With member engagement solutions designed to deliver personalized content at scale, care teams can provide inclusive member experiences to drive confidence in health decisions and plan loyalty.
How care management can help rebuild trust in healthcare
Even before the pandemic, it was widely acknowledged that there was a slow erosion of trust in healthcare and its professional institutions. Today, health plans are still working to overcome those trends among members, with many care management functions struggling to engage with at-risk members:
- McKinsey studies found that 60% of members who are reached by care management do not follow through on recommended care plans.
- Consumer surveys performed in 2022 revealed that 62% of Americans don’t trust their health plans when it comes to understanding their care options, receiving accurate provider data, and connecting to personalized and inclusive care.
- 53% of respondents agreed a more personalized health plan would be the top factor in improving their experience.
Care management teams are uniquely positioned to build, nurture, and cultivate trust and loyalty among health plan members since these teams work closely with high-risk and high-need patients most likely to benefit from enhanced interactions and personalized care experiences.
When care managers can make direct connections with patients and members, the results can extend beyond plan loyalty. Studies have shown that trust between a patient and a healthcare provider is linked to improved patient experience and health outcomes.
The challenge care management teams face is how to scale these programs and interactions to effectively reach members and close gaps in care when they are stretched so thin and facing such a high volume of cases.
Enhancing patient trust through customized member outreach
Plans must be cautious when they work to establish trust with plan members, notes Evan T. Heigert, creative director for patient engagement at Wolters Kluwer, Health. Personalizing health outreach and education content means “a user is able to get the level of information that they find helpful at that moment,” he explains. “That’s where you build trust with patients – by not inundating them with too much information at once and finding that perfect balance of where they are in their journey.”
In a 2022 online survey of 1,000 people who had had a health encounter within the past 12 months:
- Nearly half of the respondents said they did not get all their questions answered during their provider encounter.
- 80% often or sometimes had follow-up questions.
- 80% said that if they were to receive patient education, they would be more satisfied with their care.
- 68% reported that receiving patient education would make them more likely to return to that healthcare provider.
Proactively offering different educational media and delivery options, different topics including nutrition and stress management, as well as personal condition-specific content, all serve to help the patient or member find the information they might otherwise not have the time or the presence of mind to ask for during in-person care visits. Proactive follow-up also:
- Sets the precedent for positive future health interactions.
- Creates a more informed and health-literate patient/member.
- Deters members from doing their own health research on the internet or social media and potentially finding misleading or downright false information.
