The Missing Link in Population Health: Why You Have to "Sell" Wellbeing Before You Can Solve It.

So now that you've Segmented your population into various groups, it's time to get them engaged and enrolled. I know it sounds heavy, but it really is a Sell. Think about the companies that have created incredible engagement. The best are selling something. Companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and there are many more you can probably think about. They have figured out how to close the deal, how to get you to push the buy button. That is the level of sophistication we need in getting people engaged in a population health program

So, how does one do that? It's understanding exactly what the motivating factors are for the individual. From the Segment stage, understanding their Readiness to Change. Where are they in this approach? Is now the right time to engage them, or do we need to move them along from an earlier pre-contemplative stage?

Can we integrate Behavioral Economics into our model? For example, Loss Aversion is one of the approaches. Studies have shown that individuals are more likely to complete a process such as walking 10,000 steps a day if the reward is provided up front and taken away each day they don't walk (no one likes losing stuff), versus providing the reward at the end of the walking challenge. Another approach is using lotteries. As behavioral economics points out, individuals are not rational purchasers; they respond to lotteries even though the odds are so far out of their favor. We saw the use of lotteries being very successful in achieving substantial enrollment in our employer health improvement programs. And we also saw success with the use of gift cards to enroll members in our Medicaid disease management programs, where we achieved about 80% enrollment and the completion of an assessment with a nurse.

Personas are another important consideration. Now that we are seeing AI and Large Language Models integrated into the systems.  I, for one, respond better to a drill sergeant approach than a soft voice. Knowing the best way to approach and speak with the individual will have a profound impact on getting them involved. When we designed Macaw, our mobile health app back in 2010, the idea was the parrot on your shoulder speaking to you with a unique persona dependent upon your unique needs and responses.  Today, something like that is clearly feasible. And don’t forget getting the clinicians engaged as well.  They are an integral part of the program and must be sold on involvement.

Think about “What’s In It For Me?” What is the benefit to the person that Sell’s them on enrolling and engaging in the program? While many programs have created simple enrollment processes, they often leave out one or more of the key strategies described above.

And finally, what is your outreach strategy? The old days of outbound calls and mailers are well, “Old”. A multi-modal strategy, dependent upon your population’s demographics, is critical. But just like we hate working through a voice-generated call decision tree, one can overdo the technology, make it easy.

At the end of the day, population health is a human business. You may have developed the most advanced clinical programs in the world, but if you can't win the hearts and minds of your population, the data doesn't matter. If you’re struggling to get the engagement your programs deserve, reach out to us. We’d love to take a look at your strategy and help you scale your impact. Click here to schedule a call with our Team today.