Get to know your members and establish trusted relationships
Building trust through member engagement, community outreach, and health literacy.
Overcoming health disparities and guiding members to the care they need can challenge even the most committed health plans because individuals differ in how they understand, engage with, and use the current US healthcare system. Establishing relationships and getting to know members is the first step that needs to be taken in order to build trust and uncover barriers.
As part of our ongoing discussion series Under the Same Sky, Abner Mason, founder and CEO of SameSky Health, and Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, founder and CEO of Grapevine Health, discussed the importance of creating compelling content that increases health literacy, promotes trust between patients and medical professionals, and improves health outcomes. View the recording below.
Dr. Fitzpatrick has spent many years researching the best solutions to engage members, especially those in underserved communities. When asking people where they received their most trusted healthcare information, the predominant answer was sadly Google. Limited health literacy causes so much frustration with members when trying to understand the complex US healthcare system. Health literacy is a powerful social driver of care. Members simply want accessible and relatable information.
“What are the plans saying? They know they have a problem with engagement. They need help getting people’s attention to then drive them to an action they need to improve their health…Even though plans know they have this problem, engagement is an Achilles heel for all plans.””
We know member engagement is an Achilles heel because there are so many pieces to the puzzle. You first need to have updated contact information to even reach the members, but you also need them to open, digest, and engage with the content you are sending so that they can take a specific action. With all the different engagement channels out there, make sure the member remains the focal point of your strategy. Gathering member data needs to be intentional so that you can build a solution that empowers members in their healthcare journey.
Get to know your members:
Ask questions about their engagement with the healthcare system.
Ask about their wants AND needs.
Ask about their resources for access to healthcare.
Show content that is relatable to their lives and demographic.
Get feedback about how they want to receive and understand information.
Gather information from all different sources such as community based organizations, members/patients, caretakers, etc. to build a trusted voice among a community.
This information is the crucial piece that will help to build trust and member engagement. Being able to incorporate SDOH (social determinants of health), health indicators, demographics, and cultural views on healthcare will provide key insights into your member population. The result will create more personalized outreach, better health outcomes for members, and improved satisfaction, activation, retention, and quality measures for health plans.
Learn more about how SameSky Health brings together data, insight, and expertise that enables us to uncover opportunities to engage and empower members on their annual health journeys.
For more information about the important work Dr. Fitzpatrick and her team are focused on, we invite you to listen to a recent podcast Lisa participated in, discussing the importance of helping more people understand their own healthcare and why payers are starting to buy in.
Share this post:Related
