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 #3: Evaluate and Strengthen Orientation Efforts

The more knowledgeable members (and plan sponsors) are about plan benefits, processess and resources, the more likely they are to remain with the plan - this is particularly true for Medicare Risk members.

This suggests the need for more proactive contact with new members and payers and a careful review of the utility and "member friendliness" of the information provided about the plan.

• Provide members better and more useful information. Providing people with thick manuals when they enroll doesn't usually help them understand how to navigate the system when they need care. As technology advances, a greater variety of media, including CD-ROM and on-line resources, should be considered as means of communicating plan benefits, resources and health information.
  
  
• Target your members appropriately.
  
  
  • Orientation seminars are especially effective for seniors in advancing member understanding of plan benefits and processes, and tend to result in extended plan membership.
    
    
  • Proactive phone contact works well for commercial members. The orientation seminar may not work as well for commercial members because of busier schedules. Instead, proactive contact by phone at least twice in the first two or three months of membership to explain benefits and provide health improvement opportunities is usually well-received by this population segment.

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

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