Even if it’s not your health plan’s fault, expensive medical bills can make your members upset with you. Many people don’t fully understand their coverage, so they pick providers or go to expensive facilities and get hit with high out-of-pocket costs. If your health plan is seeing an increase in complaints about high medical costs, it may be time to use healthcare navigation strategies. These tips and tricks will help lower your members’ healthcare costs.

Make your explanation of coverage documents easy to understand.

Did you know that 56.6% of insurance companies communicate in an academic tone? And 66% of insurers produce content more difficult to read than Moby Dick? It’s no wonder health plan members get confused about their coverage and make expensive healthcare choices. You might think your resources or coverage explanations are simple to read, but you’d be surprised. Try running those documents through readability software and see what results you get. Making your member resources easy to understand will help avoid the common issue of members going to out-of-network providers. Helping members avoid those expensive out-of-pocket bills can greatly reduce overall costs.

Make shopping for healthcare a reality.

Hospital price transparency exists, which means prices for plannable healthcare services are open to the public. But, many hospitals are making the data difficult to read and find. Luckily, there are companies making it easy for members to shop for healthcare! Members are more likely to make affordable choices when they can actually shop for healthcare. For example, when you shop around for a car, you don't go to the most expensive dealer. Knowing upfront costs and quality levels helps members avoid expensive medical bills. Our smart healthcare platform can also help your members shop for medications, which is another area of healthcare that can lead to high costs. Not only will this lower members’ healthcare costs, but it’ll also improve member satisfaction. In fact, our research has found that health plans with healthcare navigation services, such as our app, have a Net Promoter Score of 56. This is much higher than the industry average of 13.

Why you should care.

Lowering member costs can improve member satisfaction, retention, and even member growth. Those are all goals that every health plan wants to meet, and following the tips in this blog on how to lower member costs can help you reach those goals.