Four Tips to Prepare for the Disruptions Facing Healthcare in 2024
2024 is sure to be a busy year in the Medicare market, and there is likely to be more noise competing for the limited attention of healthcare consumers. The major disruptions coming this year fall into two categories: regulatory changes and market forces. The regulatory changes include the Inflation Reduction Act and new proposed guidelines under review. Market force disruptions include the presidential election and industry mergers.
With these anticipated challenges, it is crucial that marketers plan ahead in order to meet their annual goals. We’re paying attention to several major events that will have an impact on healthcare marketing throughout the year, and particularly during the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP). Here’s what we’ve got on our radar.
Changes to Part D Coverage
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) enacted the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes changes to Part D Coverage. The update eliminates the “donut hole,” caps out-of-pocket prescription costs and implements the M3P program, allowing members to pay off pharmacy bills over time. These changes are likely to elicit confusion among members, and health plans will need to educate both sales representatives and members. Plans will also be responsible for infrastructure changes to websites and communications to clearly detail the changes. Since these changes are putting a higher cost burden on the health plan, they are likely to eventually cause increases in premiums, copays and/or deductibles and potentially a pullback on supplemental benefits.
Changes to Supplemental Benefits
CMS proposed several updated guidelines that are currently in review, including an update to supplemental benefits. This is a challenge and an opportunity for plans. Health plans will now have to notify members of the benefits they haven’t taken advantage of halfway through the year. This creates an additional touchpoint for plans with members. Down the road, we may notice plans trimming down on the benefits that aren’t as popular, but we likely won’t see a complete overhaul this year.
Changes to Broker Commissions
The changes include a proposed limit to broker commissions to crack down on predatory MA marketing tactics and improve marketplace competition. For regional health plans, the best case is a more even playing field with national plans when it comes to broker and agent commissions. Whether that comes fully to fruition is unknown, but with brokers and agents accounting for 58% of Medicare enrollment during the past year’s AEP, any change to the compensation model is sure to reverberate in the market and may impact how national plans compete with each other.
Continued Provider/Payer Contract Disputes
Dominant health plans and dominant health systems will fight over reimbursement dollars. In some cases, this will be taken to the point of brinksmanship, with health systems telling health plans that they no longer accept your members and vice versa. This will cause confusion for members and patients who are impacted, caught in the middle of a corporate dispute. These contract negotiations have been going on for years, but as the financial strain becomes more acute for both health plans and health systems, we will see payvider organizations start limiting their network to outside insurers.
Election Year
This is a big one. The presidential election, plus a myriad of local and state elections, are likely to compete for consumers’ attention. Pollsters and campaigners will be contacting constituents when Medicare eligibles are already receiving extra mail and telephone outreach before and during AEP. Additionally, television advertising space is going to be extremely tight during the election. Political advertising does not inherently raise the cost, but space will be less accessible. Payers can try to buy at higher rates so as not to be preempted, but there are no guarantees.
Here are our four tips for weathering the storms to come this year.
- Retention begins now.
Retention starts with the welcome kit. Avoid additional stress during AEP by focusing on connecting with and retaining eligible and current members year-round. Pace your communication cadence and use the entire calendar year to your advantage.
Clearly, there are lots of changes coming, so it is crucial you take lots of time to communicate what your members need to know before they’re impacted by any of the updates.
- Start earlier – from planning to marketing.
Look at your planning and marketing cadence a little differently this year, keeping in mind the local, regional and national events that are also taking place. It may be a good idea for health plans to start marketing earlier – late August perhaps – to get in market before the presidential elections get noisy in September and October. Payers may also want to save more of the budget than usual for use after the election.
Many of these changes will require updates to infrastructure like websites and member communications. It’s important to stay in tune with the entire organization to weave these changes into marketing and communications ahead of time. Starting early will give you the flexibility you’ll need.
- Focus your message.
Like we discussed, there will be a lot of competition for consumer attention in 2024. Additionally, many new health plans are being launched, so the industry space is getting more crowded. Keep communication easy to understand and limited to the most essential information. This will help focus your message so it stands out and is memorable to consumers.
- Be nimble and ready to pivot.
In addition to creating contingency plans (our list of relatively quick-to-deploy tactics for AEP is a good place to start), keep a close eye on tracking and communicate often with boots on the ground to spot when a change might be necessary. And don’t be afraid to bring up the “what if” in internal meetings – when a surprise comes along, your team will be ready to react.
By following these tips, you can confidently head into this busy AEP prepared. To ensure you’re making the most of every marketing opportunity and consumer touchpoint, keep an eye on our blog which features expert perspectives, consumer insights, strategic webinars and more.
Any questions? Reach out to Media Logic today.
Thank you to Deft for providing some of the data insights.
