Employees want convenient and personalized health care

June 15, 2023

Written by Jim Molis

Health care is a benefit more and more businesses are using to both retain and recruit talent. As health care is becoming increasingly personalized, individuals need access to care on their terms. Care needs to be accessible, convenient, and personalized to meet diverse needs of companies and individuals, and other community and social and lifestyle factors that impact a person’s health journey. From regular checkups or seeing specialists, visiting urgent care clinics to making telehealth calls, and even remotely treating and monitoring a person’s health at home; lifestyles, preferences and other needs vary.

Health care organizations are personalizing their services because “everyone’s health journey is different,” according to Deloitte. “Consumers are driving — and accelerating — the pace of change in health care,” Deloitte wrote in a recent global health care sector outlook.

People want a better experience than health care has traditionally offered, whether they get care themselves through an app or prefer someone on the phone or in-person guiding them on how to arrange the care they need.

“Consumers want affordable, quality and convenient care,” said Pete Serio, vice president of enterprise innovation and customer experience for Florida Blue, Florida’s local Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plan. “They don’t want to become experts in health care to consume health care. They are looking for someone to make it easy.”

Carriers like Florida Blue are focused on creating health solutions that provide flexibility to support employer and employee needs. 

Ways to personalize care

Though employees view and approach health care individually, they can often be broken into groups around demographics and psychographics. That is, there are commonalities in how certain types of individuals tend to view their health and get care.

For instance, Deloitte categorizes consumers as trailblazers, prospectors, homesteaders and bystanders, according to factors including their familiarity with technology and their willingness to embrace change. Such segmentation analysis helps health care organizations attract, retain and engage consumers by understanding their attitudes and behaviors, Deloitte says.

“There are a lot of different ways to slice and dice it but thinking about the human behavioral side is important,” Serio said. “Everyone consumes care differently.”

Florida Blue enables easy access to care and support through means such as local networks of doctors that allow consumers to get care nearby. It also offers digital tools and resources like its Florida Blue Centers, so members and non-members can get care and support when, where and how they would like, whether that’s in person, over-the-phone, online or by video chat.

“Historically, you had to organize your life around how the health care system operated,” Serio said. “It’s not just bricks-and-mortar anymore. ‘Access to care’ can mean everything from how you get there, to language, to technology, and more - and that’s a big shift.”

Florida Blue studies consumer behavior closely, including how its members use their coverage, and the company adjusts and tailors its health solutions to improve engagement and satisfaction. Florida Blue also helps employers analyze their benefits usage and tailor their offerings.

Meeting employees where they are and helping them get to where they want to go in a way that is comfortable for them will only become more important as health care becomes more personalized.

Learn more about Florida Blue Employer Plans

Florida Blue, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, has been providing health insurance to Florida residents for 75+ years. Driven by its mission of helping people and communities achieve better health, the company serves more than 5 million health care members across the state.

Jim Molis is a freelance writer with The Business Journals Content Studio.

This article was original published by South Florida Business Journal.