AH092 - Health Benefits 101: The Importance of Clear, Consistent Communications, with Samantha Custer

Transcript

Lightly edited for clarity.‍

00:26 - Justin Venneri: Hello and thank you for joining us for another episode of the Astonishing Healthcare Podcast. This is Justin Venneri, your host and senior director of communications at Judi Health, and I'm excited to welcome Samantha Custer back to the studio today. She leads our customer experience and member communications here, and it's been a bit, but I really enjoyed our transition management discussion with Jake Mulkey back on Episode 39. Sam, thanks for coming back on the show.

00:46 - Samantha Custer: Thanks for having me. Yes, it's been quite a while since we chatted, but I'm really glad to be back.

00:51 - Justin Venneri: So I read a couple of open enrollment related articles out there. I'll link those in the show notes. I think one was on ideas for a smooth open enrollment and another one on ways to reduce friction or ensure that there's no disruption of member experience. And we had a 15 minute chat about those and here we are. So when you get started working on communications for a new client, what are generally the first one or two things that you've got to do? We've heard about getting started early in general with implementations and with RFPs. I think everything's sort of accelerating. But what's in your mind, the right sort of timeline?

01:25 - Samantha Custer: I think it's a really good question. So as we implement new clients, what we feel is most important and most critical is for our team to truly understand what different unique scenarios of client may have or what they may focus on as most important for their members. So there's always going to be little nuances with every population on how they want to be communicated with what might be changing, where they're sensitive. So it's important for our team to understand this so that we can focus on how do we communicate changes related to their benefits or how we're delegated.

And Justin, my team actually partners really closely with implementation and we actually assigned a communication lead to every new client implementation. And this ensures we're providing the right support, we're gathering the right information, we ask the right questions so that as we start to collaborate with that group on their communications or fill in blanks in their strategy, we are partnering with them on real feedback, real delivery. We're not just giving them generic stuff and accepting that they curate it. We partner with them to make that available to them. So when we start talking about timelines, it's different. Every client's strategy is different. How they approach it, when they communicate, and what modes they communicate. So what we do is just try to deliver our best support in every scenario when we're asked for it, and offer it to our teams to give as needed as well.

The Articles that Prompted the Episode

• Employers prepare for disruptive and transformative health plan changes, WTW survey finds
• Benefit managers share their 7 open enrollment best practices

Related Content

• AH050 - PBM Pain Points and Overcoming the Fear of Change, with Hope Nakazato, PharmD
• 12 New Judi® Features Innovating Pharmacy Benefit Administration (#7!)
• AH082 - Pharmacy Benefit Implementations: Have No Fear, Alignment & Process are Here

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02:46 - Justin Venneri: And so if the plan design is set up a particular way, those things dictate a lot of what you have in terms of deliverables to help with education and enrollment and all that, right?

02:58 - Samantha Custer: Absolutely. We're one piece of a puzzle that usually our plans and sponsors have to try to sort out, but we try to make it as easy on them as possible, knowing that they're navigating a much bigger picture.

03:09 - Justin Venneri: And how do you approach the annual or more frequent other changes? Just curious if there's a formulary update or something like that during the year, not just at open enrollment.

03:19 - Samantha Custer: We believe that the more you keep the member informed and continuously educated on changes, the more that they feel comfortable. So as an example, when delegated, we will provide members with information around formulary changes or benefit changes quarterly or as frequently as the client may dictate. And we have policies in place that ensure we notify members of such changes with a minimum of 60 days notice. We know how hard it is to receive something in the mail. Try to understand it, wrap your head around it. You might have to get with your doctor on some of these changes or talk to the pharmacy. And then for other communications, it's important to have clear message to the member, maybe outlining what's changing or what's new steps a member has to take to address a change. And then it's also important to very clearly outline where the member can get support.

04:02 - Justin Venneri: And what would be one or two of the top things you'd recommend that plan sponsors do, especially if they're implementing a new benefits partner like a pharmacy benefit manager?

