WebMD Ignite Launches Enhancements to Coach to Improve Health Plan Member Engagement and Reduce Costs

New capabilities enable faster, more efficient outreach for health plan care managers to help members take control of their health and reduce downstream costs

NEWARK, N.J., April 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- WebMD Ignite, the leading full-service growth partner for organizations in the healthcare industry, today announced enhancements to Coach®, its industry-leading care management solution for health plans. 

Coach is a comprehensive digital health engagement platform that empowers health plans to drive ongoing member involvement and interaction. By leveraging a vast library of educational resources, behavior-change techniques, sophisticated campaign development tools and in-depth analytics, Coach helps organizations deliver targeted health campaigns, support chronic disease management and enhance member engagement at scale. 

The new enhancements integrate proven SMS text-messaging technology that is designed to reduce operational costs and improve health outcomes by providing care managers with a highly effective, real-time communication tool in members' preferred channel. It also includes an innovative population-wide campaign feature that enables organizations to deliver targeted, automated health education at scale, supporting population health initiatives through scheduled outreach and real-time engagement tracking.

"Today's members expect seamless, mobile-first experiences, and health plans need tools that meet those expectations while driving real outcomes," said Veronica Short, vice president of Product Management, Healthcare Solutions Group at WebMD Ignite. "With Coach's enhanced SMS capabilities, care managers can connect with members in the moments that matter—quickly, effectively and at scale. This innovation helps plans modernize their outreach, improve engagement, and ultimately support better health across the populations they serve."

Providing timely, relevant health education via their preferred channels gives members immediate access to the information they need when they need it most. Coach inspires healthy behaviors that promote higher medication adherence, improved outpatient visit rates and increased preventive care participation. It also can help reduce costly interventions by lowering hospitalizations, readmissions and emergency department visits.

With 99% of text messages opened and 90% read within three minutes, text messaging represents an unparalleled opportunity for health plans to connect with members quickly and effectively, often outperforming traditional outreach methods like phone calls and print mailings. By integrating texting directly into Coach, WebMD Ignite empowers health plan care-management teams to beat engagement goals, improve treatment adherence and reduce downstream claims costs — all while making outreach more efficient and scalable.

The new Coach capabilities are simple, flexible and highly configurable to meet the unique needs and nuances of each health plan and their various member populations, including:

• Real-time reach: Push notifications ensure messages are seen promptly, keeping health education and motivation top of mind.
• Custom branding: Text templates can be customized to reflect each health plan's brand and messaging.
• Member convenience: Deliver concise, actionable information directly to members' mobile devices.
• Seamless workflow integration: Care managers can select, send and track text-based education within Coach, including opt-in and opt-out management.

The population-wide campaigns feature is particularly powerful because it enables health plans to engage members at scale, driving proactive population health initiatives through targeted digital outreach. Usable by both clinical and administrative health plan teams, it also can be personalized to send health education to specific groups, remind certain members to schedule routine screenings or geo-target members with tailored messaging based on specific health events occurring in their local communities. Teams also can effortlessly upload member lists, automate messaging and schedule educational content over time. All of the new features are also supported by Coach's industry-leading analytics that help users track key engagement metrics like delivery rates, open rates and completion rates.

WebMD Ignite works with more than half of the top 20 health plans in the U.S. and continues to lead the industry in transforming care management with innovative, scalable solutions that deliver measurable value. Coach complements the company's full suite of services and solutions for health plans that support both health plan clinical and marketing teams. 

About WebMD Ignite
WebMD Ignite, a division of WebMD and Internet Brands, is the premier growth partner for healthcare organizations. As industry experts, we empower decision-making insights across the entire health journey by integrating our proprietary technology, unrivaled reach, strategic targeting, business intelligence, and vast educational resources. Our solutions are purpose-built to solve healthcare industry challenges to boost acquisition, build loyalty, and ignite action that optimizes health outcomes and operational efficiencies.

About WebMD Health Corp.
WebMD, an Internet Brands company, is at the heart of the digital health revolution that is transforming the healthcare experience for consumers, patients, health care professionals, employers, health plans, and health systems. Through public and private online portals, mobile platforms, and health-focused publications, WebMD delivers leading-edge content and digital services that enable and improve decision-making, support and motivate health actions, streamline and simplify the health care journey, and improve patient care. 

The WebMD Health Network includes WebMD Health, Medscape, WebMD Ignite (encompassing Krames, The Wellness Network, and Mercury Healthcare), Jobson Healthcare Information, MediQuality, Frontline, Vitals Consumer Services, Aptus Health, PulsePoint, MedicineNet, eMedicineHealth, RxList, OnHealth, Medscape Education, and other owned WebMD sites. WebMD®, Medscape®, CME Circle®, Medpulse®, eMedicine®, MedicineNet®, theheart.org® and RxList® are among the trademarks of WebMD Health Corp. or its subsidiaries.

SOURCE WebMD Ignite