14 Ways Insurers Can Improve Patient Experiences

The healthcare industry is slowly starting to implement the type of consumer engagement best practices that have been hallmarks in the retail, travel, and financial industries for years: listening to individuals and designing personalized solutions to incentivize outcomes.“With the growth of consumerism and a shift to value-based care, plans today recognize that connecting with consumers is imperative to ensure the health of both their plan and their members,” says Tom Wicka, chief executive officer of NovuHealth, a healthcare consumer engagement company in Minneapolis.Consumer engagement in healthcare keeps individuals on top of their own well-being, leading to healthier outcomes. On the flip side, non-engaged consumers are often high-cost consumers, because they bypass early prevention and detection and don’t properly manage chronic conditions.“It’s incumbent upon plans to take a proactive approach to engage consumers and improve their health, which results in other benefits such as lower healthcare costs, compensation from stronger outcomes, and improved plan performance,” Wicka says.Here, experts provide 14 ways that insurers can improve their members’ experiences with them.