By Sohail Djariri

There are many communication systems and strategies available to healthcare organizations today, yet there remains a significant disconnect between those same organizations and their members. Ongoing distractions from social media, streaming, mobile phones, tablets, and more contribute to the noise and barrier between healthcare organizations and members. 

Breaking through this barrier is difficult for healthcare organizations attempting to share important, member-focused care information, including details about upcoming appointments, and preventive care.

While this quote approaches ways to improve “patient engagement,” health plan member engagement is virtually the same. After all, the patient and the member are the same person. “As individuals and governments invest in new models and initiatives, it’s essential to remember that patient engagement can come in many forms. Meeting patients where they are (virtual, home, clinic) and connecting through their preferred communication channel (patient portal, in-person, digital apps) are critical for facilitating productive and trusted patient–provider relationships.”

The goal of healthcare organizations is creating a long-term, satisfied member who’s on track to improve health and wellness.

Use multiple channels for engagement

With the technology available today, automating engagement is extremely important and easy to accomplish for healthcare organizations. Depending on the messaging—whether it’s information that should be broadcast or personalized—healthcare organizations should look toward:

• social media platforms
• AI-powered chatbots (online and phone-based)
• contact centers 
• direct-to-member email
• healthcare-focused online communities
• text messaging
• websites and portals
• e-newsletters

These technologies can automate prescription or vaccine reminders, provide educational content about chronic or acute conditions, and support communications before and after treatment. It’s critical to note that all of these tactics should be viewed as two-way communications; this means any comments posted to social media, text messages, and emails must receive a reply.

(Here’s my earlier article on improving member communication using an omni-channel approach to improve medication adherence.)

Learning from B2C brands

Some healthcare organizations are looking to retail organizations—Amazon, eBay, and others—for ideas to improve member communications. 

“To achieve their consumerism objectives, healthcare incumbents are looking at retail, tech, and other consumer sectors for inspiration to develop innovative solutions to well-known healthcare pain points across the end-to-end healthcare journey and to build trust-based and enduring consumer relationships,” according to a McKinsey article. “Unsurprisingly, consumers regularly point to consumer-focused companies in other sectors as setting an example for healthcare companies. Consumers want healthcare that includes personalized offerings and services, value-based pricing, and an elevated experience—all from distinctive, high-quality brands.”

Retail organizations utilize customer data to track a consumer’s every movement across the internet, allowing them to serve targeted advertising nestled into Instagram and Facebook feeds or employ retargeting advertising on third-party websites. This allows the companies to collect and analyze data relating to consumer activities and fine-tune communications to support conversions. “In every other industry, from social media to gaming to streaming, engagement is well understood and optimized. Companies like Netflix and Meta track daily active users, monthly active users, hours streamed, content clicked, and more to increase member engagement and deliver a personalized user experience that keeps people coming back for more,” according to an article in MedCity News.

The “conversion” health plans would like to enable is that of improved outcomes, member loyalty, and satisfaction with the plan and its offerings.

No matter which communication channel is appropriate for your members, and it will likely be more than one, messaging should be consistent across each to ensure that every participant who receives information—or could receive it—gets advice or recommendations that align with your organization’s mission and program goals. In addition, healthcare organizations must choose the channel that is most engaging for a specific member. If the health plan sends emails, for example, but the member would rather receive text messages, the communication will be ineffective.

“Consumer engagement is a core competency of B2C companies. These companies employ advanced analytics to deeply understand customer needs, develop products and services to meet those needs, and engage (market to) consumers through hyper-personalized messages and content across an array of traditional and digital channels,” according to Next-generation member engagement during the care journey, a McKinsey report.

Finally, IT security practices for all digital outreach must be top-of-the-line, include complementary graphics, and be implemented across all channels to support the healthcare organization and safeguard the trust of members, including the security of all HIPAA information. 

Segment member populations

Health plans must use member data to segment populations in the communication process. This can be done using demographic information, health conditions, claims, communication preferences, and more.

Just as retailers target consumers with messages using data collected from product interactions, healthcare organizations should tailor outbound messages to resonate with an individual member’s health and wellness goals. The communication strategy should focus on specific groups: those with chronic conditions, older adults, or people interested in healthy lifestyle choices, for example.

“Data science and advanced analytics are foundational to all aspects of next-generation member engagement, but this is especially true when it comes to supporting a member during his or her care journey,” according to a McKinsey report. “Advanced analytics enables the swift development of actionable personas (identifiable member segments with distinct known features and preferences).”

Continuous member engagement

The key to improving communication and long-term member engagement is consistency. This consistency is distributed across three areas:

• messaging
• channel
• frequency

“Clearly, there is no monolithic engagement trajectory…. However, an important precursor to improving healthcare is to undertake an engagement-sensitive approach based on…desires and expectations. Failure to recognize and support the…engagement status might result in misalignment patient-provider expectations, dissatisfaction with care, and poor adherence to treatments, which undermine the real translation of the patient engagement goal into practice,” according to research published in Frontiers in Psychology.

When a payer actively manages member communications so that it becomes a reliable way for members to access essential information about their current and upcoming care, maintain health, and receive information about benefits, it will be possible to leap-frog competitors who have yet to implement 21st-century communications practices.