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.
