engaging nyc’s vulnerable in telehealth during the pandemic
TRANSCRIPT
Engaging NYC’s Vulnerable in Telehealth During the PandemicSession #167, August 12, 2021, 10:00AM - 11:00AM
1DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this presentation are solely those of the author/presenter and do not necessarily represent any policy or position of HIMSS.
Marie Renzi, Director of Market ing, Hea lth Plan and Employer Engagement , AmwellKathryn Soman, Director, Corpora te Communica t ions , Metroplus
2#HIMSS21
Welcome
Director, Corporate Communications, Metroplus Health Plan
Kathryn SomanDirector of Marketing, Health Plan and
Employer Engagement, Amwell
Marie Renzi
#HIMSS21
Conflict of Interest
Marie Renzi, Director of Marketing, Health Plan and Employer Engagement,
Amwell
Kathryn Soman, Director, Corporate Communications, Metroplus Health Plan
Has no real or apparent conflicts of interest to report.
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Agenda• Setting the Stage: Telehealth during the pandemic
• Consumer engagement learnings during the pandemic
• The MetroPlus Story – how this health plan engaged vulnerable populations in NYC during the pandemic
• Post-COVID telehealth engagement tips to keep adoption high
• What does it mean – a look ahead
• Q&A
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Learning Objectives• Identify opportunities to engage consumers through a variety of outreach techniques
• Adapt healthcare services to comply with regulations and healthcare concerns
• Recognize differences in engaging different member populations, particularly the Medicaid population
• Comprehend the benefits of virtual care during an international healthcare crisis
• Analyze the success of patient engagement tactics through a clinical and financial lens
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Connecting consumers to the care they need across the care continuum…• Urgent Care• Covid-19 Response• Specialty Visits (Covid-19)• Behavioral Health• Women’s Health• Scheduled Visits• Retail Health• Risk Management• Medicare Advantage• Managed Medicare• Psychiatry• Sleep• Nutrition• Second Opinion• EAP Therapy
• Acute Behavioral Health• ED Triage• School Health• Specialty Consult• ERDS & Dialysis• Telestroke
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2020 Was The Year of Telehealth
7Telehealth adoption sourced from The Chartis GroupCOVID-19 cases sourced from CDC
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Consumers adopted telehealth in drovesPercentage of Consumers Who Have Had a Telehealth Visit
Sources: Amwell 2019 and 2020 Consumer Surveys; Sykes March 2020 & March 2021 Telehealth Surveys
March 2021
61%
March 2020
20%
8%2019
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Consumers adopted telehealth in droves
9Amwell 2019, 2020 Physician Surveys
22%
80%
+264%
2019 2020
Percentage of Physicians Who Have Had a Video Visit
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#1TELEHEALTH ENGAGEMENT
LEARNING
Consumers are more aware of telehealth than everMake sure they are aware of YOUR offering
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0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
400,000
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Awareness of telehealth skyrocketed during COVID
“Telehealth" Google searches
13X
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But many don’t know where to find it
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45% of patients
55+who have not had a video visit say, “I don’t know if my PCP offers video visits.”
30% of GenZ
who have not had a visit say, “I am willing to have a video visit, and was aware of them, but didn’t know how to access them.”
Source: Amwell 2020 Consumer Survey
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Only 11% of consumers who had a video visit said, “I found it on my insurance company's website.”
Only 4% of consumers who had a video visit said, “My insurance company contacted me to let me know it was an option.”
Many lack information about their health plan benefits
Source: Amwell 2020 Consumer Survey
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#2TELEHEALTH ENGAGEMENT
LEARNING
Consumers want to use telehealth beyond urgent carePromote your expanding virtual care options
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Consumers reported a shift to scheduled and specialty appointments
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Virtual Visit Types Reported by Consumers
Source: Amwell2020 Consumer Survey
21%
54%
42%
13%
Base: Have had a video visit (n = 1001)
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And post -pandemic, consumers prefer telehealth for certain care needs
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Post COVID-19, when doctor’s
offices reopen and it is safe to go, are you more likely to see a physician in person, or virtually,
for the following care needs?
