Patient populations are becoming increasingly diverse, particularly in individualized, typically government-funded segments. As regulations continue to evolve on an annual basis, engaging these patients is critical to driving a best-in-class experience, clinical outcomes and business outcomes.
What’s less obvious is how to get these diverse populations engaged, particularly when they can be the most difficult cohort to reach.
By 2045, it’s expected that 50% of the U.S. population will come from diverse backgrounds 1, and healthcare organizations need to evolve to continue to provide quality care. While we have seen several advances in healthcare, especially since the pandemic, the engagement channels and tactics still tend to be pretty archaic. Various traits can influence how individuals themselves make decisions and navigate their healthcare, including race, ethnicity, culture, language, sexuality, etc., but many healthcare organizations lack the tools, capabilities, or processes to cater to these unique traits.
So, the question is: how can I deliver meaningful engagement with a diverse population?
Reaching diverse populations
A healthy 25-year-old Spanish-speaker has different needs than a 45-year-old with a chronic disease living in a rural community. But the approach to engaging the two is often the same. Typically, we see organizations deploying email, some SMS, and a lot of outbound calling. These initiatives can be owned across multiple teams and with little coordination. Effective engagement begins when patients receive individualized, relevant, and coordinated interventions and outreach from their providers or health plan.
+Oscar’s Campaign Builder platform was born out of the need for dynamic, data-driven engagement and the frustration that resulted from legacy technology solutions not supporting the needs of payors and providers. As populations have become increasingly diverse, patient data continually siloed, and operational overhead more expensive (e.g. proliferation of vendor point solutions, call center staffing), we built a platform to allow leading payors to manage their populations efficiently at scale, and for providers to accelerate their performance in value-based contracts.
We continue to dynamically adapt and launch new features as we see changes in patient behavior. While patients overall have become more comfortable utilizing technology, there are still varying degrees of interest or ability to access a computer or download an app. +Oscar built Applets, bite-sized, digital experiences that allow members to complete the right action at the right time, within a HIPAA-compliant interaction. Applets do not require creation of an account or downloading an app. This has allowed us to reach patients with rich digital engagement that were previously cut off from the experience.
Reaching the right patient with the right message
Campaign Builder can digest and consolidate data, from disparate sources, to create a richer view of who each patient is. This leverages that unique persona to enroll them into relevant interventions or more robust journeys. This solves a recurring healthcare dilemma: how can I bring together siloed data to get a useful, holistic view of my population without manual manipulation?
Utilizing Campaign Builder, a health plan can reach their Spanish-speaking patients, with content created specifically for them, reflecting their culture. It also eliminates the immediate language barrier many find themselves facing. When patients feel like their provider or health plan understands who they are, trust is cultivated, and you unlock the opportunity to change behavior.
The results speak for themselves: when leveraging +Oscar’s Campaign Builder platform to engage members, one health plan saw a NPS of 72 for the Spanish-speaking population, substantially higher than the general health insurance industry average of 3.
Designing solutions to drive behavior change
As part of the Campaign Builder offering, +Oscar collaborates with clients to design solutions that meet the unique needs of their populations and business. One large employed primary care group was faced with many challenges we’ve discussed — difficulties engaging multilingual patients across regions, disjointed and manual processes for internal staff, and a lack of proper tech infrastructure to deliver VBC returns.
Utilizing Campaign Builder, this organization drove meaningful increases in PCP utilization by deploying personalized patient interventions and journeys. As a result, this primary care group engaged over 85% of their members and drove 10% to complete a visit within 90 days of engagement. Of that cohort, 7% had never seen their attributed PCP, despite being attributed for over 18 months. Finally, while influenced by many factors, the group has seen a 5-10% increase in YoY PCR (plan all-cause readmission) rate.
These journeys introduced new communication channels such as email, SMS, and applets and were deployed using a segmentation and identification framework based on preferred language, carrier-affiliation, and historical primary care utilization. The end outcome is more robust, personalized, and automated engagement for the organization and population they manage.
Laying the foundation for ongoing engagement
We’ll continue to see the healthcare landscape evolve and demands from regulators, consumers, and business stakeholders evolve with it. When planning for the future, organizations should ensure they are investing in infrastructure that allows for automated, personalized, and dynamic engagement rooted in consumer-centricity.
1. Golubchik, S. (2023) Health Inequities and Marginalization: Breaking the Cycle with Innovation. Antenna Group. https://www.antennagroup.com/ebooks/health-inequities-and-marginalization-breaking-the-cycle-with-innovation
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Campaign Builder, +Oscar’s engagement and automation platform, is used to deliver personalized, HIPAA-compliant interventions via omnichannel messaging such as SMS, email, secure messaging, letters, and more. Born out of the needs of a modern healthcare organization, +Oscar’s Campaign Builder is the backbone technology behind Oscar Health’s industry leading engagement strategy.