strategy, behavioral science, and instructional design to craft impactful learning experiences. It’s not just about delivering information; it’s about engaging health consumers through diverse formats like animated videos, interactive activities, and expert-led courses. This post delves into seven innovative ways healthcare organizations can harness streaming health content to drive critical health behaviors, starting with the captivating storytelling format of fotonovelas.

As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of digital health content, it’s clear that the right health content can educate and empower consumers, leading to better health outcomes and adherence to care plans.

Nudging your members to act with streaming health education

What is streaming health education? It’s our take on health literacy promotion. It borrows from the best of digital content strategy, behavior science, and instructional design to create powerful learning experiences for your members.

From short, animated videos and interactive activities to media-rich online lessons and courses taught by leading health experts, there are many different and innovative ways to create and provide content to your health consumers.

In this post, we break down 7 ways healthcare organizations can use digital health content in their engagement programs to drive essential health behaviors, starting with fotonovelas.

Use Fotonovelas to Encourage Flu Vaccinations

Over 3 million Americans get the flu yearly, and the cost to the healthcare system and society in general adds up to a whopping 11.2 billion dollars a year. This is a great reason to educate members on flu vaccinations, which can be done well through fotonovelas, which are character-based stories told through photos or illustrations.

Example of a flu fotonovela included in our flu vaccination solution where health consumers are educatedIn this flu fotonovela, which is one of the four included in our flu vaccination solution, health consumers are educated on why a flu shot matters and common barriers and misconceptions related to flu vaccination. At the end, they’re given an easy resource for scheduling their shot.

It’s ultimately a health literacy tool, but at the same time, it makes learning fun and easy. Behavioral Strategist, Eden Brownell, explained the reason for the success of fotonovelas on the Pharmacy Friends podcast. “The perceived effort is lower. You can provide a large amount of information in a large text message, or you can bundle it up into a fotonovela. [In a fotonovela] it’s broken up. They’re able to see the progression they’re making through the story, which provides them with a sense of accomplishment, and the way it’s being delivered feels easier. When people feel that something is easier, they’re more likely to like it.”

And we find that fotonovelas are certainly well-liked. 80% of learners on our platform report liking or loving the fotonovela content type.

Interactive Content to Promote Medication Adherence

20-30% of medication prescriptions are never filled. Almost 50% of prescriptions are not taken as prescribed. It’s hard for a medicine to work of you don’t take it.

But then again, it’s hard to get your members to abide by their medication regimen if you aren’t addressing barriers to compliance and educating them on the importance of medication adherence. That’s where our second content piece comes in.

Interactive content can do well to educate and motivate health consumers to follow through on their prescriptions. In this series of interactive activities, members gain important knowledge on why and how to follow this critically important part of their care plans – all easily integrated into med adherence and medication management campaigns.

When the member or patient arrives at the interactive content, they can decide which barrier or medication type applies to them and read through the information at their own pace skipping anything they don’t feel addresses their specific situation. And a program like this with content infused has been shown to increase refill rates by 14%!

Interactive health content example to educate and motivate health consumers to follow through on their prescriptions

Using Animations to Educate on the Proper Use of the ER

A recent study from UnitedHealth Group estimated that members going to the emergency room for non-emergencies costs the health system $32 billion annually. Ouch.

But a short video on the proper use of urgent care versus emergency rooms is an excellent example of utilizing animations to educate your health consumers. Able to be sent through text or email or placed on a website or portal, animations are a fun and engaging way to educate. This animation is a prime example of education leading to reduced cost and better healthcare decisions for both the member and the plan, and it’s also highly likely to get your members chuckling. Watch the below animation to see what we mean!

In Part 2…

Health content is aimed at driving healthy actions and educating someone on why those actions should be taken. It addresses health literacy at the same time as it enables plans and providers to reach their own goals.

In part 2, we’ll tackle the next four ways to integrate content into your outreach: lessons, expert-led courses, self-assessments, and stories.

2022 National Summit Recap: Scaled for Many, Tailored to One, Leveraging Data to Impact Member Engagement

Posted on by Nicole Lopez

We’re happy to announce our participation in the 2022 BCBS National Summit was a success! In early May, mPulse Mobile sent our strongest health engagement experts to The Orange State to attend and speak at the Summit, and they returned with valuable insights, new connections, and a reaffirmed belief in the power of health engagement designed for consumers.