04:17 - Samantha Custer: Consistency. I cannot stress this enough, having a consistent message. So if you're using the same type of information in different places, it always needs to be a consistent manner. So repetition is really key if it's being used as a reminder, just keeping it consistent and not trying to change it. But the moment you change something, a member may recognize that and then they won't trust what you're saying is accurate and they may not understand it if you go to change it.

Another thing that I think is awesome and important is being consistent with formatting and understanding the experience. So for instance, if we're delegated communications from a plan sponsor using consistent logo and how they're represented, it builds trust. So as they get things in the mail or as they get communication sent to them, or they see it in newsletters or other places, as long as it's consistent, they know, "Oh, this is about my benefits," "Oh this is about my pharmacy benefits" or you know, "This is something to do with my medicine" or whatever the case may be. If it is inconsistent, they may not actually trust what we're trying to say. If they receive something in the mail, they may not believe it's actually real because it's not consistent with ways they've read it or the ways they've seen it in other modes. So just to have consistent ways to communicate to a member is the most important.

05:30 - Justin Venneri: So I definitely hear you on consistency with the messaging. So it's like the copy itself and the visual presentation of this content or these assets. Like if it's in the mail or otherwise. What role does like digital delivery play in this? Is that a unique challenge just because of having access to phone numbers, email addresses and things or is it if it's delivered to the client, do they have like portals where they display things? How do you guys help with that?

05:52 - Samantha Custer: Absolutely. So digital delivery is kind of a unique item one because we don't commonly have access to members digital communication preferences. So phone numbers and email addresses are not something we typically can collect or receive. But another reason that it's usually not as leveraged in communications about benefit changes and things like that is because digital delivery is still considered an unsecure method to communicate to members. And we always try to do our best to to keep all member information as secure as possible. But we do help plans make available digitally on intranet websites and open enrollment sites, things like that with information that's not member specific. So the non targeted pieces of information and we try to keep that as clear and consistent for those members who are maybe viewing those resources as possible.

06:44 - Justin Venneri: Got it. That's helpful. Can you go another step here? What are one or two strategies an employer can leverage to avoid member disruption?

06:52 - Samantha Custer: Oh, member disruption is so unavoidable at times. I feel that if we have to make a change and it is impactful for a member as long as the member experience is still the most important element to the change, your communication strategy thinks that through you're going to be successful. The moment you say what does this mean for the member and what do I need to tell them and how will this make them feel and what can I do to make this a, you know, unavoidable yet okay experience, I think that is the moment that you'll be okay. The member will know what to do. They know who they can go to with questions. They feel supported in the change. And this hopefully won't be the first time that they're receiving a communication from the plan or from us as a delegated partner, so it won't feel so alarming. It's usually when they haven't heard about anything related to their benefits for a long time and then they just start getting communications in the mail saying things are changing. It causes them to be alarmed. But if there's something to kind of pad this information that it's coming or this is what happens, an informed member will always feel better about it.

07:58 - Justin Venneri: And based on what you're saying, and forgive me if this is a silly question, it seems like communications, member communications or the communication strategy should be year round. Obviously the consistency you just talked about and how helpful and kind of empathetic the messaging should be, what can you do to help with that year round communication consistency?

08:19 - Samantha Custer: Absolutely, I agree. So staying relevant with members with their benefits, providing continuous support makes healthcare and change just a lot less scary. So as you get to your if you have an annual enrollment or benefit change period at, you know, this time of year, which is pretty common and pretty typical, if they have been hearing from plans about different campaigns. So maybe there's different health campaigns they can do or wellness campaigns or other ways that they can, you know, engage with members about benefits year round and be more consistent and empowering then I do believe that this time of year, as folks navigate change, it would be a lot less to feel like they're enduring.

09:00 - Justin Venneri: Gotcha. Do you have a preference? Out of curiosity? Just your own personal when you are talking to someone, say, "Hey, like I really think a virtual event would be helpful here for your employees, based on everything I'm hearing. Or maybe an on site event." Can you tell always or is a mix of things usually appropriate? How do you approach those types of helpful suggestions or navigating those types of questions for plan sponsors?

