How a “Plays Well With Others” Approach Leads to Better Health Outcomes For All
Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries have different levels and layers of complexity. Some require a high-touch approach, others take the lead without any prompting from their health plan. So naturally, this means that not all solutions will work the same way for everyone. This is why you’ll find that a broadly distributed text message alerting members to schedule an annual wellness visit will work for one person, but not another. That unresponsive member may need more guidance.
We know that many members won’t require the high-touch approach that Reema provides. But we also know that some members just need more.
They may need time to establish trust with the person or organization reaching out. Or, they may never respond to your text or phone call—they need someone to show up on their doorstep to help them navigate the next step. We know that not all solutions provide such high-touch engagement, nor is this the right approach for all members. But that’s what Reema does for the members that need this level of intervention.
Playing Well With Others
To us, “playing well with others” isn’t just partnering with health plans and working alongside their existing internal solutions to help more members—although it is a big, important part of it. It’s working in tandem with other vendors and established partnerships to ensure we’re all engaging the right populations, at the right time, using the right methods.
By working together, using existing internal programs and resources from other vendors we can achieve better health outcomes for all. Here’s a little about how we play well with other solutions you might be using, or are considering to use in the future.
Wide Engagement vs. Deep Engagement
Many health plans we’ve talked to have built an internal and well-established engagement strategy that delivers great results for a large segment of their population. We call this “going wide”. When they send out an email or voice communication to a broad audience, they find that some members will take the requested action.
At the same time, through these communication at scale methods, we can uncover a population of individuals that don’t engage. These are the members that Reema is best at reaching by “going deep”. And, it’s often these hard-to-reach members that have the most unmet and critical needs.
The beauty here is that both of these programs can run simultaneously, only including the members required in each. Continuing the broad engagement approach with the members that it works well for is encouraged, while Reema can take on engaging the members that require a different, more high-touch approach.
Unpacking Engagement Rates and Why the Engagement Method Matters
In marketing, batch-and-blast strategies that lack personalization have conditioned us to expect poor results. But it doesn’t have to be that way. By taking a look at audiences closely and smartly segmenting who we’re trying to engage, you’ll discover that some members need less, while others need more. By adjusting accordingly, engagement numbers will skyrocket.
That’s what’s happening at Reema. The members we engage are segmented, using tech-enabled approaches that are highly personalized. As a result, our engagement rates are high (over 80%). So high that sometimes people don’t buy it.
The reason we’re able to achieve this level of engagement is not only because it’s highly personalized, but the communications are tailored to the individual. The messages aren’t designed for a cohort or a persona—it’s written for a single person. And, the messages are being sent by a specific Community Guide, assigned and dedicated to the engagement of that individual. It’s a true one-to-one engagement experience.
This approach is very different from a batch-and-blast email or text messaging segmentation model, and why Reema’s engagement rates are what they are. Because an email can’t knock on a member’s door and find out that the member didn’t respond to the initial message because they’re at risk of losing their home. But a Community Guide can, and will work with the member to navigate the barrier and find the necessary resources to meet their needs.
People Need More Than a Referral—Guidance is a Differentiator
Similar to predictive modeling to uncover social risks, members sometimes need a little more from their health plan. Providing referrals and resources is a great way to support the needs of a member, but the gap is often in the followthrough.
For example, we’ve found that having knowledge of food insecurity is one thing, but navigating or accessing the resources to help is another. Sometimes life gets in the way and a member may have multiple barriers they’re trying to navigate, and they don’t have the capacity to focus on their food security needs. By having access to a Reema Community Guide, members can lean on us to help jumpstart the process. While we won’t do everything for the member, we will walk alongside them and work through the unmet need together and find the right resources to help.
Referral platforms serve a meaningful purpose to help members get the care they need, but some members need extra navigation assistance to get started. Reema builds relationships with members and guides them to the resources they require, resulting in meaningful change and positive health impacts.
Engagement to Drive Clinical Visits and Navigating Unmet Social Needs are not Equal
Engagement platforms that motivate members to do something good for their health can be extremely effective, especially when you’re trying to engage someone to get a flu shot or go in for their yearly colonoscopy. But, solving for a complex social need—like housing—requires a different approach.
Helping a member find a place to live takes more than a text message and phone call to schedule an appointment. In fact, this can take months when you consider the resources needed to identify, navigate, and secure housing that’s suitable for the needs of a member. These are the kinds of members Reema is well suited to help—it goes back to the “going wide” versus “going deep” approach mentioned earlier.
Similar to internal engagement strategies you’re using to reach broad audiences, engagement platforms work well to engage some members in certain scenarios, but not all. Understanding which members require high-touch engagement and resourcing accordingly is something that Reema can help with.
Better Health for All
Reema doesn’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. And you shouldn’t either. That’s why when you’re considering who to partner with you want to be sure that you’re working with someone that plays well with others. Someone who recognizes that many of your internal systems are working—and working well!
And for the existing partnerships you’ve already established to help members live their healthiest lives? Any new partners you bring on should recognize their strengths and demonstrate how their solutions can work together to improve the health of all people, not just those that require lower levels of intervention.
This piece is a follow up to our recent post 5 Reasons to Ditch Internal Solutions to Engage Your Highest Need Medicaid & Medicare Members (and partner with Reema instead).
