There’s nothing more personal than health, and consumers today expect their healthcare experiences to be even better than their retail, insurance, or banking ones. Far too often, when we visit retail, insurance, or banking sites, they’re navigating us through a personalized experience or offering products and services that are relevant to use. However, my digital patient experience is messy, disconnected, and often so impersonal. Consumers want interactions with their care team to be frictionless across their preferred methods of communication.
In recent years, the rate of change across the healthcare industry has accelerated. And for healthcare organizations across the board – from doctors’ offices to health insurers to pharmaceutical and drug companies – staying one step ahead of this change is key to strengthening engagement and providing exceptional consumer experiences. So it’s time to rethink healthcare engagement. While the healthcare industry made strides to deliver connected experiences during a tumultuous year and a half in the pandemic, the reality is that consumers still bear the brunt of navigating a very complex and often disjointed healthcare ecosystem.
Data shows patient loyalty increased despite need for better engagement
According to Pega’s 2021 Healthcare Engagement Survey, more than 2,000 patients and 200 senior healthcare executives from health plans, health systems, and pharmaceutical companies point to dramatic narrowing, but still an alarming disparity, between how patients see engagement and the industry that delivers it sees it. Patients are much more tolerant during the pandemic as challenges in healthcare persist. Most tellingly, the number of patients who said they would switch doctors due to poor communication and engagement dropped 23% (from 86% to 63%) compared to last year – despite persistent issues that continue to plague the healthcare industry. That’s a significant decrease, but one that is temporary due to ongoing Covid-19 variant uncertainty.
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With many still feeling the effects of the pandemic, patients don’t feel as inclined to find a new healthcare provider. But that’s a temporary effect, and healthcare organizations are aware. Positive communication will go a long way in retaining your patients and making them feel valued. They want even more communication. The results pointed to several improvements in collaborative engagement experienced by consumers from their doctors and insurers: 50% of consumers agree their doctor and health insurer are in sync and closely connected, which is a significant increase from only 27% last year. In addition, consumers note better cost predictability from health insurers: 51% say their insurer can tell them the costs before a procedure, which is up from 16% the year prior.
But will these positive feelings extend beyond the pandemic? Overall, the healthcare system frustrates consumers: 55% say that navigating it remains difficult compared to 61% last year. So if providers and payers hope to build on their newfound customer goodwill, the survey suggests two key focus areas to help deliver better-personalized care experiences:
Bridge the patient communication gap
Many care organizations (76%) believe they make it easy for patients to connect with them. However, just over half (54%) of consumers say they are happy with the level of communication from their doctor’s office. And when healthcare organizations do communicate, the information provided can be confusing: almost half (48%) of consumers say they receive conflicting information from insurers–which is nearly a 20% increase from last year. Organizations must address this perception gap to solidify patient trust and loyalty.
Accelerate the adoption of advanced technology
Consumers are slowly becoming more willing to allow payers and providers to use more technology if it means improving their health outcomes. For example, 53% of consumers say they are open to giving insurers access to their real-time health data–a 13% increase from last year. In addition, 49% are comfortable with their doctors using AI to make better care decisions. As customer comfort levels with these approaches increase, health organizations have an opportunity to introduce new proactive ways to engage with health consumers.
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Although consumers express more loyalty to their doctors and payers than before the pandemic, providers aren’t as convinced: 77% think patients would switch providers due to poor communications–up a complete 103% over last year. The vast majority are exploring new technology to better engage with their patients to help them stay proactive with care. In the post-pandemic world, care teams–from providers to insurers – must increase personalization and reduce complexity to empower consumers to engage more in their health and drive better care outcomes. It has been said that healthcare will evolve more over the next decade than it has in the prior 100 years.
As a result, most healthcare organizations have innovation as a critical strategy component. This accelerated view of technology enhances how healthcare organizations can serve clients and personalize care to improve overall health. Healthcare is all about the connection: connecting consumers to the right care and connecting information from provider to payer to patient/member. And after Covid-19, it’s more necessary now than ever before. All these connections come down to one-to-one engagement, which is why it’s so essential to provide healthcare that’s personalized, prioritized, and preemptive. Personalized experiences empower consumers, simplify healthcare delivery, and drive better outcomes.
As Global Vice President of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Coforge, Kelli Bravo helps healthcare and life sciences organizations develop digital transformation and engagement strategies that build relationships, simplify operations, and improve the way healthcare is delivered.
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