How do you market to the newly insured?

Here comes the newly insured. They are not in ACOs.  Some will have chosen high deductible plans.  Some have even chosen narrow networks to limit their premium cost.  Some of the newly insured will be in the expanded Medicaid program.  What we do know is that it will be a potpourri of ages, sex, income, health status, relationship status and education.  We know that there will be a lot of people who never had access to health insurance.

So how do you market to the newly insured, knowing that the probably haven’t seen a doctor in a few years? They most likely don’t have a primary care physician. And when they needed care as the uninsured, they most likely used Emergency Rooms as their primary source for medical care considering themselves to be ER frequent flyers.  They will be less healthy and in need of navigation though your healthcare system.   They can be a financial godsend to your hospital or a drain depending on their medical condition and source of payment.   

Because you waited until now to start marketing, the chance to establish a relationship with the newly insured prior to the opening of the HIX and that insurance purchase has been lost.  Now you have to compete. And telling the newly insured you have the best doctors and most caring staff is right out of the nineties and meaningless.

The healthcare market is changing and these people are paying out of pocket and they will be paying attention to price, quality and experience. So it is really along these three dimensions that you need to focus your integrated strategic marketing efforts.

Push the newly insured to the primary care doctor.  Pull the primary care doctor to the hospital.

Push the newly insured from the emergency room to free standing clinics and other less costly settings.

Engage the newly insured in meaningful ways along price, experience and quality.

Look out for Walgreens and CVS Caremark, Rite Aid and others whose retail clinic strategy is perfect for the newly insured, and will limit their out of pocket expenses better than you can.  Look out for the hospital or health system that will be the first in your market to engage the newly insured in meaningful ways along price, experience and quality.

The age of semi-retail healthcare is now beginning.  That means the healthcare consumer, aka the newly insured, have some leverage and bargaining power.  Meet their needs and establish a meaningful relationship on their terms, or keep doing what you have always done in marketing and watch them walk away.

Michael J. Krivich, MHA, FACHE, PCM, is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 5,000 monthly pages views read in over 52 countries worldwide on Healthcare Marketing Matters. These views are my own. He is founder of the michael J group, a Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executivesand a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association.  Like us on facebook at the michael J group, and connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Ready, set, go- will healthcare consumers buy health insurance from an HIX that includes you?

Health insurance companies and governments are gearing up to spend millions in educating the healthcare consumer regarding purchasing health insurance in a HIX come October 1. But is there any guarantee that they will choose a plan that includes you? Or is this something left to chance?

You have a very big stake for participating actively and reaching out to the potential insured marketplace to choose plans that include you.

These first time buyers are going to include those who are employed, whose companies decided to throw in the towel on a cost basis in favor of a defined contribution benefit, and send their employees on their merry way to buy their own coverage.  That is if they don't drop their hours below the threshold for mandated employer insurance first. Or, they could opt to pay a penalty for not providing healthcare coverage which in some cases will be cheaper than providing coverage.

So where is the marketing opportunity for you because not everyone will be eligible for expanded Medicaid coverage?

In case you are thinking that all you have to do is sit back and deal with the new demand for care, how can you be sure the newly insured healthcare consumer will choose plans that include you from the HIX? Right now you can't. Unless of course you start an educational marketing program that educates about insurance and the value you bring to the healthcare consumer by you being included in their choice of plans networks. That also means price, experience and outcome transparency.

This is more than negotiating with every plan available, and being included. In the brave new world of healthcare reform moving an industry to a consumer-directed system, purchasing health insurance is going to become very quickly a big deal. And in some pilots its already been learned that when there is a 10 percent difference in premium, the healthcare consumer exhibits consumerist shopping behavior, and chooses the lower cost health plan with the narrower restrictive provider panel limiting their choice, Wall Street Journal article on Friday, March 1, 2013, "Another Big Step in Reshaping Healthcare".

You have a real opportunity with an effective healthcare marketing campaign to influence choice at this point in time which will have a direct bottom line impact. Wait and it will be too late to influence the newly empowered healthcare consumer plan and network choice.

Opportunity like this knocks only once. I hear someone at that the door, better answer.

Michael J. Krivich, MHA, FACHE, PCM, is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 5,000 monthly pages views read in over 52 countries worldwide on Healthcare Marketing Matters. These views are my own. He is founder of the michael J group, a Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executivesand a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association.  Like us on  facebook at the michael J group, and connect with me on LinkedIn and  Twitter,

Will healthcare consumers understand how to buy health insurance from an exchange that includes you?

I have been reading and seeing a lot of information lately that consumers will be clueless when entering a Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) to purchase health insurance for the first time. Health insurance companies and governments are gearing up to spend millions in educating the healthcare consumer regarding purchasing health insurance in a HIX.

You have a very big stake for participating in this marketing game.

But wait this gets even better. These first time buyers are going to include those who are employed, whose companies decided to throw in the towel on a cost basis in favor of a defined contribution benefit, and send their employees on their merry way to buy their own coverage. That is if they don't drop their hours below the threshold for mandated employer insurance first. Or, they could opt to pay a penalty for not providing healthcare coverage which in some cases will be cheaper than providing coverage.

So where is the marketing opportunity for you because not everyone will be eligible for expanded Medicaid coverage?

I case you are thinking that all you have to do Mr. and Ms. Hospital Executive is sit back, and deal with the new demand for care, how can you be sure the newly insured healthcare consumer will chose plans that include you from the HIX? Right now you can't. Unless of course you start an educational marketing program that educates about insurance and the value you bring to the healthcare consumer by you being included in their choice of plans networks.

This is more than negotiating with every plan available, and being included. In the brave new world of healthcare reform moving an industry to a consumer directed system, purchasing health insurance is going to become very quickly a big deal. And in some pilots its already been learned that when there is a 10 percent difference in premium, the healthcare consumer exhibits consumerist shopping behavior, and chooses the lower cost health plan with the narrower restrictive provider panel limiting their choice, Wall Street Journal article on Friday, March 1, 2013, "Another Big Step in Reshaping Healthcare".

If I were running a hospital, you can bet my marketing department would be figuring out the educational campaign to target those healthcare consumers buying health insurance in the HIX, how to buy insurance that included me, and affiliated physicians. And that doesn't mean a list of insurance plans or doctors.

You have a real opportunity with an effective healthcare marketing campaign to influence choice at this point in time which will have a direct bottom line impact. Wait, and it will be too late to influence the newly empowered healthcare consumer plan and network choice.

Opportunity like this knocks only once. I hear someone at that the door, better answer.

Michael J. Krivich, MHA, FACHE, PCM, is an internationally followed healthcare marketing blogger with over 5,000 monthly pages views read in over 52 countries worldwide on Healthcare Marketing Matters. These views are my own. He is founder of the michael J group, a Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives and a Professional Certified Marketer, American Marketing Association. Like us on facebook at the michael J group, and connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pheed.