It's a fact that most people do not understand their health insurance benefits. And an uninformed customer is almost always an unhappy one.
In addition to the complexity of the industry, which discourages understanding, poor customer communications magnifies the issue. A one-size-fits-all mailer with pages of content explaining policies and benefits that may not be relevant to each person should no longer be the status quo.
Carriers and providers alike should be taking steps to do a better job of educating and communicating with them since it is key to providing a positive customer experience. The rise of technology creates new ways for insurers to engage with customers and clearly articulate benefits, while providing personalized communications.
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Customers need more accessible information
Despite its complexity, the customer experience in health insurance is still judged against other industries — where it trails considerably. The 2015 American Customer Satisfaction index found health insurance hit an all-time low in satisfaction, citing consumers' many questions about what is and isn't covered as a critical reason for this dissatisfaction.
Providers can give insureds the best chance to understand their health benefits if the information they send is personalized and delivered where and how customers want it. While traditional "snail mail" may be required in certain instances, today's world of instantaneous communication can be used to provide the majority of benefits information,
The traditional method of sharing benefits information is incredibly time consuming for companies and independent agents, and the manual processes whereby consumer data is stuffed and shipped leaves potential for human error. On the carrier side, this can have grave consequences including HIPAA violations that trigger data breach notifications. For consumers, illegible handwriting, incomplete forms, fraud, and a variety of other complications can arise.
There is also no mechanism for sharing information between carriers. Portable information was supposed to be a key tenet of medical health records. For example, if someone is laid off, they must move from their current benefits provider to a spouse's coverage, COBRA, ACA or various state marketplaces.
This process is already a depressing one, and issues of transferring this information is adding salt to a wound. Health insurers and benefits providers can use tech to overhaul the way this information is documented to make these experiences as hands off and seamless as possible.
Investing in a CRM system, like Microsoft or Salesforce, to house this customer information and connecting it to a modern customer communication management system significantly improves the expediency, accuracy and mobility of information. Benefits providers can automate every touch point, from the insertion of customer data into consumer-facing documents to distribution on any preferred customer channel, whether its email, SMS, social or others.
This reduces the time it takes to deliver information to the customer, limits risk of human error, and mitigates the chances of frustrating customer experiences. The information captured digitally can also be used to automatically update the customer's file to continue to deliver an increasingly personalized experience moving forward.
Customers want to be guided with easily digestible information
The second way that tech can demystify the health benefits process, especially during onboarding, is by presenting the information in a more linear and dynamic way. According to a recent Policy Genius study, 96 percent of respondents overestimated their knowledge of basic health insurance terms.
The survey also shows that millennials, who have surpassed baby boomers as the largest demographic, are the lowest to understand any health insurance terms at 36 percent. The volume of information and lack of explanation are leading factors complicating this understanding.
Instead of thick packets of information which contain a list of benefits, many of which are not applicable to each customer, companies can leverage pre-fill 'smart' documents that tap multimedia and create a more linear, structured, and individualized experience.
For example, smart forms systems provide each customer a unique username and log-in which allows tailored access to their benefits provider. These digital forms generate follow-up questions in real-time based on data the customer has entered. This supports the customer through the entire process and prevents the hesitancy and anxiety that comes with confusion of selecting the wrong option or figuring out which one applies.
Other clever ways benefits providers can leverage these documents range from embedding short videos at appropriate locations to explain a complicated coverage or concept, or something as simple as tapping a word to receive the definition of a complex term. Providing this kind of system through a mobile device allows benefit providers to distribute information in smaller segments over a period of time rather than all at once, to refrain from information overload.
Technology's role in simplifying and communicating health benefits is about inspiring education and clarity for customers through swift distribution and the careful release of pertinent personalized information to each individual.
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