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Health Plans: How to Efficiently Provide a More Compelling Digital Experience

This webinar, hosted by The Healthcare Innovation Company, explores how health plans can enhance member satisfaction and operational efficiency by delivering more compelling digital experiences. Leading the discussion is Patrick Kehoe, EVP of Product Management at Messagepoint, who walks through the market drivers, challenges, and steps payers can take to modernize their member communications for the digital age.

Why Digital Experience Can Be a Differentiator for MAOs

The session begins with compelling data which shows the importance of digital channels for health payers:  “In JD Power’s research, plan websites were cited as one of the top two resources members rely on when choosing a Medicare Advantage plan.”

Surveys by Harvard Business Review also reinforce this trend. “They found that over 84% of members prefer digital transactions,” Kehoe explained, underscoring a growing disconnect between consumer expectations and the status quo.

Forrester and Deloitte studies highlight a widening performance gap between digital-first disruptors and traditional payers. “Digital disruptors are seeing three times higher customer satisfaction scores,” Kehoe noted. “And a quarter of health plans believe their net profits will shift toward these digital-first competitors by the end of the decade.”

As member choice expands, particularly in Medicare Advantage, where more than 80% of counties now offer multiple plan options, the need to differentiate through better onboarding and communication experiences becomes urgent.

The Digital Experience MAOs Provide Today Falls Short

Despite this urgency, most MAOs are still printing and mailing the majority of the member communications. “Only 42% of members receive onboarding emails, and two-thirds still get their welcome kits in the mail,” said Kehoe, citing a McKinsey survey.

Worse, many health plans conflate sending a PDF via portal with delivering a compelling digital experience. “That’s not digital,” Kehoe emphasized. “That’s just a print document posted online.” He described the frustration of trying to navigate dense PDFs on a smartphone, noting that “pinching, zooming, and scrolling through long documents is just not a good experience.”

Even when plans offer web portals or mobile apps, satisfaction remains low. “Consumers are registering for portals, but the digital experience itself isn’t meeting expectations,” he said, pointing to Forrester’s CX Index findings.

Why Current Tech Stacks Block Digital Transformation

Much of the problem lies in how content is managed. “Most organizations are still using Microsoft Word or InDesign—tools never designed for complex, personalized, regulated communications,” said Kehoe.

Even when CCM platforms are adopted, they’re often implemented with a document-centric mindset. “Each plan variation becomes its own template, its own siloed file. Then when you want to make a change—say across four plans, with four regions, and across print and web—you’re making that same change 32 times,” he explained. “It’s inefficient and risky.”

This fragmented approach also blocks reuse across channels and teams. “Content gets locked into operational silos, which kills agility,” said Kehoe. “Even organizations that want to personalize end up just trying to get something out the door.”

Why a Centralized Content Hub Is Key

To modernize the member experience, health plans need a centralized content hub—a system that allows teams to manage content across all channels from a single location. “You want to manage your communications in one place, and then publish them across print, web, mobile apps, chatbots—whatever channels your members are using,” said Kehoe.

This approach eliminates the inefficiencies of managing parallel processes for each channel. It ensures that the same source content feeds into both print and digital experiences, supporting consistency in both messaging and compliance. “Even if you’re outsourcing some of the work, you end up with different tools, different vendors, different versions of the truth. A centralized hub eliminates that fragmentation,” Kehoe explained.

The Role of Modular Content

Layered within the centralized hub approach is modular content—the structure that makes reuse, personalization, and scale possible. “Instead of writing a full welcome kit or ANOC from scratch for each plan or variation, you create modular blocks that can be dynamically assembled,” Kehoe explained.

These reusable components—such as a benefit description or welcome message—can be versioned based on plan type, state, or member demographics, and automatically inserted wherever needed. “You make a change once, and that update flows across all relevant documents and channels,” he said.

Modular content also enables more intelligent targeting. “If your PPO plan in Florida has different benefits than your HMO in Minnesota, you don’t need two separate documents. You need one set of smart, adaptable content components,” Kehoe noted.

What a Compelling Digital Experience Looks Like

Delivering a better digital experience starts by getting clear on what “better” actually means. According to Kehoe, four key attributes define a compelling member experience: it must be friendly, personalized and relevant, suited to the channel, and consistent across touchpoints.

Friendly means approachable, easy to understand, and emotionally attuned to the member’s situation. “It’s about making content less clinical and more human,” Kehoe said. That starts with the reading level—using plain language to ensure clarity for a broad audience. But it also includes tone. “Sometimes you’re delivering bad news—a denial, a cost increase—but how you say it matters. If you can shift the tone from negative to neutral, you reduce friction and protect trust.” Friendly content acknowledges the reader’s emotional state and guides them through next steps with empathy, not jargon.

Personalized and relevant means tailoring content to reflect the member’s actual circumstances—not just dropping in a name. “A returning member should get a different message than a new enrollee. Someone in Minnesota shouldn’t be reading about benefits in Florida,” Kehoe explained. The goal is to reflect the member’s specific relationship with the plan, their geography, and other context in the communication itself.

Suited to the channel means designing content for the device and experience it will appear in. PDFs may work on desktop, but they fail on mobile, where long documents become unreadable. “People don’t want to pinch and zoom to find what matters,” said Kehoe. “They want short, navigable sections that are easy to tap through.”

Finally, consistency across channels is essential. “It’s not just about logos or color palettes. It’s about making sure your voice and messaging align—whether someone’s on your website, reading a document, or interacting through a chatbot,” Kehoe emphasized. touchpoint.

Demo: Digital Welcome Kit

The webinar wrapped with a short demo showcasing how Messagepoint’s Healthcare Touchpoint Exchange can power consistent, personalized communications across both print and digital channels.

The scenario featured a welcome kit tailored by brand, plan type, state, and member status. Content such as welcome messages, health checklists, and benefit descriptions were automatically adapted based on the recipient’s profile. “You’re not managing 32 versions of the same content,” said Kehoe. “You’re managing shared content with built-in logic.” The same content powering the PDF was simultaneously rendered in a web portal, complete with responsive formatting and interactive components.

This is just a preview of the insights shared in this webinar. Complete the form above to watch the full recording.