With about two weeks to go until Healthcare.gov opens its virtual doors for business and begins signing up for the first time or renewing health insurance for millions of consumers, the federal government is launching an ambitious marketing program.
The marketing campaign as outlined by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which operates Healthcare.gov, involves multiple elements, including TV, radio, direct mail, e-mail and social media outreach.
Marketing for Healthcare.gov this year will be broader but also more targeted, says CEO Kevin Counihan. For example, for the 2017 benefits enrollment season that begins Nov.1, 2016, and ends Feb. 1, 2017, the federal government will send out more than 10 million pieces of direct mail, an increase of 1150% from 800,000 pieces from the prior year.
Healthcare.gov also says its e-mail list has grown by more than 30% from the first season of benefits enrollment to a current database of more than 20 million names. The marketing programs, which includes videos and ads on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, are primarily aimed at the 12.7 million consumers that have signed up for health insurance on Healthcare.gov and the 28.5 million Americans that are eligible but that still don’t have insurance.
The marketing messages across all platforms will be more focused this year, says the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “We’ll be targeting groups of people who were recently uninsured, recently lost coverage, or sought coverage in the past through Healthcare.gov or a state Medicaid program,” Counihan says. “That includes reaching people who started to sign up at HealthCare.gov last year, but didn’t complete the process to sign up for coverage. It also includes sending mail to consumers who lost eligibility for Medicaid or Child Health Insurance Protection (CHIP) coverage last year, or who applied for Medicaid or CHIP but had incomes too high to qualify.”
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid isn’t yet saying how much money it is spending on marketing and advertising Healthcare.gov this benefits enrollment season. But the agency has learned from its earlier efforts. For example, the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services says reminding a consumer about their eligibility for financial assistance in an e-mail increased enrollment rates by 17% compared to e-mails that did not include that information.
Reminding consumers they can be penalized for not signing up for health insurance also ups re-enrollment rates, the agency says. “In one study, consumers who received an e-mail with additional language referencing the penalty were 13% more likely to enroll than those who received a standard outreach e-mail,” Counihan says. “Another test found that more prominently displaying penalty information with the deadline in the e-mail subject line produced a larger lift in enrollment of 97%.”
The federal government says its mobile e-mail program will include new and better ways to buy health insurance online. “Improvements to mobile optimization that we’ll be phasing in during open enrollment will also make our e-mail program more effective by making it easier for consumers to click straight through from their phone or tablet and complete an application, compare options, see if a doctor is in network, or make a plan selection,” Counihan says.
Date: October 18, 2016