Healthcare Member Experience Personalization

According to a recent American Hospital Association report, two of the top trends in healthcare for 2021 are patient consumerization and the personalization of care. It makes sense that the two should trend together, as they are inextricably intertwined.

Patient consumerization is, at its core, the acknowledgement of patients’ personal choices and responsibility for managing their own health. Though this concept has been around since the consumer movement of the 1930s, patient consumerization has been pulled into the spotlight by several factors, including the push toward value-based healthcare and the increasing shift toward more out-of-pocket healthcare costs for patients as high-deductible health insurance policies have become more common.

As patients bear more of the financial responsibility for their healthcare, they also require a bit more bang for their buck. They want a better patient experience, one that is similar to experiences they have in other sectors such as ecommerce. They’re looking for a frictionless experience, one that also culminates in better health outcomes.

What Providers Can Do to Personalize Patient Care

That’s a big ask, but it is made possible when healthcare organizations take steps to personalize the patient experience and prioritize a person-centric healthcare model. At the provider level, that may include things such as:

• Providing telehealth services to patients with mobility issues or populations in rural or inaccessible areas
• Providing education pertaining to patient-specific health risk factors
• Providing post-treatment plan adherence support
• Providing self-service options for appointment scheduling, medication refill requests, etc.
• Providing a highly interactive patient portal
• Providing an omnichannel communication platform that allows patients to choose their preferred method of contact

Patient portals and omnichannel communications improve patient experiences.

Many of these actions could be considered as low-hanging fruit for providers, but real personalization in healthcare goes further than just the provider level. It also includes personalization at the healthcare payer level. What can payers do to personalize member experiences and drive better health outcomes for their members in the process?

Data Enables Personalization at the Payer Level

Data is essential for effective personalization at every layer of the healthcare ecosystem, but at the payer level, data is the star of the show. Payers need a deep understanding of their members and the communities in which those members live, and that understanding must come, not only from data internal to the payer organization, but also from external data sources.

The reality is that the healthcare data payers need comes from a complicated web of payers, providers, patients themselves, and other stakeholders such as community outreach organizations, government agencies, and more. Complex data privacy regulations that must be upheld further complicate the situation. Finding a technology solution that pulls all that data together and maintains compliance with existing regulations is key to the enablement of personalized member experiences at scale.

Payer Tips for Personalization that Leads to Member Satisfaction

Once you have the necessary data in a centralized platform, what steps can you take to provide a personalized member experience as a payer?

Proactively provide a highly individualized onboarding experience

Many members dread open enrollment periods, largely because members may be confused by healthcare jargon in open enrollment materials, they have an abundance of complex choices to make, and they feel an uncomfortable sense of urgency to make important decisions that will impact their health for at least a year.

You can smooth the onboarding process by sending out well-designed educational materials based on the specific needs of the communities in which your members live. Personalizing the message for specific segments of your member population can increase engagement, provide answers to common questions for that particular segment, facilitate better health plan choices for each member, and provide a better onboarding experience overall.

Create customized programs to cater to individual members’ needs

Based on the data you have gathered about your member population, pinpoint products and programs that will be of value to various segments of your member population. Craft customized messaging streams that provide recommendations for members based on their unique needs. Remember to space these messages out in a way that does not overwhelm your members.

Make member communications meaningful with personalized content.

Provide multiple channels for member communications

With the consumerization of healthcare, members expect to have choices regarding how and over which channels they communicate with you. Accustomed to dealing with companies that enable omnichannel communication, members want to connect via their own preferred channel, whether telephone, chat, email, or social media.

Map personalized member journeys

The member journey does not end with onboarding. Providing a personalized member experience involves building a relationship with members over time. To do that requires mapping the member journey and identifying opportunities to reach out to individual members with engaging content.

This content can include information about programs or products that would be of interest to the member (as noted above), but it can also include other information relevant to the member, such as instructional content about how to get the most from their health plan or how and where to access additional local resources to care for their physical and emotional wellbeing.

Build feedback loops and take appropriate actions on insights gathered

The last piece of the puzzle is to gather feedback regarding how your engagement strategies are working so far. Measuring the success of your efforts allows you to uncover areas for improvement, discover member pain points that still exist, and find opportunities for further member engagement with the goal of improving the health and overall quality of life of your members.

Insightin Health: The Platform for Member Personalization at Scale

Providing a personalized member experience at scale is easier if you use the right technology. Insightin Health is a healthcare member engagement platform that:

• Connects the ecosystems that deliver the healthcare experience
• Provides a 360-degree coordinated view of member data
• Identifies impactful interventions and recommends next best actions for members
• Optimizes operational efficiencies for payers
• Provides organizations a way to improve member experiences and payer profit outcomes at the same time

Want to know more? Let’s work together to get results now