“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got”, the quote by Albert Einstein stands true for modern-day Health Plans. Relying on the traditional mass mailing systems that auto-generate member communications are not enough to make a mark in the world of information overload and short attention span of members.
It’s a new day!
Healthcare consumerism is on the rise; members are at the center of healthcare space. They are savvier than ever before. They tap online resources available from the government, check out competitive health plans and providers. They are actively engaged on social media platforms and browse health specific websites to stay on top of things and make well-informed decisions pertaining to their health. They expect to hear from their health plans more often.
On the contrary to members’ expectations, Health Plans fail to communicate properly due to increasing caseloads and disjointed systems. There’s always a vacuum between the data generated from the information systems and communications that members receive. To fulfill the expectations of members, Health Plans should not see members as an ID or a number.
Fill the vacuum with the right communication strategy
You need the right member communication strategy, backed by a robust communication framework to deliver timely, relevant & personalized communications to members. Ensure any piece of communication that your member receives is well-crafted, consistent, coupled with facts, and accurate. As aforesaid, for you to win members over and be a step ahead of their expectations, follow these four simple yet impactful communication strategies.
Rise above medicalese
When data is being generated from healthcare information system, ensure that the format is simple and easy-to-understand. Avoid acronyms and complicated language; use visual tools. While delivering preventive healthcare and wellness communications, you should:
- Educate them on chronic diseases & their ill-effects
- Remind them to take immediate action steps to improve their health
- Embed case studies & success stories to encourage them to adopt a healthy lifestyle
Provide the best of healthcare value-add to members
Member communications require a smooth medium of delivery & clear messaging. For instance- when annual notice of change (ANOC) is released, members want to know if their healthcare expenses will increase or decrease in the approaching times. To help your members, you should send across communications on premium changes, prescription drug charges & deductibles, co-payments, and others.
Respect Members’ Preferences
Never compromise on the last mile connectivity with members. You must capture member preferences at the start and put a provision to update their preferences. To make the delivered communications readable and downright useful, leverage multi-lingual communications. Roll out Spanish to the Hispanic population, English to English speaking members and others.
If a member doesn’t want to be frequently communicated but is open to receiving one message every week for a specific kind of pre-existing chronic condition, set such preferences accordingly. And, if a targeted set of members want to receive communications via an email, there’s no point sending across communications over SMS text or in print.
Enthral Members with Relevant & Accurate Communications
Members may get irked with irrelevant and repeated communications. Hence, reach out to members with personalized communications. You should create dynamic, personalized, and relevant member communications. And, to do all of this with precision, trace your members’ existing behavior patterns, interests, and preferences.
Summing up
To fulfill the complex needs of members, adopt simplistic yet impactful approaches while communicating with your members. These strategies will help you bid adieu to contextually inaccurate and irrelevant communications and will help you make the best of your member communication engagement strategy. In pursuit of winning your members over and reach out to them with effective communications, technologies like Communications for Member Engagement can do wonders for you in the form of high response rates from your members.
