Survey Results: Member Experience Led Health Plan Communication Spending in 2022

WILMINGTON, Del. and BURLINGTON, Mass., Jan. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Health plans invested heavily on initiatives to meet rising member experience expectations in 2022. This includes member engagement communications and supporting technology infrastructure. More than half (55.0%) of health plan executives participating in this seventh annual Engagys and RISE Survey of Healthcare Consumer Engagement Practices reported an increase in 2022 member engagement budgets. Three in four (75.3%) said attention on these departments had increased.

"This is good news for healthcare consumers," says Kathleen Ellmore, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Engagys. "Even in the face of a national effort to improve member experience, COVID-19 forced a pull back on these investments. Now health plans are back on track with the resources to deliver a world class member experience."

The survey, which tracks the consumer health engagement tactics, budgets, challenges, and priorities of the nation's leading health plans, also found:

• Health plans used multi-channel communications strategies in 2022, with outreach spread more evenly across all channels. This is in stark contrast to the early years of this study, when health plans relied heavily on call center agents and printed letters, and use of SMS text messaging was uncommon.
• No clear frontrunner emerged among communication channels in 2022, suggesting it's getting harder to connect with members and lending support for plans' multi-channel approach. Only four communication channels cracked the 30 percent effectiveness mark in 2022, whereas six reached this level in 2021.
• Data and infrastructure upgrades topped priorities in 2022. Nearly half (45%) of participants reported an effort to standardize data fields across the enterprise, a five-fold increase over 2021. Half (50.0%) of respondents said they had continued to develop multi-channel communication capabilities, and nearly as many (48.0%) indicated investments in the member portal in 2022.
• Telehealth has staying power. Three-quarters of participating plans (75.0%) will expand telehealth or keep it at post-COVID-19 levels. Fewer than 20 percent (19.44%) expect a return to pre-COVID-19 levels.

"We have an obligation to help members get back into care," says Ellmore. "Also, it's on us to find a way that works to communicate with you, the member. Not the other way around."

For more on survey findings and methods, click here.

Engagys is the leading healthcare consumer engagement consulting and research firm.

Media contact: Marit Fratelli, [email protected]

SOURCE Engagys, LLC