A year ago I wrote a blog post entitled, “Strengthening Consumer Experience in a Post-Reform Insurance Market“, which presented research from a Forrester report that showed the health insurance industry faces a great deal of discontent from consumers. In fact, of the 13 industries tracked by Forrester in that report, health plans rank dead last in terms of consumer experience. I went on to point out that due to post-reform forces, the roster of the self-insured would inflate dramatically. As a result, these two opposing forces would create incredible market opportunity for innovative payers smart enough to adopt a member-centric strategy.
One year later, without much surprise, all of these predictions are coming true. In fact, Chilmark Research just released an in depth study highlighting those health plans that have already begun to navigate this path towards success in this brave new world of healthcare. As was detailed by both Healthcare IT News and Fierce Health IT, payers are utilizing consumer technologies like social media, gamification and mobile applications to provide consumers with a way to both participate in their wellness and bond more closely with their health plans.
How will the new health plan leaders emerge?
There is a lot of broad guidance out there in terms of the steps that health plans can take to grow a loyal base of consumers using B2C strategies and technology. However, health plans must realize that consumer engagement is not a one size fits all proposition. Each health plan needs to uncover the unique attributes of their most profitable target markets, something that a fun deep dive into data can reveal. They must find those significant ways that health plan consumers want for health plans to participate in their journey towards better health.
The great thing is, health plans can actually use these social technologies to uncover these golden strategic nuggets. Using a social media platform allows health insurers to test initiatives through gathering and refining ideas that would otherwise take their competitors months to enact using traditional market research. Use social analytics and CRM to canvas clinicians and patients to understand what level of intervention they would accept, and readily encourage, from their health plan partners.
Ultimately the leaders will not be those health plans that throw technology at the solution. Rather, those leaders will use these technological innovations to corner the market strategically and grow a loyal member base as a result.
Stay tuned for my next post which highlights what I believe to be the most important value add health plans can provide to members to keep them loyal.
