Health Insurers Grab Face Time With Consumers
People who shop and dine at White City Plaza now have access to a new amenity: a retail store that sells insurance.
That's an oversimplification. The Fallon Community Health Plan (FCHP) store, which opened in October 2012, offers a number of services to members and non-members alike. Sales staff members are available to sign up new members for insurance plans, while customer service representatives field questions from people confused by complex health plan information. And free services are offered to the community at large, including yoga classes and health screenings.
Fallon's retail store is the first of its kind in Massachusetts, according to Fallon officials, but there are similar concepts in other states, such as Florida and New York, according to David Przeskiek, FCHP's senior vice president of sales and marketing. Przeskiek said the company wanted to be on the cutting edge of the health care market, which is becoming more consumer-driven due to local and federal health care reform, as well as cost-control laws.
"Is this a hedge if it heads in that direction? I'd say so," Przesiek said in the lobby of the FCHP store earlier this month.
Economist: Individual Market To Double
There is already a palpable trend toward consumer-driven health plans with the rise of tiered offerings that incent members to choose lower-cost medical service providers. The number of such plans offered by employers nearly doubled to 36 percent between 2009 and 2012, according to global human resources and financial advisory firm Mercer, so it's no wonder that business-to-consumer marketing efforts are on the minds of companies like FCHP.
The federal mandate that everyone must have health insurance will drive insurers to increase their outreach to consumers, according to Devon Herrick, a health economist at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas.
"There's going to be an influx of people who are required to have coverage," Herrick said, noting that the number of people who buy insurance for themselves through exchanges is expected to balloon from about 24 million today to 48 million in 2023. "You basically have a doubling of the individual market."
Herrick said health insurance companies have actually been slow to market to consumers, given the looming transformation of the market. But that's changing, Herrick said; people are more aware of how higher-cost providers impact them.
"Slowly but surely, as more people are exposed to the costs, they're asking these questions," Herrick said.
Herrick predicts more health insurance companies will begin to offer tools that show members how different medical providers compare in terms of cost in order to attract customers. Tufts Health Plan of Watertown, which insures 118,000 people in Central Massachusetts, is planning to offer this type of service in the near future, said Sonya Hagopian, vice president of corporate communications and public relations at Tufts.
Vying For Seniors?
Hagopian said the company is planning other measures to make Tufts plans more consumer friendly, though she said it was premature to discuss them. One method of outreach for Tufts has been the hosting of senior citizen social events, which Hagopian said provide recreational opportunities for seniors, as well as a way for Tufts to answer plan questions from existing members and sign up new members.
Senior citizens are also regular visitors to the FCHP store in Shrewsbury. Carrie Wattu, a spokeswoman for FCHP, said they're the population group that most appreciates having access to in-person information.
"I think a lot of seniors are more comfortable face to face. It's a very convenient location. They can see someone (in person) rather than be on the phone or a computer," Wattu said.
There is likely more to these outreach efforts than simple customer service. Herrick, the health economist, said health insurance companies are "aggressively" marketing Medicare Advantage plans to senior citizens, which he said 1 in 4 seniors are now enrolled in, as opposed to traditional, fee-for-service Medicare plans. They're attractive, Herrick said, because they combine all necessary services into one plan and employ a managed-care approach.
Alternative To Retail
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which has offices on Main Street in Worcester, recently grew its membership in the region by about 12,000 to 58,000 members through a marketing campaign. It has a different approach from Fallon's.
Rather than pursue retail space, Harvard Pilgrim has opted to employ health insurance brokers to seek out and sign up new members of all ages. These brokers, according to Kate McEvoy-Zdonczyk, vice president of Central and Western Massachusetts for the health maintenance organization, are specially trained in the health insurance field and help prospective members navigate the nuances of different plans. Harvard Pilgrim also hosts regular office hours, so people can ask plan-related questions in person.
"You really do need someone who can sort of help walk you through what the realities are," McEvoy-Zdonczyk said.
Read more
Harvard Pilgrim Brings Medicare Advantage to Central Mass.
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