Using Targeted Marketing Strategies To Optimize Healthcare .

Using targeted marketing strategiesto optimize healthcare plansTargeted benefits communications can improvemember health and lower program costsWHITE PAPER

IntroductionToday, organizations are finding that rising healthcare costs cannegatively impact their bottom line. Both health insurers and selfinsured providers are after the same two goals: 1) reducing the costof employee benefits, and 2) driving healthy outcomes by influencingmember behavior.Influencing behavior is, of course, what marketing is all about. It’sinteresting to note that for years, health benefits professionals haveasked marketing experts to design, write, and produce their membercommunications. In some instances, marketing people were basicallyused to “dress up” an existing monolithic tactical communicationsprogram already in place, applying the marketing expertise to theback end of the process.Instead, by providing strategic and tactical assistance at the frontend of the process, marketing professionals can truly help managersreduce costs and influence healthy member behavior. Why? A keycomponent of meeting today’s healthcare challenges is creatingimpactful communications that inform, influence and motivate planmembers to take positive actions that improve the quality of theirlives. To accomplish this, benefits professionals need to think likemarketers right from the start.Using targeted marketing strategies to optimize healthcare plansTargeted benefits communications can improve member health and lower program costs2

The marketing mindsetCommunicating healthcare benefits is not merely sharingfacts and figures. The real communications challenge ismarketing the healthcare plan to program members anddriving the desired behaviors and outcomes. To do this, thebenefits organization needs a well thought out targetedcommunications program.The program starts with understanding members’ wants andneeds, likes and dislikes, and recognizing and addressing theirspecial traits. Where do they live? What language do they speakat home? Who is the “healthcare CEO” of the household?Each individual is unique and in most organizations, employeepopulations are incredibly diverse. So, how can you reachmembers with targeted communications that improve theiruse of healthcare benefits?By thinking of every benefits challenge as a marketingproblem, managers can start employing marketing practicesto help reduce communications complexity and plan costs,and drive healthy outcomes.Segmenting the audienceEmploying marketing techniques that segment your memberaudience geographically is the first step. Establish where theylive and work. Determine their proximity to care and supportservices and what hours those services are available. Also,track how members behave in different geographic sectors,from urban to suburban to rural locales.Next, explore demographic segmentation. Group members byspecific characteristics, regardless of where they are located.Without using sensitive personal health records, you canuncover demographic insights to align communications withsegment attributes and drive significant improvements.Messaging can be made more relevant to the targets, which iskey to engaging them. Members who are more involved intheir healthcare program tend to make better decisions abouttheir consumption of benefits, which in turn helps thembecome healthier and more productive.In addition, demographic segmentation can uncover newapproaches to reaching members in traditional and nontraditional ways by leveraging messages and media vehiclesthat will help generate the desired behavior from eachsegment of your audience.The role of targeted marketingTargeted marketing is the deployment of differentiatedmessages, strategies and tactics for each audience segment.Targeting helps you answer questions like: When should members be contacted? In which channel? Does one plan work for all segments? What is the segment’s “health literacy”? How frequent is engagement? W ho is the healthcare decision-maker(the “healthcare CEO”) of the household?Targeted marketing helps you effectively deploy the full rangeof communication vehicles now available: direct mail, email,texting, radio events, websites, blogs, podcasts, call centers,social networks, TV, partner sites, and search. While thesechannels provide benefits managers with more ways to reachmembers than ever before, hard copy printed materials stillremain the dominant format for healthcare communications.A recent omnibus survey commissioned by Pitney BowesManagement Services clearly shows members’ preference forprint communications. This is particularly important infamilies where options for coverage, care, and providers needto be shared with others. This member preference for printcommunications can make “transpromo” opportunities quiteeffective. As an example, a wellness message embedded in anExplanation of Benefits can be a very efficient way to influencea recipient.Targeted marketing also enables you to tailor communicationsto each stage of the member relationship. A communicationsstrategy should evolve throughout the member life cycle, fromonboarding to engagement to reinforcing or redirecting therelationship, to points that require recognition and reward. Asthe member ages, behavior and preferences may change.Member life events – such as the birth of a child or the diagnosisof a chronic disease – also impact your communicationsapproach. Any of these factors can influence both the messageand how you will be delivering it. Maintaining an ongoingconversation with your membership often helps you anticipatechanges so you can be ready with meaningful messages.The bottom line: tailored messaging in a targeted marketingprogram can dramatically increase the effectiveness ofhealthcare and wellness communications.Targeted marketing toolsThere are many effective marketing tools to help you targetthe right message to the right audience through the mosteffective media channel. Benefits managers can use thesetools to help cut costs and influence healthy behaviors bypositively impacting member decisions. The followingmarketing tools are particularly useful in the healthcare arena:Segmentation Analytics and Experience Design. SegmentationAnalytics breaks down a population into groups that needdifferent messaging approaches. It enables you to choose theUsing targeted marketing strategies to optimize healthcare plansTargeted benefits communications can improve member health and lower program costs3

