From “I was reminded to have an annual wellness visit” to “I just had an annual wellness visit”, it takes more work than you might think. However, as healthcare organizations increasingly focus on the triple goals of lowering costs, improving population health, and higher quality care, the specific individual needs of healthcare consumers need to be considered to transform them from health engagement to health action.
Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. However, there are six key forces organizations should consider when driving healthcare consumers to take action to improve their health:
1. A new era of healthcare experience. Increased choice and cost are driving consumerism in healthcare, meaning organizations in the industry need to create consumer-centric experiences that meet the expectations of other industries such as retail.At the same time, American households spend Average 8.4% Their annual income in healthcare makes it one of the biggest and most important financial commitments we make.
Healthcare consumers expect more from what they spend a lot of their hard-earned money on. This often means modern and efficient digital-first experiences that make their lives easier. For example, one survey found that 22% Saying that providing digital health services will affect whether they will give the provider a five-star rating. Another 18% said they would leave the provider if there was a better digital experience elsewhere.
2. Utilize massive data. Use data across industries to create better consumer experiences. For example, Spotify uses data to recommend music you might like, Starbucks uses data to entice you to buy your favorite drink, and the list goes on. Likewise, healthcare providers and health plans need to employ data to inform intelligent communication strategies that allow people to take action on their healthcare.
Everyone has their own unique healthcare story. The data communicates this story to health plans and providers, giving them an important opportunity to address the specific values, interests and challenges of individual consumers.
3. Personalized communication. Building on the previous point, once an individual’s unique preferences and challenges are understood, healthcare organizations can use this knowledge to develop personalized strategies and create personalized healthcare consumer journeys. For example, some health consumers prefer to communicate with their health plan via email, while others prefer text messaging. Connecting with members using their preferred communication methods greatly improves their chances of not only receiving information but ultimately taking action.
Personalization can also be used to award healthcare consumers rewards as an incentive to complete healthy actions. Understanding the needs of individuals helps organizations choose meaningful rewards and makes them more likely to take action.
4. Behavioral Sciences. Behavioral science is becoming an increasingly important part of health engagement strategies as organizations learn more about what drives people to take healthy actions. One of the most common examples at work is the effort to get more people vaccinated against the flu each year.
Most people tend to have good intentions When it comes to vaccinations like the flu shot, it’s clear they don’t always follow these intentions. After working with dozens of health plans and multiple flu vaccine programs for tens of thousands of healthy consumers, the results show that addressing each person’s gut beliefs combined with behavioral strategies provides more essential information about the vaccine itself than simply providing have a greater impact.
5. Test and learn. It’s important to look at historical trends, but health organizations should also use A/B testing in each of their programs to get a more accurate picture of what’s working and what’s not. In some cases, this can lead to surprising results.
We recently partnered with a health program that hopes to motivate members who recently visited the ER to visit a primary care provider, with the ultimate goal of reducing repeat ER visits. While it was not thought that reaching Baby Boomers via text message would be effective, we found that 70% of members of this population actually responded to text messages, and this learning was then applied to other members’ communication priorities.
6. Artificial intelligence and machine learning. The aforementioned components such as A/B testing, behavioral science, and personalization take time to execute, but artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can accelerate the process by automatically generating insights.
For example, AI can create a more personalized healthcare experience by tracking variables such as communication channel preferences, patient values, and past behavior. All of this data can be captured and analyzed on a person-by-person basis, enabling organizations to create intelligent healthy engagement strategies that drive action by everyone. Likewise, machine learning can test and measure responses to various types of outreach, automatically adding what works and removing what doesn’t work for everyone.
While many healthcare organizations are lagging behind in delivering the high-level experience today’s consumers demand, it also represents a huge opportunity for those able to execute to differentiate their products. Considering these six forces at play not only creates an inherent competitive advantage, but more importantly, it motivates people to take healthy actions and ultimately drive improved outcomes.
Photo: Nuthaut Somsuk, Getty Images
