The power of personalization

Making decisions about health coverage is difficult. Medical jargon, network limitations, and vague pricing contribute to the minefield of confusion experienced by even educated employees. According to a recent survey, only 14% of Americans can accurately define basic healthcare terms such as deductible, copay, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximum.¹ In order to be smart consumers of healthcare--making the best decisions for themselves and keeping costs in check for employers footing the majority of the bill--employees must be able to understand the coverage offered to them. Personalizing health coverage communications can help employees, and ultimately their employers.

Marketers have demonstrated for years that personalization works:

- Personalized emails deliver six times higher transaction rates (customer actions such as sales or subscriptions) than non-personalized emails²
- 73% of consumers prefer to do business with companies that use personalization to make their shopping experience more relevant³
- 86% of consumers say personalization plays a role in their purchasing decisions⁴

If it works, use it! Personalized materials provide more focus for better decision making and leave employees feeling less overwhelmed by confusing information. Creating these materials isn't as difficult as employers might think. Here's an example of how an employee enrolled in a standard preferred provider organization (PPO) plan could be introduced to the potential cost savings of a high-deductible plan:



¹Lowenstein, G. (September 2013). Consumers' misunderstanding of health insurance. Journal of Health Economics 32, no. 5: 850-862.
²Experian Marketing Services (December 2013). 2013 Email Market Study: How Today's Email Marketers Are Connecting, Engaging and Inspiring Their Customers. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.experian.com/assets/marketing-services/white-papers/ccm-email-study-2013.pdf.
³ Nasri, G. (December 10, 2012). Why consumers are increasingly willing to trade data for personalization. DigitalTrends.com. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/why-consumers-are-increasingly-willing-to-trade-data-for-personalization/#ixzz2g8dgrqko.
⁴Infosys (December 2013). Study: Rethinking Retail: Insights From Consumers and Retailers Into an Omni-Channel Shopping Experience. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from https://www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/Documents/genome-research-report.pdf.