message that will resonate most with each unique segment.Experience Design is a service provided by experts whointerpret member data to determine the best way to reacheach audience segment and the best cadence, or frequencyof contact.Location Intelligence and GIS (Geo Information Systems). Thesetools allow you to relate data to geographic areas, eithervisually in maps and charts or as conventional tables. Thisallows benefits managers to collapse the amount of informationsent to members, who need only receive information aboutparticipating pharmacies and Primary Care Providers (PCPs) intheir area. This cuts printing and postage costs, and reducesthe need to warehouse huge preprinted directories foronboarding programs.Variable Composition. This tool enables you to create customizedtemplates that tailor communications to specific audiences.For example, the same letter can be produced with a picture ofa family with children, a young married couple, or seniors on agolf course. The appropriate template can then be selected andprinted automatically as the mailing is produced. You can evenuse Variable Composition to produce communications in thelanguage spoken in the member’s household.Address and Data Hygiene. These tools cleanse bad/undeliverable addresses and other erroneous input to makesure that what you put in the mail will be delivered to theintended recipient.Typical applications: Real world case studiesHere are some examples of how organizations use targetedcommunications programs to reduce healthcare costs andimprove member health:Saving money with more effective pharmacy benefitonboarding kitsIneffective and unnecessarily expensive onboarding kits canstart member relationships off on the wrong foot. They canflood your help desk with calls each time new kits aredistributed. They can extend the learning curve for newmembers, resulting in low referral and retention rates. Incontrast, effective onboarding kits are easy to understand,simple to navigate, and contain only relevant content.One organization had a special challenge with their pharmacybenefit onboarding kits. They were mailing new subscribers ahuge packet of ID cards, network directories, and programinformation. The packages were costly to produce and unwieldyfor members to use.The solution: configure a workflow to accept data feeds thatcould be translated into an order for variably printed materials.The system used recipient addresses to trigger a retailpharmacy provider selection. This reduced the size of theprovider directories from the entire state or region to just thosepharmacies within 20 miles of the member’s home.Using Variable Composition tools and Print-on-Demand (POD),the total cost for onboarding kits was reduced by more than70 percent.Increasing preventive screenings among membersThis organization was experiencing poor participation inpreventive care by new employees. New members and theirfamilies simply needed guidance for the proper use of healthbenefits.The solution was to create a highly personalized and versionedmailing from the benefits services provider with the simpletitle, “Why preventive care is important.” The piece included aneasy to follow “Guideline for maintaining your health” whichcontained individualized wellness guidance tailored to the age,gender, and family composition of the recipient. Each familymember had preventive screening guidance tailored to theirspecific needs.The result: Wellness testing increased by 25 percent. Thesuccess of this program also illustrates the importance ofcreating an ongoing dialogue to enhance member relationships.Such dialogue puts the benefits administrator in a position oftrust and respect from which to steer desired behaviors anddrive deeper engagements. It’s important to first know yourmembers’ current behaviors and engage each one withinformation that relates directly to their personal situation.Replacing ER use with primary care provider visitsIn a targeted program, as data is collected and analysis uncoverspotential problems, remediation or reactivation communicationscan guide members back to preferred practices. Here, thedegree of success is impacted by how strong the relationship isbetween the benefits group and the member through ongoingdialogue. Most importantly, this “redirect marketing” requiresongoing usage monitoring and the necessary flexibility to drivedifferentiated programs and communications.Another organization was experiencing significant challengesaround some members’ frequent use of the Emergency Roomas their source for primary care. This is an expensive approachfor both the payer and the employee.The solution: create a targeted enrollment mailing to thepopulation segment most likely to use health benefitsinappropriately. Location intelligence tools were used to createmail pieces that included a listing of the three participating PCPsclosest to the member’s home. Depending on age, gender andfamily composition, some mailings also included the threeclosest participating pediatricians and OB/GYN practices.Using targeted marketing strategies to optimize healthcare plansTargeted benefits communications can improve member health and lower program costs4