In many ways, health insurance companies are gatekeepers to medical care. So, understandably customers desperately want to trust the insurance company that affords them access to care—and the means to pay for it. That trust begins with the way health insurance companies communicate with their clients, from recurring monthly mailers to plan selection details, explanations of coverage (EOCs), and explanations of benefits (EOBs).
And yet, from managing changing customer expectations, updating coverage of new drugs and procedures, and staying compliant with the latest state and federal requirements, health insurance companies face a wide variety of business challenges. It can be too easy to let patient communication slip through the cracks in the chaos.
How can these organizations make communicating — and building trust — with customers a priority, no matter what else they’re juggling?
Health insurance marketing and communications leaders have too much on their plates to effortlessly manage the logistics involved in producing and distributing printed customer communications—from promotional postcards to explanations of benefits. They need a partner who can take care of the details, leaving them free to focus on what they do best: supporting customers through their healthcare journeys.
There are many benefits to outsourcing printing to the right partner—all in the service of building trust with customers through secure and effective compassionate communication. Here are the top five.
Consistent Quality to Exceed Your Standards for Excellence
Have you ever received a mailer that’s flimsy and poorly produced, with dull colors or printing errors? It probably didn’t give you much confidence in the business.
Customers pay a lot of money for health insurance, and to trust that their investment is sound, they need to see evidence that their providers are putting care and effort into what they do. The quality of printed communications is a powerful first impression — if a provider can’t produce quality materials, how can clients trust them to deliver quality healthcare results?
Unfortunately, it’s easy for even the most well-meaning marketing and communication leaders to fall prey to poor or inconsistent print communication, often in a (very understandable) effort to save time and money. Whether this means printing on subpar in-house equipment or working with a third-party print procurement broker, the result is often a low-quality product that costs more in wasted time and effort (and potentially damaged reputation) than it saved in the first place.
The smarter choice is a single-source partner for consistent print quality that highlights an insurance provider’s dedication to excellence. Choose a partner who will centralize print marketing execution and ensure quality and consistency by producing materials on world-class equipment rather than outsourcing to the lowest bidder.
Perhaps more than in any other industry, healthcare companies have to be laser-focused on protecting their customers’ privacy, and the stakes—financial and reputational—of noncompliance or breach of privacy are often perceived as an insurmountable obstacle to outsourcing print production. After all, health insurance companies frequently need to communicate sensitive information via direct mailings throughout the year. How could they possibly trust an outside source to do it right?
Still, the stakes don’t overrule the need for efficiency and cost containment. The notion of appointing one person to print, stuff, address, double-check and send every piece of mail individually is unsustainable. So, how can healthcare companies ensure their mailings won’t put confidential information at risk?
Here again, outsourcing print production to the right partner enables healthcare insurance providers to rest easy, knowing their customers’ most sensitive information is safe and secure. We recently broke down the qualifications healthcare companies should look for in a HIPAA-compliant provider. In short, you’ll want to discuss data management practices, personnel training, quality control systems, certifications (such as SOC II, ISO, HiTrust), and materials disposal processes with any potential print partner to understand whether you — and your customers — can be confident in their security and regulatory compliance capabilities.
On-Time, Accurate Delivery
As a customer, you know there’s nothing more agonizing than waiting on information about your healthcare coverage. Can I pay for my prescription? Will my daughter’s lifesaving surgery be covered? Can we afford in-home care for my aging parents?
A customer’s trust that their health insurance provider will be there for them in the most challenging times starts with the provider’s track record of timely communication even in the best of times. Do customers receive information about plan options in plenty of time to make informed choices during the open enrollment period? Do they receive updates about the drug formularies in time to work with their doctors to swap out no-longer-covered prescriptions for new ones that won’t break the bank?
On-time delivery of information is critical for empowering customers to make informed decisions about their well-being in the best of times — and for assuring them that their insurance provider will be there for them when the going gets tough.
So, as you’re looking for a print provider, pay special attention to their distribution and fulfillment practices to ensure they’ll produce quality print materials and deliver them to patients on time, every time.
Efficient, Cost-Effective Processes
As healthcare costs continue to skyrocket and margins shrink, it may initially seem impossible to contract with a quality print marketing and communication partner. But with the right partner, the cost (and time) savings far outweigh the investment — starting with the headaches saved by streamlining several vendor contracts into just one point of contact (and one contract) for all your print marketing needs.
At OneTouchPoint, we pride ourselves on helping clients minimize print costs by cutting waste and finding savings through bulk postage discounts, paper procurement, and other system efficiencies. Our six nationwide production facilities reduce shipping time and costs by allowing strategic choices from where materials are printed and shipped.
And it’s not just the upfront costs that the right partner can minimize. Our processes save money on bulk printing (and reprinting and reprinting) information that’s liable to change quickly. We deliver cost savings by reducing waste, offering print-on-demand capabilities to eliminate minimum print quantities, minimize storage requirements, and empower healthcare insurance providers to keep pace with industry changes.
Beyond Print: A Marketing Communication Ecosystem
Finally, print materials are just one of the many ways healthcare insurance companies communicate with customers. The right partner understands that and can partner with you to manage and execute holistic, multichannel marketing campaigns, going beyond printing to ensure quality, security, and timeliness of the whole marketing communication ecosystem, including digital and print. With a team like that on your side, it’s easy to reach customers with consistent, timely messaging wherever they are, whenever they need you.
Healthcare insurance providers have enough challenges to face—customer communication shouldn’t be one of them. Fortunately, OneTouchPoint is here to help. As a single-source print marketing execution partner, we are dedicated to helping our clients streamline patient communication. We handle the medium so that you can focus on the message.
When your healthcare insurance organization is ready to find a trusted, single-source marketing execution partner, we invite you to contact us to learn more or request a quote on your next project.