Source: Amwell 2020 Consumer Survey
62%
62%
53%
52%
51%
47%
38%
48%
38%
47%
49%
53%
Regular Mental Health Visits
Prescription Renewal
Urgent Care
Initial Meeting with a Doctor
Chronic Care Check-Ins
Post Discharge/ Surgery Follow-Up
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Virtually
In Person
N=1700
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#3TELEHEALTH ENGAGEMENT
LEARNING
Enrollments skyrocketed during COVIDActivating registered users is key to driving adoption
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Engage patients and members after enrollment
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AWARENESS
Multi-channel engagement campaign drives enrollment
REGISTER
Consumer enrolls to create an account
WELCOME EMAILS
Increase brand awareness while addressing common barrier to use
UTILIZATION COMMUNICATIONS
Emails, push notifications, in app messages and more
CROSS PRACTICE
ENGAGEMENT
Promotion of other practice
offerings
1st VISIT
Consumer has their first visit on the platform
NURTURE
Continue to engage registered users with relevant content
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Consumers who are engaged have stronger telehealth adoption
19Source: Amwell 2020 Consumer Survey
30% higher visit volume from consumers who receive utilization content vs. those who do not
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#4TELEHEALTH ENGAGEMENT
LEARNING
The telehealth audience is changingTarget your messages accordingly
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Many consumers had their first telehealth visit during the pandemic
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59%had their
first -ever video visit during COVID-19
86%Of those over 65
had their first video visit
during COVID-19
Source: Amwell 2020 Consumer Survey
Of consumers who had a video visit…
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Older adults embrace telehealth for Rx and chronic care needs
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While younger adults are more willing to have PCP visits virtually
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#5TELEHEALTH ENGAGEMENT
LEARNING
Providers are key to patient utilizationEnable providers to drive growth
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Of consumers who have had a video visit:
57% said they found their video visit because their doctor or health system contacted them to let them know it’s an option
In 2020, most consumers learned about telehealth from their doctor
Source: Amwell 2020 Consumer Survey
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Post-COVID telehealth engagement tips to keep adoption high
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ACTIVATE YOUR REGISTERED USER BASE
DON’T STOP PROMOTING
MOVE BEYOND THE BASICS
EXPAND YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
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MetroPlus Health Plan At - A-Glance• Wholly-owned subsidiary of NYC Health + Hospitals
• Provide wide selection of health insurance options to the
people of New York City over 35 years
• Currently serving more than 615,000 members
• 72% - over 440K - covered through Medicaid line of business.
• Deeply embedded in community life of NYC
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Membership • Medicaid Managed Care
• Child Health Plus
• Qualified Health Plans (QHP)
• Essential Plan
• City Employee Plan
• Medicare
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COVID-19 Hits NYC – Pandemic’s Epicenter• March 2020, COVID-19 hits U.S
• New York City – the nation and then world’s epicenter of pandemic
• Low-income and communities of color hardest hit
• Substantial portion of plan membership in these communities
• Mid-March, New Yorkers self-quarantine and shelter in place
• City’s shutdown brings financial implosion and disruption to business
• New Yorkers lose jobs, turn to Medicaid and Essential plans, increasing our membership
• MetroPlusHealth begins outreach to support membership, especially most at-risk populations
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Meeting Members Most Pressing Needs• Launched new member and provider websites to radically improve
online engagement
• Outreached to over 80,000 of the Plan’s most at-risk members, via interactive texts, connecting them to medical, social, unemployment, and housing services
• Delivered food and safety packages to thousands of the Plan’s most vulnerable members
• Conducted ongoing telephonic outreach to help manage members’ chronic conditions
• Texted access to COVID-19 information to members to keep them informed throughout the crisis
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Launching 24/7 Telehealth Access • Plan already working with Amwell to launch MetroPlus Virtual Visit in late April.
• COVID-19 made expanding telehealth access more urgent than ever
• Launch date expedited accordingly
• March 23, urgent care telehealth program launched
• April 1, therapy and psychiatry programs launched
• Short term: immediate care as members self-quarantine and remain socially distant
• Long-term: continuing to improve affordable access to physicians, psychologists, and counselors across NYC
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Unique Challenges of Engaging a Medicaid Population• Medicaid population less familiar with telehealth services.
Prior to launch, built webpages in multiple languages to offer:
• Step-by-step instructions for how to use telehealth program
• Online video demonstration
• Answers to top questions asked about online visits
• Virtual Visit platform designed for easy utilization
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Communications Campaign OutreachMultichannel engagement campaign to inform members regarding new benefit and provide education on how to utilize telehealth.
Strategy: to reach and activate as many members as possible in whichever way worked best for member.
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Plan included:
• Emails
• Direct Mailer
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) calls
• Short Message Service (SMS) texts.
• Website build out with information on Virtual Visit and instructions on use
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E-Mail and Direct Mail Campaign
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E-MAILS DIRECT MAILER
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E-Mail and Direct Mail Campaign MessagingEmails and direct mailer emphasized Virtual Visits were free — a critical selling point for health plan’s lower-income members. Additional points included:
• Step-by-step instructions for how to use telehealth
• Answers to the top questions asked about online visits
• 24/7 access to board-certified doctors
• Availability of online prescriptions
• Key conditions appropriate for virtual care
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SMS/IVR Campaign
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SMS/IVR Campaign Messaging• SMS/Text: First sent generic welcome message informing them that they would
soon receive messages about their health benefits. Members had option to opt out of texts at any time.
