Patient Engagement

ACA Medicaid Expansion Increases Young Adult Coverage, Health Equity

February 18, 2021 - Medicaid expansion is responsible for a significant decline in uninsurance rates between 2011 and 2018 among young adults, especially those who faced social determinants of health, according to a new report from the Urban Institute that shows how programs under the Affordable Care Act can improve health equity. Overall, uninsurance rates among...


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Collaboration, Patient Education Key to Increasing Medicaid Coverage

by Emily Sokol, MPH

The recent surge in furloughed employees and unemployed individuals is bringing to light one major problem: how are these people going to get health insurance? Made worse by the growing pandemic,...

Cigna Starts 3 Strategic Partnerships While Closing 2019 M&A Deals

by Kelsey Waddill

Payers are pairing the news of finalized 2019 mergers and acquisitions with new partnership announcements, like Cigna which announced three new partnerships in its recent fourth quarter 2019 earnings...

Community Health Workers Fill Gaps in Rural Healthcare

by Emily Sokol, MPH

Transportation is one of the biggest challenges to rural healthcare. Often, the most remote areas of the country do not have robust public transportation networks; and for those with access to...

How Payers Transition from Reactive to Preventive Care

by Kelsey Waddill

In the midst of the transition to value-based care, healthcare payers are looking for key strategies to keep their populations healthier at a lower cost. To that end, most have realized that a...

New Mexico Starts Wellness Program for State Employees

by Kelsey Waddill

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order requiring the state to offer health and wellness programs to state employees. The goal is to help employees achieve work-life balance and...

60% of Medicare Advantage Members Feel Little Motivation from Plans

by Jennifer Bresnick

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are not doing enough to motivate their members to improve their personal health, according to a new survey from HealthMine. Sixty percent of members participating in the...

Humana Tops List for Member Satisfaction, Net Promoter Score

by Jennifer Bresnick

Customer service has been a perennial pain point for the health insurance industry, but a renewed focus on personalized experiences, member satisfaction, and consumer engagement appears to be paying...

Member Engagement for Payers Should Focus on Simplicity

by Jesse Migneault

For payers, an effective member engagement strategy can lead to better member health, lower claims cost, and improved product loyalty.  To achieve these goals, payers should start by identifying...

Patient Incentives from Payers Encourage Preventive Care Visits

by Jesse Migneault

To reduce payer claim costs, would you pay members to go see their doctor once a year?  That’s the premise for a wave of patient incentive programs currently being offered by health...

5 Best Practices to Advance Value-Based Care Reimbursement

by Vera Gruessner

When payers begin to transition to value-based care reimbursement from the more traditional fee-for-service payment system, company executives and financial experts may find it takes longer than...

Top Ways Payers Integrate Patient Engagement Strategies

by Vera Gruessner

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last week the creation of the CMS Person and Family Engagement Strategy, The CMS Blog states. This CMS initiative is meant to stimulate...

Patient Engagement Helps Payers on Affordable Care Act Exchanges

by Vera Gruessner

Many health insurance companies selling health plans through the Affordable Care Act exchanges have been seeing higher and higher rates of financial losses. Some payers such as Aetna, Humana, and...

Key Steps for Payer Success in Accountable Care Organizations

by Vera Gruessner

In recent years, healthcare reforms have set out to reduce constantly rising medical costs, improve coverage for the many Americans who lacked primary care access, and advance population health outcomes. Over the past few years, the...

CMS Cuts Wasteful Medical Spending, FFS Improper Payments

by Vera Gruessner

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reduced the Medicare fee-for-service improper payment rate from last year’s 12.1 percent to 11 percent in 2016, The CMS Blog reports....

Healthcare Insurance Literacy Vital for Higher Coverage Rate

by Vera Gruessner

New research from the RAND Corporation shows that uninsured Americans who have better healthcare insurance literacy were more likely to purchase coverage when the Affordable Care Act’s health...

Top 5 Ways Commercial Payers Could Boost Consumer Engagement

by Vera Gruessner

Consumer engagement is an important factor that commercial healthcare payers may need to address in order to keep a loyal customer base throughout future open enrollment periods. Some health insurance...

3 Key Steps for Health Payers to Meet HEDIS Quality Measures

by Vera Gruessner

Health insurance companies are slowly moving toward adopting alternative payment models based on pay-for-performance metrics. This means more payers and providers are focused on meeting HEDIS quality...