How Change Management Leads to Successful Member Engagement

September 27, 2021 - Health plans can implement a digital platform to improve member engagement, but its effectiveness depends greatly on its adoption and use by staff. Therefore, payers must pay close attention to change management to ensure that the platform becomes a valuable tool in the hands of skilled healthcare professionals. Strategic technology partners can help payers handle this transition and ultimately assist health plans in achieving improved outcomes for members.

“Through that digital platform, we can bring people from across teams together to work in one area with a member and extend our reach to their needs, breaking down those silos and having much greater influence over those social and behavioral barriers those members encounter on a day-to-day basis. But it’s one thing to bring in a digital platform; it’s another thing to get your staff to use it,” says Sheila Fitzgerald, RN, Senior Clinical Adoption Partner at Wellframe.

Unlocking the full potential of a digital member engagement technology begins with the health plan sharing a vision for how the tool will improve their operations and interactions with members.

“From the executives who are buying it to the end user, they must all have the same goals about why they’re using it and what they’re going to get out of it,” Fitzgerald explains. “We see the most success with adoption where everybody has the same idea and is being held accountable.”

Any form of change involves challenges. Implementing a digital platform for member engagement is no different. Health plans must work closely with the care managers, many of whom are nurses used to being hands-on with patients and providing support during the member’s journey toward healing. The distance perceived to be introduced by the member engagement technology could easily be viewed negatively.

“We’ve already put our care managers behind a phone, so that they’re losing some of that sense of what they learned in nursing, but then we give them a digital platform and it changes the relationship with the member to another degree because now they have to try to communicate in a totally different way with their members,” Fitzgerald adds.

The solution is open and clear communication to assist health plan staff in understanding the benefits of this shift in their relationships with members. Doing so requires a closer look at workflows to avoid the creation of new silos and instead streamline operations.

Fitzgerald notes that much of her work in this area is guided by her experience as a nurse and asking the right questions about processes:

• How are care managers currently working?
• What pain points are most likely hindering efficiency?
• How do care managers schedule and manage calls?
• What do care managers document in the process?

“I want to understand the members they’re reaching so that we can then take and digest that information with that eye toward digital,” she emphasizes.

Clearly stating the rationale behind going digital with member engagement is also critical to achieving adoption.

“There definitely needs to be a connection between training on functionality and the ‘why’ behind the training,” Fitzgerald continues. “That’s where I focus much of my trainings — on that why — to show health plan staff that this is about much more than pushing a button or sending a message. It’s more about how these new digital capabilities will have a greater positive impact on members than traditional, episodic telephone calls.”

And while a digital platform for member engagement opens the door for health plans to connect with exponentially more individuals, Fitzgerald stresses the importance of acknowledging that the successful adoption of technology requires a measured approach.

“Everyone has different goals. Everyone has a different reason why they’re implementing the digital platform. They have different things they want to get out of it. So it’s not simply that implementing the digital platform immediately leads to ten thousand engaged members. It takes time to build up,” she states.

“Before, a care manager might be calling ten people per day and only reaching two of them. With the digital platform, calls can now be scheduled and become much more successful. In the end, care managers are more productive, and that productivity opens the door to more engagement.”

While member engagement technology is becoming more available, no technology is a solution in and of itself. Because a digital platform for member engagement represents change, having a trusted technology partner highly skilled in change management becomes a strategic advantage.

“Thanks to the level of change management support Wellframe provides, we see higher adoption rates beyond enrollment. When we measure success, it’s not just that we have five hundred people on our platform. It’s that we have all these members who are engaged and getting access to a whole suite of services at the same time,” Fitzgerald concludes.

Technology allows health plans to extend their support to more and more members over time, but its success depends on a careful and deliberate approach to education and training. By properly considering the importance of change management, payers can leverage the full potential of their member engagement technology. 

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Wellframe partners with health plans nationwide to reimagine member relationships. With solutions for care management and advocacy, the Wellframe Digital Health Management platform empowers health plans to become a trusted advocate for all their members' health needs. Learn more at wellframe.com.

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