In line with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), rural Individuals have a better danger of untimely loss of life from coronary heart illness, most cancers, respiratory illness, stroke, and unintentional accidents than city residents. Challenges associated to social determinants of well being (SDOH) akin to poverty, lack of wholesome meals choices, and poor transportation contribute to the issue.
Entry additionally stays a key hurdle. One in 5 Individuals lives in a rural space, the place supplier shortages account for two-thirds of major care well being skilled shortages. These areas are additionally burdened by a shortage of psychological well being suppliers. Even when telehealth is an choice, many rural members can’t use it. Between 22.3% to 50% of rural Individuals have poor entry to high-speed web.
Bettering well being outcomes for the agricultural inhabitants dealing with these challenges could look like a frightening activity, but well being plans can make use of a number of communication methods to assist members obtain the care they want. By doing so, plans can even increase their high quality metrics and enhance their Healthcare Effectiveness Knowledge and Info Set (HEDIS®) and Star Rankings efficiency, which instantly affect income and future enrollment.
Higher Communication Methods for Rural Members
Bettering take care of members requires their engagement, which can be troublesome to safe given the sense of distrust that many weak populations really feel towards healthcare establishments. Plans that take time to construct belief and thoroughly curate their outreach, nonetheless, could make strides in the direction of reaching higher outcomes and relationships with rural populations.
Amid these challenges, well being plans ought to contemplate adopting the next methods for more practical communication with rural members:
1. Ship digital surveys to collect members’ contact info, communication preferences, and different insights. Welcome calls and well being danger assessments might help plans determine the most effective methods to attach with their rural members: through voice, textual content, e-mail, and even unsolicited mail, particularly when broadband is proscribed.
To disclose potential care gaps, plans can survey members to get a greater sense of supplier wait occasions or distance traveled to achieve a supplier. This could additionally uncover alternatives to enhance their Shopper Evaluation of Healthcare Suppliers and Programs (CAHPS®) Well being Plan Survey outcomes, which question members on the benefit of getting care, amongst different measures.
2. Use analytics to determine members most certainly to have interaction. Utilizing predictive fashions, plans can refine their outreach and curate a goal record with essentially the most engageable members. Then, they will launch campaigns to enhance high-weight high quality measures. For instance, a plan may goal rural members in a sure geography who haven’t had a supplier go to up to now 12 months and could also be in danger for an inpatient admission primarily based on medical endpoints like A1C values.
3. Make use of textual content messaging, interactive voice response (IVR), and different know-how to help focused campaigns. Multichannel communication can join members with plan assets to handle SDOH elements that contribute to poor well being outcomes. Utilizing engage-and-transfer approaches, plans can attain out to members through IVR or textual content and join them to stay brokers who can schedule appointments for well being screenings. Plans can even make use of IVR outreach to attach rural members with neighborhood assets, akin to transportation suppliers.
One massive regional plan despatched a safe digital survey on SDOH elements mixed with an IVR name to 200,000 members. Of the 90% of focused members reached, greater than one-third offered key SDOH knowledge that care managers used to offer customized help to members. Such multichannel methods is also extra narrowly centered to the wants of rural members.
For rural and nonrural members, visually pushed content material like instructional movies can enhance the chance of engagement. Previous to launching their campaigns, plans ought to guarantee they’ve enough name middle assets to triage calls and direct members to the suitable providers rapidly.
4. Guarantee messages convey empathy, not judgment. Plans ought to craft reminders about missed screenings or immunizations with empathy and behavioral insights so they’re much less more likely to be misconstrued as “member shaming.” Pairing a reminder with an added help, akin to transportation help, can even assist domesticate belief amongst members.
Whereas rural America stays predominantly English-speaking, extra native Spanish-speakers are transferring to those areas. For these members, plans ought to be certain that translations are culturally delicate, related, and never word-for-word translations. This additionally promotes belief between the plan and member.
Regardless of the language, all digital communications must be simple to grasp and designed to make sure the safety of well being info, akin to by utilizing textual content messages linking to safe digital portals.
5. Set up a calendar for year-round engagement. 1000’s of deaths in rural America might probably be prevented, and ensuring rural members obtain their annual exams, screenings, and immunizations ought to promote higher well being outcomes for a lot of rural members. Outreach calendars can element alternatives for member engagement, akin to flu shot reminders every fall or annual examination reminders for member birthdays, delivered on the proper cadence and thru members’ most popular channels. Every outreach presents a chance to drive higher medical outcomes by serving to members schedule the care they want.
6. Talk and join by native partnerships. In areas the place hospitals and supplier workplaces could also be farther away, native pharmacies usually function very important hubs for well being screenings and different interventions. Plans ought to contemplate constructing partnerships with pharmacies to ship related well being info or shut gaps in care. For instance, pharmacists can ship vaccinations in addition to medicine administration providers to enhance compliance. Working with faith-based and different neighborhood organizations to ship vital well being messages can even assist construct belief.
Bettering the Expertise for Rural Members
Plans that goal to scale back the well being dangers of their members can reap the benefits of assets just like the CDC’s toolkit on stopping deaths in rural communities. Past growing messages that encourage members to be extra lively and eat more healthy, communications might promote the plan’s assets to give up smoking, the main explanation for preventable loss of life within the U.S. Different outreach might assist promote seat belt security and using youngster automotive seats.
By taking a proactive method to rural member outreach, plans can show their dedication to enhancing rural well being outcomes and delivering culturally competent care whereas concurrently securing higher metrics to guard their HEDIS and Star Rankings efficiency. Such efforts can even assist enhance the member expertise by offering a extra customized method to an neglected inhabitants.
About Leah Dewey
Leah Dewey is Vice President of Medical and Shopper Engagement Operations at Cotiviti. She is concentrated on enhancing healthcare outcomes by leveraging knowledge and insights to shut care gaps, enhance shopper high quality, and transfer inhabitants well being throughout varied cohorts and cultures.
