"Everybody has a plan when they step in the ring, until I punch ’em in the face." —Mike Tyson
For health plans the 24-months leading up to the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (PPACA) 2014 most jarring market reforms mean getting prepared to manage uncertainty. Which of reform’s changes are going to stick…which will fade away? How will existing competitors react…which new ones will appear in your markets?
It’s time for some serious introspection, scenario building and strategic planning. Tough questions need to be asked (and answered) about legacy core competencies in tomorrow’s reformed marketplace. In other words, sustainability of your health plan’s value chain—the series of individual activities within your enterprise that when linked together, combine to add comparative value to a final products or services.
It’s time for health plans to “get their act together” around six critical areas of focus. Here are some questions to spark internal debate and begin a PPACA transformation assessment:
- Brand Position What’s your unique selling proposition in a reformed marketplace likely to see increased competition and disintermediation the individual and small group markets by Exchanges?
- Customer Segmentation Are you quantifying and profiling new customer segments that you’ll be serving in 2014: previously uninsured, pre-ex time-bombs, newly subsidized, abandon employees, Medicare boomers, etc.?
- Customer Acquisition Are marketing’s multi-channel lead generation tactics being optimized across sales distribution outlets (e.g., field agents, telesales, online, mobile, retail)?
- User Experience Is your health plan delivering a LifeTime Value, loyalty-based customer experience driven by retention metrics and built around superior member engagement?
- Product Diversification Are products and services being evaluated in terms of diversified future opportunity that goes beyond basic medical benefits and PPACA constraints?
- Marketing Remix Is customer outreach moving from low engagement, monologue marketing to high engagement, two-way consumer conversations for tomorrow’s always-on, socialized member?
A final word that says it all: “…an organization’s vision should describe a set of ideals and priorities to create a picture of the future, a sense of what makes the company special and unique. It defines a core set of principles that the company stands for, and a broad set of compelling criteria that will help define organizational success." —Oren Harari
For a free copy of the recently released Solutions Brief, "Healthcare Reform Readiness: A Transformation Toolkit", click here: http://bit.ly/z3VLkE