Chris Nicholson, mPulse CEO, Magdalen Kmiec, Vice President of Engagement Strategy, Christian Bagge, National Account Executive, and Reva Sheehan, Director of Customer Insights, met and talked with leaders from many different Blues plans gathering stories from the front lines of healthcare and swapping viewpoints on the newest trends in healthcare engagement.

For us, the conference was a chance to meet with our current BCBS customers and have in-person discussions about their engagement programs and overall experiences with our platform. We also took the opportunity, however, to branch out and meet other BCBS leaders with whom we’ve not yet worked and have an exchange of information about our respective places in the healthcare space. These conversations gave us better insight into the landscape they’re navigating and confidence that the direction we’re taking for our customers is indeed the best course.

From Members to Consumers: Healthcare in the Digital Age

One reoccurring theme from our conversations at the summit was the age-old struggle to drive healthy action and meet requirements set by CMS, but many of these discussions showed the health industry could be looking at it all wrong. Magdalen Kmiec discussed this during our joint presentation with Aimee Viles, Vice President of Digital Solutions for Cambia Health, Scaled for Many, Tailored to One: Leveraging Data to Impact Member Engagement.

Her main message was that members are no longer just members. Our members live in an Amazon and Netflix world where their needs are anticipated and delivered on before they can even ask. Their digital and real world lives are now seamless and fluid. And they don’t shed these experiences and customer service expectations when they interact with their health plans.

Download our white paper, From Member to Consumers, to learn more about this phenomenon and how plans can adapt »

Yet the healthcare industry has not created that same experience for their health consumers – but they can. That’s where Magdalen overviewed the four essential pillars of engagement: rich customer data, channel optimization, empowering content, and robust behavioral science.

Rich Customer Data

Plans have rich data on file, but are they using it? From the results of the member’s most recent A1c test to the date of their last wellness exam, data can be harnessed to create a better experience.

Equally important, though, is to gain data through conversations with your members. Language preferences, sentiment toward the plan or program, social determinants of health (SDoH) factors, and more are valuable data points that can be added to the file for each member. Then your future conversations will become much more tailored.

Channel Optimization

Customer expectations are evolving rapidly, and our health consumers expect consistent, accurate, and timely information at their fingertips regardless of the channel they see it. Omnichannel is no longer a nice-to-have but a necessity to remain competitive.

The trick is to eliminate the silos between your channels and have them work together in a way that creates a single experience. So IVR, social media, SMS messaging, and streaming health content – it’s all working in sync to tell the same story.

Empowering Content

Low health literacy is a main driver of inaction. By delivering tailored, bite-sized streaming content in the moment based off insights gathered during conversational outreach, you are immediately addressing barriers and educating at the same time. Whether it by interactive stories, animations, or mini lessons to full courses, it gives the plan a chance to engage and empower in a more impactful way than can just be done by text message.

Robust Behavioral Science

There are two main questions for behavior change: Why would people want to do the behavior? Why aren’t they doing it already?

The ability to harness behavioral science , which tells us how people are likely to react and why, enables you to answer these questions and then leverage that information to drive behavior change. Put simply, people are irrational in predictable ways, so use that predicable irrationality to steer them in the direction of healthy behaviors. It’s the same methods used by companies like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and many other big major corporations – and it works.

Cambia Health: Gaps in Care and Rx Refill Program Outcomes

Cambia Health, our co-presenter at the summit and current client, is an ideal example of the members to consumers concept being effectively utilized, so Aimee joined Magdalen onstage to present two programs Cambia Health ran in partnership with mPulse Mobile.

The first was aimed at closing gaps in care for Cervical, Breast, and Colon Cancer screenings. Built on a foundation of behavioral science, the program outreached to 106,433 members across Commercial HCA, Commercial Non-HCA, Marketplace, and Medicare Advantage gather opt-in consent through SMS messaging (response required) before commencing.

Based on member reporting through this program, it was discovered the top 3 insights into why they weren’t completing the screening were:

  1. they already completing the screening
  2. they were too busy
  3. they thought the screenings were unnecessary

This is valuable information for a plan to have because it gives data with which to communicate further. For example, for those health consumers who think screenings are unnecessary, the plan could send streaming health content explaining the importance of the screening their missing (such as the breast cancer screening lesson you see below). And for those who already completed, the plan can use two-way SMS to collect more info on when or where that screening took place and amend their records.

