Strategies for improving health plan member retention
Wood, S.D.
Healthcare Financial Management Journal of the Healthcare Financial Management Association Suppl: 1-5
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 0735-0732 PMID: 10338934 Document Number: 502439
Member retention is an increasingly important issue for health plans to address. It costs health plans $75 to $200 to acquire a commercial member and $400 to $800 to acquire a Medicare member. If members leave the plan within the first year or so, up to half of this investment is lost. Health plans should implement several strategies, therefore, to improve member retention. They should communicate the value of retention throughout the organization, use a cross-functional team approach to retention, analyze who is disenrolling and why, improve access to referral providers, and extend the retention effort until a relationship exists, evaluate and strengthen member orientation efforts. Other ways to enhance member retention are to improve access to health and service information, improve provider-staff interaction and communication skills, implement relationship-enhancing communication campaigns, manage expectations about treatment, and create personal relationships at the plan-purchaser level.