09:22 - Samantha Custer: Yes. So we are usually told what the preference is based on the plan. But for virtual, I feel like it's a really unique group of individuals who would thrive with a virtual fair or virtual event. Because you're asking somebody to stay entirely focused throughout the entire time and you know, wait till the end to ask questions. It doesn't really flow the same as making available an on site or in person type event. But I do believe I would prefer a non site that is in person. I think that you can, you know, easily interact with somebody, maybe ask some probing questions, check off some boxes and then go about your day where if it is virtual, it just feels a little less personalized. You're not sure you're getting what you need from it and you don't know what to expect. So I think that if I were to be asked which one would be better, I would have a lot of questions to ask before making that decision. Just to understand the type of population we're working with.

10:16 - Justin Venneri: That makes sense. And what about the inclusion of health benefits? I mean, historically we've been helping clients with communication around pharmacy benefit implementations, but as we go on this new journey with health benefits and Judi Health, are there any changes on your end? How does that impact the member communication around open enrollment and ongoing communication throughout the year? Or how do you expect it to since it's new?

10:37 - Samantha Custer: Yes, it's new, but it's so exciting. This is an area where we just focus on providing support where we're delegated. We are expanding everything we do to capture Judy health, medical or all benefits, not just pharmacy benefits. So we are pulling in different information, understanding the regulations. There's a lot that goes into being able to structure comms when we start to, you know, build and develop these collections and areas of expertise. But we still want to try and stay a focused partner for the plan. So as they come to us and they say this is our needs, we deliver on those needs without trying to overbound what they may not need. So for now, we aren't seeing much impact as far as including other health benefits when we're talking about pharmacy benefits. But I do anticipate, and we are preparing ourselves for the build out of inclusion of all comms, so all types of benefit information into communications for moving forward.

11:35 - Justin Venneri: What haven't I asked you that you think is super important to help improve member communications and the overall experience with the health plan?

11:43 - Samantha Custer: Gosh, that's such a good question. I think that the only thing we really haven't covered on is just reminding plans to be resourceful. So never be afraid to ask for help, whether it's us as a partner reviewing comms you've already curated just to make sure things are accurate or consistent, or pulling down content or making ourselves available for when you may need help. Showing that collaboration, it really builds a relationship. I think that members and member audiences can really feel. So if there's a collaboration, working behind the scenes means it's definitely displayed and transposes through on communications. It doesn't feel as siloed when that happens.

12:23 - Justin Venneri: Got it. That's a good one. I mean, everybody hopes for a solid relationship with their partner they're working with. So, Sam, thanks so much for your time here. We are already at the last question. What is the most astonishing thing and of course compliance hat on a safe story to share. What's the most astonishing open enrollment related story you can share?

12:40 - Samantha Custer: So I had to dig kind of deep because usually this area is pretty uniform. But I will never forget a time that I was managing supporting benefit related open enrollment related events. We were sending materials to an event for an on site that we were doing and at the time we had Sharpies, we had black and red Sharpies and I sent a whole lot of red Sharpies to an event and we learned very quickly. Health systems do not like red Sharpies because a lot of the notes that their staff takes, colors are important and red is bad. So there was a lot of Sharpies that were not used at that event because there was a lot of red and red was not the desirable color. So the small notes you make around the different scenarios, you have to remember, that's one of many. But that was my favorite one because I'll never forget it.

13:36 - Justin Venneri: That's hilarious. I mean, it probably wasn't funny at time. You're like, oh no.

13:39 - Samantha Custer: Oh no. I felt really bad. I'm like oh no. But yes, red shirt.

13:44 - Justin Venneri: Got it. Well, Sam, thank you so much for taking the time today. I hope you have a great rest of your day and I hope the open enrollment period is smooth and that everybody feels like communications are clear and helpful.

13:54 - Samantha Custer: Thank you. Have a good day.

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