Health Plans are Revisiting Their Transparency Strategy

06/22/2016

A “perfect storm” of market trends is leading health plans to take another look at transparency.  Consumer out-of-pocket costs are skyrocketing.   And at the same time, consumers are mostly unaware of the huge price variations for routine medical procedures and test.  They also have limited visibility into cost and quality information.  Add in frustrated employers who want to reduce health care spending without shifting more costs to employees, and it’s easy to understand why plans are looking at transparency with renewed interest.

So what’s a health plan to do, when members are not generally using the cost and quality transparency tools it already offers to “shop” for health care?   It’s true that the notion of shopping for health care is still pretty new.  But it’s also true that members haven’t really been engaged or incented to use the tools and shop.   If plans want to change the game, they need to power-up their transparency solution with a proven engagement program that uses a powerful incentive to drive real behavior change.  And get people shopping. 

That incentive is cash, and when combined with a year-round engagement strategy that’s targeted and proactive, it successfully and repeatedly redirects members to lower-cost, high-quality care.  In other words, they shop for care easily and with as much confidence as they shop for everything else.  Transparency, integrated with cash incentives, is a win-win for everyone.  Health plans and employers achieve millions in savings and measurable ROI and members save on out-of-pocket costs and get cash in their pocket.   Learn more at www.vitals.com/healthplans.