• Followed up with repeated messaging around availability of free doctor visits, 24/7. from comfort and safety of home, with option to click over to register for telehealth program.
• IVR: Calls developed direct messaging, first verifying member then providing clear communication around telehealth features and benefits. Depending on actions taken by the member, the IVR script covers everything from a greeting message and member verification to a call to action and, if selected by the member, a transfer to a virtual visit.
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Communications Outreach Timeline
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April 13th – May 18th
SMS Texts
April 13th
April 20th
Email 2
April 28th
Email 3
April 22nd – 29th
IVR Calls
May 6th – 13th
Direct Mailers
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E-Mail Outreach and Results
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• Welcome email stream sent to newly registered users. Emails sent 1 per week for 4 weeks.
• Performance from 04/13/2020 –06/23/2020:• 10,942 emails sent• 3,908 unique
individuals• 300 registrations
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Direct Mailer Outreach and Results
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• 320,626 of direct mailers sent Spring 2020
• Enrolled more than 2,500 members in program
• 52% of whom are Medicaid members
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SMS/IVR Outreach and Results • SMS text messages received by more than 216,000 members
• Nearly 30,000 members received an IVR call.
• Extremely high click-through rate of 27% for SMS, well above the industry average of 6%.
• SMS text campaign resulted in more than 3,340 virtual visit enrollments
• IVR calls drove 78 additional enrollments.
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Pandemic Campaign Results Snapshot• Engaged nearly 7,000 members in telehealth in less
than three months
• Almost half of those members went on to have a virtual visit
• 41% of those were Medicaid members.
• Urgent care drove most of the visits
• Members also used the benefit for both therapy and psychiatry visits.
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7KTELEHEALTH
ENROLLMENTS IN 3 MONTHS
48%OF ENROLLED
MEMBERS HAVE HAD A VIRTUAL
VISIT 27%CLICK-THROUGH RATE FOR SMS
TEXTS
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One Member’s Story - Lenora Y.• Medicaid member
• Domestic abuse survivor
• Co-morbidities
• Homeless – living in shelter with 2 adult sons
• Connected by text outreach to us for help during pandemic when at her lowest
• Connected to Virtual Visit telehealth by text for mental health support
• Seeing a virtual therapist regularly
• Now helping her finalize application for permanent home
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“Like a message from God…”
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How is MetroPlus optimizing telehealth now?• Executing routine fall and spring enrollment campaigns with SMS/IVR components included
• Ewith ability to capture member e-mails and auto-enroll in program
• Incorporating MetroPlus Virtual Visits into consumer journey
• Targeting utilization-focused, claims-based marketing campaigns
• Boosting Virtual Visit promotion within MetroPlusHealth social and digital assets
• Driving utilization through mobile push notifications and in-app messaging
• Exploring ability to capture member e-mails and auto-enroll in program as part of enrollment campaigns
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In Conclusion…• Faced what we hope was the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City
• More critical than ever to help our members connect with a medical professional while still maintaining social distancing
• Driven to provide 24/7 telehealth at time of crisis but committed to expanding telehealth access and usage as another option for receiving quality care
• Telehealth program will continue to help our members address immediate health needs long after pandemic recedes
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Telehealth is here to stay
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When it is safe to see patients in person again, what percentage of visits do you expect to do virtually?
Post COVID-19, when doctor’s offices are open and it is safe to go, will you use video visits?
Base: All qualifying respondents (n = 2021) N=600
Amwell 2019, 2020 Physician & Consumer Surveys
19%33%
24%24%
8%
32%
53%
8%
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The future is hybrid across the full continuum of careIN-PERSON
• Procedures, labs & imaging, immunizations
• Prescription delivery
• Primary care for controlled substances
• Surgery
• Inpatient stays
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VIRTUAL
• Virtual primary care
• Chronic disease / lifestyle coaching
• Behavioral health
• Pre-op and post-op visits
• Rehab, home care, RPM
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Healthcare organizations must expand digital capabilities
A “digital land grab” is beginning
• Urgent care
• Behavioral health
• Specialty care
• Chronic disease management
• Wellness programs
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Digital market expansion will enable
• Net-new patient acquisition & retention
• Reduced leakage
• Continuous provider-patient connection
• Cost savings
• Better care outcomes
Telehealth investments should be
• Flexible and scalable
• Open and inclusive
• Comprehensive
• Simple
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Questions
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Thank you