Consumer experiences with insurers’ digital platforms improve as they become more familiar with the tools, and supporting uptake offers a significant opportunity for the industry, a new survey shows.
JD Power released its annual study examining customers’ attitudes toward digital channels and found that more than a third (38%) of people enrolled in commercial plans use their insurers’ digital app. That marks a notable jump from last year, when 31% were actively using health plan apps.
However, usage is on the decline among Medicare Advantage enrollees, the survey found. Just 10% of MA members use their plan’s mobile app, down four percentage points from a year ago.
Part of why these utilization rates are significant is that consumers tend to enjoy the mobile apps the more they use them, per the study. Satisfaction also correlates with spending time enrolled in the same plan; for example, MA plan enrollees who had been with their plan for more than five years were more satisfied with the mobile app experience.
Longer-tenured members reported a satisfaction score of 665 on JD Power’s 1000-pint scale, 102 points higher than MA members who were with their plans for less than a year.
Most (76%) commercial health plan members said they “definitely” will continue to use their plan’s mobile apps when they have a positive experience, as did 74% of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries. By comparison, 29% of commercial plan enrollees and 21% of MA members will “definitely” continue using digital platforms when their experience is poor, the study found.
Eric McCready, director of digital solutions at JD Power, said in a press release that the findings highlight the opportunity payers have to enhance their onboarding or member outreach to encourage greater uptake of key digital channels.
“Healthcare can be an incredibly complex world to navigate, with members in a wide range of different customer segments approaching their health plan’s mobile apps and websites with varying degrees of digital sophistication and due to dozens of individual use cases,” he said.
“The good news is that once health plan members start spending some time familiarizing themselves with their health plan’s digital channels, their overall customer experience improves significantly, but, on average, it still takes a fair amount of time to get fully up to speed,” McCready continued.
Cigna Healthcare ranked the highest in consumer satisfaction for its digital channels among commercial plans for the second year, followed by Premera Blue Cross and UnitedHealthcare. UPMC Health Plan was the first place ranking in Medicare Advantage, also for the second straight year, with Healthfirst in second and Devoted Health and UnitedHealthcare tied for third.
The study measures consumer satisfaction across five factors: visual appeal, navigation, information and content, speed and telehealth options, JD Power said.
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