The second program Aimee presented was an Rx Refill Engagement program with a 4-star goal for Part D medication adherence measures. This program included 48,980 MA members with active opt in and it was design as an interactive SMS program with conversational tailoring, follow up reminders, and barrier assessment. Refill rates with the solution were 85%, there was 72% positive feedback, and 20% of members requested additional reminders.

Looking Forward to More

We enjoyed the chance to join and network with all the Blues plans to discuss the future of healthcare engagement and how technology can play a huge role in it, and we can’t wait to return next year!

Shifting the Mindset: How Health Plans Can View Members as Consumers in a Digital-First World

Posted on by Nicole Lopez

What can health plans learn from the retail industry’s success with consumer engagement?  

A lot, it turns out. Leading retail organizations have been using important digital-first principles for a couple of decades now. This approach has not only transformed the expectations of everyday consumers for all organizations they encounter (including healthcare) but has also driven profits through the roof for these companies.  

Take a moment to think about it. When you sign into Amazon, everything you experience as an end user is seamless and customized. From the presentation of personalized recommendations on your homepage (which is different for every customer) to the fast and easy delivery of your items. It’s all frictionless and crafted for the consumer. 

Where does this leave healthcare? Well, even though health plans are not direct competitors of Amazon (or even in the same industry), their members live in an Amazon world and now have expectations set for this kind of consumer experience across all areas of their lives – food delivery, online retail, and yes, healthcare. The challenge for healthcare organizations now becomes leveling up to those expectations and harnessing these digital-first principles to improve their members’ experiences and inspire healthy behaviors. 

From Members to Consumers: How plans are adopting popular digital trends from leading consumer brands to drive better health outcomes » 

The first step toward that goal is understanding that members are no longer just members. They have become fully-fledged consumers of healthcare services and treating them as such is a critical way for plans to be competitive in a digital-first world. 

Beyond the Consumer Mindset: Implementing a Digital-First Experience 

Simply shifting your view of your members to consumers, however, is not enough. There are significant foundational and technological changes that must be implemented to truly realize this concept and transform the experience. 

  • Using Data to Customize the User Experience – Without data, customizing the experience in this way is impossible. Plans have more data at their disposal than you might think, though. From claims data and satisfaction surveys to engagement data from previous communications programs, it can all be leveraged to customize the experience. This results in tailored tools and resources at every point across their unique journey.  
  • Streaming Health Content – 5% of all Google searches are for health information. That is a lot of people turning to the internet for health education instead of their plan or provider. That also highlights the fact that health literacy is a prevalent issue and a contributing factor to inaction among members. Plans are in a unique position to increase health literacy by providing health education to their consumers with commercial quality streaming health content to sustain engagement, deliver the information that consumer needs at that point in time, and ultimately drive healthier actions at scale. 
  • An Omnichannel Approach – Combining an omnichannel approach with orchestration of resources and channels helps plans reach members in the way they prefer while allowing plan investments to perform with higher results and efficacy. Using a combination of 1 on 1 care coordination, interactive voice response (IVR), mobile web, resource triaging through AI short message service (SMS), multimedia message service (MMS) and rich communication services (RCS) channels are a few examples of digital ways to engage and activate more consumers. 
  • Behavior Science and Conversational AI – Behavior science is a foundational tool for large tech companies to drive specific behaviors in their consumers and ignite growth. It’s healthcare’s time now to take from those lessons and apply them to the health of their members. Health programs and services that seek to understand the intricacies of human behavior and leverage these techniques will significantly increase engagement. 

Want the full version of this content? Access the complete white paper, From Members to Consumers » 

The Members to Consumers White Paper 

By implementing digital trends that drive engagement in the retail landscape, health plans can replicate this success for their population. Leading brands have had to continually stay aligned to trends and keep a high-touch strategy in place to drive sales. Health organizations are in a unique position to leverage consumer insights to refine their strategy, inspire consumers to take action, and lower costs, because unlike Apple or Amazon, health is a necessity. Ensuring your health consumers continually have a positive experience and adopt healthier behaviors based on their individual health needs is critical to drive health outcomes.  

This article gives just a peek into the ways health plans can serve that experience to their members. To get the full version of this content, including case studies from plans who have implemented digital-first techniques, download the white paper, From Members to Consumers: How plans are adopting popular digital trends from leading consumer brands to drive better health outcomes.