3 Tips to Marketing a Health System's Value Based Care
Love it or hate it, the highly controversial “value based” care approach has definitively upended the healthcare industry and redefined consumer expectations.
That means that many traditional marketing strategies will have to be reimagined: campaigns that highlight a provider’s legacy of high-quality service will now have to reflect the industry’s new “leaner, stronger, faster” care model emphasis.
We’ve compiled several tips for you to help make strategy implementation easier during a care model transition.
First, let’s define what we mean by “value based” care
In value-based models, doctors and hospitals are paid for helping keep people healthy and for improving the health of those who have chronic conditions in an evidence-based, cost-effective way. Best practices, in this view, are now defined as the “optimization” of time, payer resources, and patient data; achieving service excellence is no longer enough to stand above the crowd.
Here are three tactics to adopt:
1. Make brand messaging a partnership story: present patient-focused care as an expression of brand values.
The expectations created by the digital commerce era have transformed the way consumers judge their interactions with health systems. Patients don’t want to sacrifice quality for a streamlined care delivery experience, but they still want healthcare to feel more like retail: transparency in value being received (“why a more expensive procedure is recommended rather than a more affordable option”) and immediate attention customer feedback. Emphasize how your brand sees efficiency and personalization as equally important components of their health care delivery model. Underscore the fact that your health system has always provided high-quality, patient-focused care: the value-based care model is an expression of your hospital’s service mission, not just a mandate from insurers. Use your campaign to illustrate your brand’s expertise in providing results-driven, personalized service that prioritizes patient experience.
2. Develop content that shows value-based care as a day-to-day practice.
Leverage the shift in industry messaging as marketers begin to increasingly tout “quality vs. quantity” as a care paradigm to audiences. For some patients, “value-based” care may be a meaningless phrase: just like other over-used terms like “patient-focused”, you’ll have to develop your own visual language to show your patients what it will mean for their personal care experience. Use interactive gifs or video content to walk your audience through examples of your provider’s model of a value-based patient experience. Focus your storytelling on seeing the selected process through the patient’s eyes: demystify unknowns (“can I ask my doctor why he/she is ordering this test?”) and show them how each touchpoint (“our check-in kiosk lessens wait-times by getting your data to your nurse right away”) optimizes their care journey.
3. Use patient feedback to engage new consumers on social media
Employ customer feedback as part of a “you asked, we answered” campaign format that can exist on social platforms. Invite social conversations around the types of customer service value (beyond high quality medical care) that consumers want from their healthcare providers, and illustrate how your system can meet those needs. This doesn’t mean simply opening a virtual “suggestion box”: present your social channels as an forum that allows consumers to craft the image of the kind of healthcare experiences that would bring them through your door. A comment such as “I waited for 3 hours in your ER just to be seen for 5 minutes” can be used as an invitation to the consumer to write a short post on what they would like to have experienced. That post can be the launchpad for a response—such as a video illustrating the ER admittance process, why it sometimes takes so long, and your health system’s tools for checking online for wait-times. Once they’ve posted, commented, or “liked”, make your most critical consumers a part of the narrative and transform their missives into campaign creative.
Bottom line
Value-based care certainly isn’t a new idea, but it’s altered the way healthcare consumers view customer service experiences. Your health system will need to showcase its commitment to patients in new, creative ways. We’re here to help. Get in touch to book a free consultation with us today.