Know thyself: Using self awareness to fuel success

A common thread woven amongst today’s benefit plan designs and health/wellness offerings is the goal of reaching a member on a personal, targeted level and finding methods to positively influence their behavior. Consumer-driven plans, health management programs, incentives/disincentives and value-based benefits are atop the popularity list. At their core, all aim to create new perspective and generate action at the member level. Many employers, however, implement these strategies without first understanding their end customer – the one who ultimately controls the end-game.

Place Focus on Member Behavior

Members are arguably the most impactful constituent within the health care system.  When empowered, they become consumers deciding when to receive care, from whom, and at what cost.  If the ultimate goal is to reduce health care cost trends while improving outcomes, then the primary focus must be placed on driving member behavior changes; specifically, increased accountability for personal health status and purchasing decisions.  Employers today have an infinite number of programming options which aim to achieve these very goals. Finding the appropriate strategies for your population, however, can be a challenging, repetitive process. 

Use Existing Data but Don't Stop There

Most employers creating benefit plans and wellness strategies seek as much data as possible to help drive their decisions and rightfully so.  There are clinical inputs galore, including basic demographic data, health risk assessments, biometric screenings, claims mining and data stratification processes.  This leaves employers knowing some very important, yet limited data about Joe/Jane Member:  age, gender, weight, utilization patterns and claims experiences, current health status and future risk for developing chronic condition(s). 

Demographics and clinical captures are important. But if behavior change is what you want, you must first understand what drives each member's behavior today and how best to connect with them to change behavior in the future.  This important data cannot be gleaned from demographic and clinical data feeds alone.   

Round Out Your Member Data by Digging Deeper

Creating a well-rounded understanding of your members requires a willingness and commitment to dig a bit deeper and understand what lies beneath a variety of actions and behaviors. Psychographic attributes help us understand the lifestyle, interests, attitudes, values and personalities of members, which fuel their choices, responses, preferences, actions and behaviors.

Psychographic information about your members can be a powerful tool in creating programs and outreach strategies that meet members where they are, and aim to influence them according to their readiness, needs and preferences. This leads to increased satisfaction levels for both the member and employer.  Without this data, strategies can be a glorified guessing game and can result in months, or even years, of costly cleanup and escalated frustration levels for both members and employers.

Surprisingly, psychographic data sets can be retrieved just as easily as the previously mentioned data sources at sometimes fractional costs.  Finding a partner to help you n obtain and understand your population can provide significant benefit and result in the best data possible.  Deploying surveys using online tools are a great way to obtain physiographic data. Response rates will also greatly increase if the participation is sweetened with even a nominal incentive, like a gift card or additional personal/wellness days.

For example, if you are preparing to launch a consumerism strategy, you should gain some important insights into member thoughts, feelings, beliefs, attitudes and aptitudes by surveying your membership and asking: 

Questions that measure education and awareness levels

• How familiar are you with consumer-driven health (CDH) plans?
• Do you enjoy financial concepts, managing your own finances and consider yourself fairly seasoned in financial matters?
• Do you seek opportunities to create tax advantages for yourself and your family?
• Do you seek cost or quality information before visiting a health care provider or pursuing a health care service?

Questions that gauge readiness levels for change

• How interested are you in trying a new benefit plan design that functions differently than your current one?
• How often do you think about your health care and benefit offering?
• How sensitive am I to plan change at present?

Questions that determine plan design preferences

• What is most important to me in a health plan/benefit offering?
• What plan features would I be willing to "trade off" to gain others?

Questions that gauge financial modeling preferences

• How sensitive am I to price shifts in premiums?
• How sensitive am I to price shifts in deductibles?
• Am I motivated by incentives/disincentives?

Questions that gauge communication preferences

• What messages resonate with me most?
• What are the most effective ways to communicate with me?

Put the Data to Work

In our example, perhaps you've learned that 60 percent of your members are fairly seasoned in financial concepts, readily understand tax-advantaged plans, have a moderate appetite for plan changes, are very interested in incentives and mostly self-directed learners who prefer to view benefit information online.  You've also learned that 40 percent of your members have a very low appetite for plan changes, are somewhat interested in incentives, do not understand core concepts of CDH and prefer postal mail communications as well as in-person benefit meetings.  

With this data, you be able to select the account types, financial components - such as premiums, deductibles and incentive offerings - that will be most attractive to your population.  You'll be able to more accurately predict enrollment targets by determining, with fair certainty, who your early adopters will be and who will require intervention assistance to effectively transition into the plan.  Your educational campaigns and communication strategies will provide messages that reach and resonate with your members. For those who are financial savvy and have existing knowledge of CDH, you could reach them with an online message on how to increase their tax shelter by contributing the maximum amount allowed. For those who are less educated on the core components of consumerism, you could send postal mailings on the basics of consumer-driven plans.

The example referenced is focused on implementing a consumerism strategy that aims to shift the overall participant mindset and purchasing behaviors. But the same principles and models apply to any benefit design strategy or health and wellness offering an employer is considering.  Every employer can benefit greatly by knowing more about the members they aim to positively influence, regardless of which behavior they are targeting.

Summary

Employers who are serious about reducing health care costs should focus on driving member behavior changes and employ the basic strategy of getting to know the underlying psychographics of their members as a precursor to setting any "far-horizon" strategy.  Using holistic member data, employers can begin connecting members with messages, information and programs that are more directly matched to their needs and preferences - a successful strategy for any forward-looking employer.