Resource
Center:
Strategies for Improving Health Plan Member Retention and Loyalty
Member retention is becoming an issue of increasing concern and focus among HMOs and other health plans. There was a natural tendency to grow through aggressive new member acquisition in the early growth stages of the managed care industry. As market penetration has increased and the marketplace has become very competitive, new members are increasingly lost members from other plans. Attention is therefore being given to member retention.
There are a number of steps you can take now to increase member retention and build customer loyalty. This page will offer a series of tips to help you achieve these goals.
Step #1: Make member retention a plan-wide priority.
- Create
a cross-functional member loyalty task force with measurable
member retention goals. Include representatives from marketing, sales,
market research, information systems, customer service, provider relations,
medical management, quality management, and operations. This multi-disciplinary
team should develop service strategies uniquely focused on retention
outcomes and directly incorporate member loyalty initiatives into the
plan's overall and product-specific marketing and sales strategies.
- Determine
the types of problems and concerns that have been the most difficult
to resolve for members. Develop mechanisms throughout the plan
to more effectively resolve member problems, especially in the PCP offices
or through the provider groups.
- Dedicate
a budget to support the retention initiative. This is critical
to the success of the task force.
- Broadly
publicize the objectives and successes of this task force throughout
the organization.
- Forcefully
communicate the financial and medical impact of voluntary disenrollment
to personnel throughout the plan and delivery network. Share facts and
figures to explain the value of loyal customers. These data will underscore
the importance of the plan's loyalty initiative.
- Set
specific retention-related goals in departments, such as member
services, that have the ability to directly impact a specific member's
disenrollment decision.
Sign HSM's Keep Me Posted page to receive e-mail notification of when updates are added to this ongoing series designed to help you leverage member loyalty and improve your bottom line.
Step #1 | Step #2 | Step #3 | Step #4 | Step #5 | Step #6 | Step #7