Consumerism in Healthcare: Adding Value with Salesforce Health Cloud

Expectations, we all have them. Maybe for you, it’s the expectation that the barista will make your coffee at just the right temperature. Or that you’ll get a text from that special someone on your birthday. Perhaps you even have certain expectations about what you’re about to read in this blog post (we promise it will be worth it!).

Whatever it is, you expect your wants and needs to be met. The same is true when it comes to your healthcare. We carry certain expectations about how we are treated on our journey through the healthcare system.

Sometimes our expectations are met, and other times not so much. The key for healthcare payers is to learn how to best manage their members’ expectations, so the consumer is always at the heart of everything they do.

Member expectations are growing higher and higher

Consumerism in healthcare is all about your members having choices. For example, they can pick their primary care doctor or the hospital they want to go to, and base those decisions on a number of important factors such as location or cost.

In the past, consumers didn’t think much about their options. If your primary care doctor sent you to a specialist, then you went to that specialist without really questioning the doctor’s directive. But now, members feel more empowered to question their options because they have a vested interest in making more informed decisions based on their individual scenarios.

The consumerization of healthcare has changed the balance of power between payers and members. And members are tipping the scale to their side by taking a more significant role in managing their health. They will not settle for paying for services that do not meet their high expectations.

One of the main ways they are managing their health is through the use of information and technology. Members expect their payers to provide personalized, digitalized and connected healthcare experiences that address their specific needs. And when that tech fails to do so, your former members will readily move on to another payer.

Driving change in healthcare consumerism

There is a widening disconnect between members’ needs and what payers are providing. A study by KPMG about consumerism in healthcare found that:

• Across industries, 90% of individuals are willing to share their personal information in exchange for greater personalization and more value
• Despite this digital connectivity, fewer than 40% of consumers are engaging digitally with their health plan
• Although 80% of payers invest up to 1/3 of their health IT dollars to improve member experiences, 72% of members say their engagement experience hasn’t improved or has gotten worse

Lots of payers are challenged by how to fix the difficulties that have arisen from consumerism in healthcare. Many are dealing with outdated call centers that are not equipped with proactive and preemptive support. The centers lack the individual insights to answer member questions or cannot provide tailored self-service options that are easy for members to navigate.

And without the technological capability to engage members with good experiences, payers face dwindling member satisfaction, retention, and brand loyalty.

How Salesforce Health Cloud helps meet expectations

According to the Salesforce Connected Health Consumer Report, payers don’t offer all the services that members want. 88% of members are interested in receiving personalized communications from payers. Additionally, 75% of members want online chat support, 84% want an online portal, and 91% want a complete view of their healthcare expenses.

Salesforce Health Cloud provides the critical digital transformation that payers need to deliver more personalized service and help them evolve in the age of consumerism. Salesforce Health Cloud puts members at the center of every healthcare experience by providing a HIPAA-compliant platform that connects people, data, and processes. You can transform your call center to deliver personalized experiences at scale, connect patients to care, and improve member outcomes quickly.

With Salesforce Health Cloud, payers will benefit from:

• A more flexible agent experience: Give agents a 360-degree view of every customer that allows them to seamlessly handle cases from one screen with an easy-to-use service console and built-in productivity tools. Leverage AI and integrate popular support channels — like phone, messaging, and chat — directly into the agents’ workspace.
• Enhanced automation and workflows: Create end-to-end workflows to automate and scale repetitive business processes with drag-and-drop simplicity. Improve efficiency by turning complicated business processes into less complex workflows with Salesforce’s no-code and low-code builders.
• Better self-service delivery: Help customers help themselves by setting up a member self-service help center and free agents from handling common questions or requests. Make it easy for members to find critical answers fast by connecting them to everything they need, from knowledge articles to essential plan details.
• Improved sales and marketing: Identify and segment members according to their individual needs and build a community with focused advertising and outreach to member populations. You can increase engagement by delivering customized experiences based on members’ communication preferences

Accelerating consumerization in healthcare with Silverline

At times, healthcare can feel like one giant circle that payers and members are just circling around without truly intersecting. Salesforce Health Cloud enables an intersection and drives consumerism by providing a seamless experience across the healthcare continuum, not only for the members but also for the agents. It benefits both parties by having the ability to offer the expected personalized service easily.

Silverline is a certified Salesforce partner and provides healthcare organizations with expertise and guidance on implementing Salesforce Health Cloud. Silverline helps payers deepen and optimize member experiences so they can continue to meet – and exceed – members’ expectations. Find out how our experts can help your organization.

JASON GELSOMINO

The original version of this page was published at:  https://silverlinecrm.com/blog/healthcare/consumerism-in-healthcare-adding-value-with-salesforce-health-cloud/