Blog Post

Engage-ability and the role it plays in successful retention strategies.
by administrator

  

Consumerism in health care differs significantly from other industries. Health care is often considered too complex and too confusing for consumers to navigate on their own, resulting in a lack of trust and frustration.

Case in point, in the hundreds of open-ended survey responses Deft Research has collected so far this year, almost every response has an undertone of frustration and confusion around understanding health insurance benefits or navigating the healthcare system.

“I want to make sure I am getting a good deal and that my needs are covered. It's very difficult to figure this out. For example the [plan] booklet I receive is 152 single spaced typewritten pages of stuff, most of which I really don’t understand.”

This leaves health plans with a unique set of challenges when it comes to engaging and motivating members to be a more active participant in their own health.

In order to advise our clients on how to best deal with these challenges, Deft’s research team dug into the depths of our data vault (and coffee supply) in search of an answer. After extensive analysis of over 10 years of primary survey data, we found an interesting correlation. When consumers felt their insurer (1) was a high quality resource for how to stay healthy, (2) provided them with reminders that motivated them to take action, and (3) addressed what was most important to them, they were both more likely to stay with their insurer, and more likely to recommend the insurer to a friend or family member.  From this correlation, we developed the concept of health plan “engage-ability”.

Engage-ability

 

MAKING ENGAGE-ABILITY ACTIONABLE

By averaging members’ perceptions of the three characteristics, we produced an engage-ability composite score. Then, we categorized companies into three “consumer perception” groups, which we creatively named: lowmoderate, and high engage-ability. Payors can use this score to understand where they stand on customer experience compared with other payors.

Check out a few of our findings in our latest white paper.

After checking out the white paper, get in touch with our team to determine your organization’s engage-ability score, compare how it stacks up against your competitors, and figure out what can be done to improve it. Deft’s Member Experience studies help health plans diagnose the major pain points their customers encounter, and identify high- value creating interventions.

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