America's Benefit Specialist July 2023

NOTEWORTHY

disease management tools is eight percent, use of online triage and nursing support is 10% and remote monitoring is six percent. The study measures customer satisfaction with commer cial member health plans in 22 geographic regions. The highest-ranking health plans and scores are as follows: • California: Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (749) • Colorado: Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (716) • Delaware/West Virginia/Washington DC: Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware (725) • East South Central: Aetna (760) • Florida: Florida Blue (739) • Heartland: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (743) • Illinois/Indiana: Health Alliance Medical Plans (731) • Maryland: Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (797) • Massachusetts: Mass General Brigham Health Plan (for merly Allways) (711) • Michigan: Health Alliance Plan of Michigan (735) • Minnesota/Wisconsin: Quartz Health Plan (709) • Mountain: UnitedHealthcare (721) • New Jersey: Cigna (727) • New York: Capital District Physicians Health Plan (773) • Northeast: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Connecti cut (730) and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (730) in a tie • Northwest: Aetna (723) • Ohio: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Ohio (715) • Pennsylvania: Geisinger Health Plan (732) • South Atlantic: Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (785) • Southwest: Aetna (720) The U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study, now in its 17th year, measures satisfaction among members of 147 health plans in 22 regions throughout the United States by examining six factors: billing and payment; cost; coverage and benefits; customer service; information and communi cation; and provider choice. The study is based on responses from 32,656 commercial health plan members and was field ed from January through April 2023. For more information, visit www.jdpower.com/business/ resource/commercial-member-health-plan-study. • Texas: UnitedHealthcare (729) • Virginia: UnitedHealthcare (726)

COMMERCIAL HEALTH PLAN MEMBER SATISFACTION DECLINES IN KEY AREAS

Despite an industry-wide transition to value-based payment models that incentivize preventive care and proactive com munication between health plans and members, commer cial health plans are missing the mark when it comes to patient engagement. According to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study, customer satisfac tion with commercial health plans is particularly strained among members of Gen Y1 and Gen Z, driven largely by poor customer service and communication scores. Similarly, members with the lowest self-reported health status are most likely to experience communications challenges with their health plans. “The transition to value-based care is predicated on the idea that payors and providers can drive better outcomes at a lower cost by improving patient engagement, yet many commercial health plans are having challenges getting the right information and support to patients when and where they need it,” said Christopher Lis, managing director, global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power. “Moreover, in patients with self-reported health status of ‘poor and fair,’ only 17% were assigned to a case manager. Yet for these patients with oftentimes complex health conditions, seeing multiple pro viders and taking several prescriptions, care fragmentation leads to poor health outcomes and higher spending in the very population that needs coordinated care the most.” Here are some key findings of the study: Overall satisfaction declines year over year: Overall satisfaction falls 13 points (on a 1,000-point scale) this year, driven largely by a 33-point decline in satisfaction with cus tomer service. Coverage and benefits (-20 points); provider choice (-16); and information and communication (-16) also decline significantly. Net Promoter Score for new members is poor, highlighting importance of onboarding: The average NPS score for new members is six (on a scale of -100 to 100), whereas the aver age score for established plan members is 25. This significant difference suggests that new members are not receiving clear information and support on how to navigate their healthcare benefits. Sicker patients less likely to receive proactive care coordi nation: Among patients with a self-reported health status of “poor/fair,” just 36% say their health plan helped them coordi nate care. Among patients with a self-reported health status of “very good/excellent,” 43% say their health plan helped to coordinate care. Despite investment in digital health tools, health plan member usage remains low: Digital usage for all tools and support remains below 50%. Even among the sickest pa tients, use of online health assessments is 18%, use of chronic

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