In the 2020 Industry Pulse Report from Change Healthcare, the survey of nearly 500 payers and providers reveals that all have a consumer-centric strategy either in place or in development. Among the metrics the survey uses to measure expansion of healthcare consumerism strategies are increasing commitments to sharing data with consumers, as well as enhancing the consumer healthcare experience.
The report is contributing evidence of the growing trend toward healthcare consumerism, which recognizes the empowered consumer at the center of a dynamic healthcare experience. A seamless, holistic experience spans a consumer’s interactions with payers, providers, and other health professionals across multiple channels. Importantly, it is diametrically opposed to a traditional static ecosystem marked by siloes of engagement that introduce friction and create a cumbersome experience.
While healthcare consumerism has been in motion for some time, the current healthcare crisis is likely to greatly accelerate the trend, particularly as consumers transition to a more digital experience and healthcare professionals shift to digital channels to adapt to evolving consumer healthcare journeys. There are of course the immediate and serious effects of COVID-19, from caring for the sick to securing supplies and mitigating the spread of the virus. Consumer education is also important; letting consumers know how to access treatment or testing, what’s covered under their plan, whether certain copays are waived, etc. In one study from mid-March, 70 percent of healthcare consumers were unfamiliar with the status of their coverage for coronavirus-related situations.
A Connected, Personalized Experience Starts with Data
The ongoing health emergency serves as a stark reminder that a dynamic consumer healthcare journey touches a multitude of stakeholders who are vested in improving health outcomes and consumer satisfaction through a variety of channels and engagement touchpoints. Increasingly, this entails recognition that digital communication is an important to improving the consumer experience. Consider a 2019 Consumerization of Healthcare Study by Econsultancy, which found that 75 percent of consumers wanted the healthcare experience to be more like other industries – infused with highly personalized and connected experiences across physical and digital channels.
Specific examples from Accenture’s 2019 “Future of Healthcare” survey include 70 percent of consumers preferring a provider who offers follow-up texts or emails, and 29 percent of consumers taking advantage of virtual care when offered – an 8 percent increase since 2017.
To meet the consumer expectation for a connected, personalized experience and to help guide the healthcare consumer through a dynamic journey, healthcare professionals need access to relevant data. Claims and clinical data that belong to the same consumer record must be accessible and updated in real time, providing healthcare professionals with a single view of the healthcare consumer.
Eliminate Siloes with a Single View of the Consumer
The Redpoint Golden Record provides a persistently updated single view by combining data of every type and from every source, and making it accessible in real time. With advanced identity resolution capabilities, the Redpoint platform resolves a consumer’s identity to the individual level across multiple devices and known and unknown journeys. Rules-based automated machine learning models power a real-time decisioning engine, which generates a next-best action in the context of the consumer’s unique journey.
Across a diversity of industries that include retail, finance, and hospitality, Redpoint clients use the platform to drive new revenue with a single control over all data, decisions, and interactions. Real-time decisioning ensures that data is actionable the moment it’s needed, and for optimal impact. A CPG company, as one example, uses the platform to generate real-time web-based product recommendations, generating a 79 percent increase in conversions and 3X ROI in the first year.
According to research from Gartner, “customer-centric” brands that combine transactional, preference, and historical data with behavioral data, IoT and sentiment analysis, and first-party, second-party, and third-party data across an anonymous to known record can achieve a conversion lift of 20 percent or more. Conversely, “persona-centric” brands that stop at using transactional, preference, and historical data usually cap revenue lift at 10 percent.
A single view of the healthcare consumer helps healthcare professionals reach the “customer-centric” level, with results that include communicating with a member or patient in the preferred channel, with information that is most relevant to their current situation. When access of care, benefits navigation, and other aspects of a healthcare journey are coordinated through a single point of control, the healthcare consumer is met with a seamless, consistent experience across digital and physical channels.
Communicate with Relevance, in the Right Context
In the current situation, for example, this could mean a payer knowing that a consumer searched for testing locations on a payer website and alerting a provider, who then follows up with an SMS message. Or a payer with access to a provider’s appointment availability proactively notifying a consumer about a change to a provider service and offering to schedule an appointment. These use cases depend on having the relevant data, and on being able to communicate in real time in the channel where a message or action will produce the desired effect.
Digital transformation in healthcare is not a recent development. The trend toward healthcare consumerism is, in many ways, a recognition of the changing nature of the consumer healthcare journey toward a dynamic, digital-first, experience that mirrors a consumer experience in other industries. Now, with consumers altering daily behaviors in ways never before seen, this trend will only accelerate. Healthcare professionals who are prepared to deliver a consistent experience and guide a consumer through the complex, dynamic healthcare ecosystem will benefit from higher retention, improved acquisition efforts, and higher consumer satisfaction rates.
Redpoint and Lucerna Health will co-host a webinar, “Payer Marketing in a Challenging Environment” on May 13 that will expand on these themes. The second in a series on healthcare consumerism, the webinar will touch on the impact of social distancing on this year’s marketing campaigns, the impact on providers, and how to optimize personalized offer journeys in an increasingly digital marketplace.
Register here for the webinar, which will be held May 13, 1 p.m. EDT.
Editor’s note: A follow-up blog will focus on ways to manage the dynamic customer healthcare journey.
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