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Navigating the Enrollment Surge: Strategies for Healthcare Payers

A healthcare professional analyzing a bar graph on a laptop, showing trends in enrollment over time, as part of efforts to streamline open enrollment.
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Sivakumar Chockalingam

The months between November and February mark a significant spike in healthcare enrollment across the United States. This surge, driven by factors such as open enrollment periods and new job benefits, presents challenges and opportunities for healthcare payers. For a smooth and successful enrollment season, it is crucial for payers to adopt effective strategies to streamline open enrollment and member engagement.

 

Understanding the Enrollment Surge

The increase in healthcare enrollment during the late fall and early winter months can be attributed to several key factors. One major reason is the open enrollment periods offered by many health insurance marketplaces during this time, which allow individuals to select or change their health plans. Additionally, as companies finalize their annual benefits packages, employees may enroll in new health insurance plans through their employers. Government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, also contribute to this surge, as their enrollment deadlines often coincide with the peak enrollment season.

Despite the benefits of increased membership, this surge can pose significant challenges for healthcare payers. Higher call volumes, processing delays, and potential member dissatisfaction can strain resources and negatively impact a payer's reputation. To mitigate these risks, payers need a well-planned approach to streamline open enrollment and effectively manage member engagement..

A healthcare team, including a doctor, discussing strategies to streamline open enrollment for better member engagement and efficient processing.

Strategies for Effective Member Enrollment

Streamlined Enrollment Processes 

Implementing efficient enrollment processes is essential for minimizing wait times and improving member satisfaction. This includes:

  • - Digital Enrollment Options: Offering online and mobile enrollment options can provide convenience for members and reduce administrative burdens.
  • - Automated Systems: Utilizing automated systems can streamline data entry and verification processes, reducing errors and speeding up enrollment times.
  • - Clear Communication: Providing clear and concise information about enrollment requirements and deadlines can help members navigate the process with ease and streamline open enrollment efforts.

 

Personalized Member Experiences

Tailoring enrollment experiences to individual member needs can enhance satisfaction and foster loyalty. This can be achieved through:

  • - Targeted Communications: Using data analytics to identify members who may require additional support or information, helping to streamline open enrollment for these individuals
  • - Personalized Recommendations: Offering personalized plan recommendations based on member needs and preferences.
  • - Customized Enrollment Kits: Providing enrollment kits that are tailored to specific member demographics or plan types.

 

Proactive Outreach and Education

Reaching out to members proactively can help make them aware of enrollment deadlines and options and streamline open enrollment. This includes:

  • - Targeted Marketing Campaigns: Sending personalized emails, text messages, or direct mail communications.
  • - Educational Resources: Providing informative materials, such as brochures, videos, or webinars, to help members understand their options.
  • - Social Media Engagement: Leveraging social media platforms to reach members and provide timely updates.

 

Enhancing Member Engagement

Personalized Communication

Building strong relationships with members requires personalized communication, which can be achieved through several approaches. Offering members a choice of communication channels, such as email, phone, or text messaging, ensures they can engage in the way that suits them best. Additionally, providing regular updates on benefits, claims status, and other important information helps keep members informed and engaged. Sending personalized newsletters with relevant content based on member interests is another effective way to maintain a meaningful connection and enhance the overall member experience.

Value-Added Services

Offering value-added services can enhance member satisfaction and differentiate the payer from competitors. Examples of such services include:

  • - Wellness Programs: Providing resources and support for members to improve their health and well-being.
  • - Educational Resources: Offering online courses, webinars, or workshops on health-related topics.
  • - Discount Programs: Partnering with vendors to offer discounts on products and services.

Member Retention Strategies

Retaining members beyond the initial enrollment period is crucial for long-term success, and this requires several key strategies. Providing exceptional customer service, with timely and responsive support to address member inquiries and concerns, is essential. Implementing member loyalty programs that offer rewards or incentives for long-term membership can also help maintain engagement and satisfaction. Additionally, continuously evaluating and refining member engagement strategies to meet evolving needs helps the organization remain aligned with member expectations and delivers a positive experience over time.

 

Conclusion

The enrollment surge presents a significant opportunity for healthcare payers to expand their membership base and strengthen their market position. By implementing effective strategies for member enrollment and engagement, payers can navigate this peak period successfully and deliver exceptional experiences to their members. By focusing on streamlined processes, personalized experiences, proactive outreach, and ongoing engagement, payers can have a positive and rewarding enrollment season and streamline open enrollment.

If this sounds daunting, that’s what we’re here for. At Exela, we help payers streamline open enrollment for better efficiency and customer satisfaction. Contact us today! Let Exela's expertise help you navigate the enrollment surge and deliver exceptional member experiences.

