L-R: Kevin Truong, Abner Mason, Mike Tarino, Hope Kragh, Gaspard de Dreuzy

The American Consumer Satisfaction Index last year gave the health insurance industry a score of 73. To put that in perspective, compare it with other perennially unpopular industries. Payers received the same score as airlines, while scoring above the 62 that internet service providers got, but coming in further behind banks, which got 81.

In other words, health insurers aren’t getting a lot of love from consumers, something that is especially important with exit polls in the midterm election showing healthcare to be the top issue on voters’ minds. In response, several firms have formed to improve the relationship between payers and consumers, and their activities were the topic of a Wednesday panel discussion at the recently concluded MedCity ENGAGE conference in San Diego.

The panel, “How Payers Are Innovating in Engagement,” was moderated by MedCity News reporter Kevin Truong, with panelists Abner Mason, CEO of ConsejoSano; Mike Tarino, human experience lead at Bind; Hope Kragh, vice president of client success at Collective Health; and Gaspard de Dreuzy, president of Pager.

Mason recalled an informal poll he took at a recent regional healthcare conference, when he asked representatives of 24 payers assembled if any of them used text messages in patient engagement, and not one raised their hand. “Most of healthcare is in the Dark Ages,” he said. “If you’re not using mobile, you may as well be using Morse code.”

However, Mason pointed out that while text messaging is a preferred means of communication for many people, health plans are unable to freely use it due to a narrow interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. As a result, plans are not engaging with members the way they want to be engaged. “Society has changed, so we have to change the law,” he said.

Another issue is consumers’ trust – or rather, lack thereof – in payers. “People don’t think the health system or benefits industry has their interests at heart,” said Kragh, who has worked in healthcare since the mid-1980s and noted that the trust issue has always existed. For Collective Health, a big part of building trust is facilitating human interaction, which is also meant to reduce the confusion and frustration that was the impetus for the company’s founding. “The role that payers play first and foremost is to provide a financial tool,” Tarino said. Bind, he added, was founded to address the issue of confusion, providing patients with information that filters out the noise and complexity and answers basic questions consumers are asking, such as whether services are covered

“Without trust, nothing is possible – that is a prerequisite,” de Dreuzy said. Pager was established to “establish a conversion,” in part by making technology as invisible as possible because, he said, patients want to interact with people more than with technology.

How one interacts with patients also plays a role in building trust. Mason pointed out that while most healthcare companies simply translate their materials into patients’ native languages, it is more important to factor in culture first. “We start with culture – who they are, what they believe, where they come from, what they fear,” he said, before layering in language.

Another important consideration is transparency. Indeed, consumers are tired of opacity, Kragh said, such as not knowing whether the care they receive will be covered or how much it will cost. For example, during the question-and-answer portion of the panel, an audience member pointed to his experience of receiving bills months after medical procedures and having no idea what had led to his being billed.

Photo: Alaric DeArment, MedCity News