Getting personal with engagement: How to drive higher member retention

Ask any insurer, “What are your near- and long-term goals?” and you can bet they will respond with growth. That is a big reason why many are in the game – to provide the best quality care and experience for members.
Growth can’t come without profitability, and retaining newly acquired members is a critical lever to achieve profitable growth. Member experience and satisfaction are the key to retention, and, in recent years, member experience and true engagement has become a top priority for organizations. 

There are three major building blocks to deliver market leading retention rates. After implementing a retention focus campaign, one +Oscar client saw a 96.3% retention rate for the plan year 2024, representing a sizable shift from previous years’ average retention rate.

1. Activate

Establish an early connection with your members. Useful, relevant engagement early on sets members up for success and lays a foundation for a positive experience. This can be a multichannel onboarding campaign for new health plan members or a welcome back campaign for existing members. 

Campaign Builder, +Oscar’s communication and engagement platform powers this from the start. A multi-workflow campaign is deployed using personalized communication channels to broaden reach to members. The campaign is built on the plan's relationship through surveys and promotion of benefits, tools, and perks they might be interested in learning more about.

2. Adopt

When a member actively engages, they are demonstrating a willingness to listen and trust the plan. So how do you build active engagement? 

Personalize outreach
It begins with personalizing the member experience. Members are more likely to engage with their healthcare plan when information is relevant to them and delivered at the right time in the right way.

Campaign Builder guides a member through each stage in their journey. Simultaneously, prompting the next best action to the provider and health system reinforces the connection and partnership between the member and their provider. 

Establishing a clear sense of trust and understanding, between all parties, is imperative to driving meaningful change.

Reduce barriers
The healthcare system is complicated with countless challenges. Helping members overcome these challenges, which often lead to them abandoning their care, medications, etc., is an essential part of long-term retention.

For example, after observing the challenges +Oscar clients faced when engaging members through a mobile app, our team developed a product that reduced barriers such as low download rates and usage that prevented organizations from delivering desired outcomes.

Applets are a new technology that makes it easier for members to navigate their healthcare journey. These bite-sized, digital experiences prompt members to complete the right action at the right time, all HIPAA-compliant.

Applets are accessed by the simple click on a link. They can be leveraged through multiple communication channels including email, SMS, secure message or letters, without the need to download an app or create an account. Our 92% score of respondents’ “thumbs up” is indicative of the positive customer response to this Applet experience.

3. Enroll

Once trust is established, members are more likely to understand the value and enroll in programs that can improve their health. This is when the magic begins.

Using multiple channels to communicate with a member, Campaign Builder can recommend specific actions that keep the member in charge of their care. 
    
For example, +Oscar initiated an Annual Wellness Visit campaign with a client, which engaged approximately 86% of patients. The outreach ultimately drove a 10% increase in primary care provider utilization, leading to a 5% to 10% uptick in hierarchical condition category recapture rate, within 30 days of campaign execution. 

Growth is not easy – meaningful and lasting growth is even harder.

Campaign Builder is specifically designed to simplify the healthcare experience for all parties. It powers and enables deep connections and meaningful engagement. The result is better health outcomes for members and meaningful business outcomes for the plan.

Learn more about Campaign Builder today at www.hioscar.com/campaign-builder.

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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.