Revolutionizing Mailroom and Document Processing Enhanced Efficiency and Streamlined Operations

A hand pulling a blue file folder labeled 'CLAIM' from a filing cabinet, representing document processing and claims management. The image highlights the importance of efficient claims processing in handling documents securely and accurately.
Challenge

The customer received millions of inbound mail each day, which were processed and routed through a manual, paper-based system. This inefficient document processing method caused time-sensitive mail and correspondence to get stuck in the workflow without accountability or the ability to prioritize. These inefficiencies also resulted in higher call center volumes and lengthy turnaround times.
 

Solution

Exela overhauled the end-to-end mailroom process by launching a digital mailroom solution. This included a new facility, equipment, processes, and tools to streamline the mailroom and claims payment processes. Additionally, Exela deployed a mobile claims submission portal for select client groups and conducted RPA discovery to identify further automation opportunities. The rollout of PCH Global for document processing services further enhanced the efficiency and effectiveness of the mailroom operations. By integrating advanced document processing capabilities, Exela provided faster handling and routing of inbound mail.

 

Benefits

Claims Processing

  • - Improved service levels
  • - Reduced costs by 30%
  •  

Payments Processing

  • - Same-day processing
  • - Reduced reconciliation time
  • - Accelerated deposits by $1.8B per year
  • - Extended hours available for payments
  •  

Internal Experience

  • - Increased transparency into performance metrics
  • - Increased engagement
  •  

Client Experience

  • - Improved turnaround time for claims and payments
  • - Improved client satisfaction
  • - Increased engagement
  •  

Discover What Exela's Digital Solutions Can Do For You

Exela Helps Major Healthcare Company Optimize Records Digitization

Exela Helps Major Healthcare Company Optimize Records Digitization

Discover how Exela transformed a healthcare services company's document management process which led to a 30% cost reduction and enhanced efficiency.

Challenge

A multinational healthcare services company handling approximately 100,000 document images per day across a 6-hospital medical system in Detroit was dealing with an inefficient medical records management process that was preventing them from achieving their throughput goals Slow, cumbersome document handling processes can have a far-reaching impact on business operations, as they consume valuable time and energy employees could instead be devoting to tasks more closely aligned with the organization’s core mission. By optimizing the document digitization workflow, the company would be able to shift resources to more productive uses

Solution

The customer partnered with Exela in order to leverage our 40 years of healthcare experience, medical records management expertise, and proprietary technology, targeting greater efficiency and cost savings. Exela solutions experts were able to successfully reengineer the existing process, in a two-phased approach.

Phase 1

Exela stepped in to take over onsite handling of document imaging and indexing by rebadging existing employees and managing the customer’s existing infrastructure to retain critical institutional knowledge and experience and ensure operational continuity

Utilizing a lean management approach to increase productivity and reduce redundant and non productive steps, Exela focused on efficiency gains and cost reduction. We implemented a comprehensive onboarding process designed to identify and hire the right people and adequately prepare them to succeed in their roles. This included onsite and virtual training tailored to the customer’s needs and expectations in order to drive continuous improvement. Employees were also cross-trained in multiple areas to enable continued growth, improved development, and greater job satisfaction.

Exela also provided a high level of risk mitigation and quality assurance during the transition period to ensure a smooth handoff and high standards for output

Phase 2

In the second phase of the engagement, all document imaging and handling work was migrated offsite to Exela’s processing facilities in order to utilize our proprietary technology. Our high-speed document preparation and ingestion solution automates intake and data enhancement, and formats all data and images to the customer’s specific business requirements, allowing digitized information to load seamlessly into the customer’s EMR platform

Implementation of Exela’s advanced scanners and Six Sigma operational best practices provided a significant increase to document throughput. Exela’s advanced data extraction and classification tools also enhanced information capture, improving processing speed and digitization accuracy

Benefits
  • - Total cost savings of 30%
  • - Flexible, right-sized delivery model starting onsite before moving offsite
  • - Freed up valuable hospital square footage for more productive uses
  • - Cost-saving software and hardware dedicated to scanning and capture process
  • - Robust and insightful reporting platform

 

Large Insurance Company Experiences Increased Customer Satisfaction with Exela’s Member Enrollment Solution

Two people looking at a laptop screen where the words "Enroll Now" are there

Discover how Exela's Member Enrollment solution transformed a large insurance company's open enrollment process, reducing turnaround time to 48 hours, increasing customer satisfaction, and delivering significant cost savings.

CHALLENGE

Open enrollment is always a challenging time for HR departments. With pressure to outperform the previous year’s results, there is always a need for process innovation to meet the increasing demands. These pressures are compounded by a short enrollment timeframe and confused employees who are trying to grasp the new plan benefits. This often leads to numerous queries and insufficient information being submitted.

A large integrated insurance company was impacted by product mix variation, volume spikes, and staffing fluctuations during open enrollment. These issues were exacerbated by the seasonality of the enrollment process. The company was in need of a solution that would improve turnaround time, clarify plan details, provide better customer service, and boost their Broker, Provider, and Customer (Groups) satisfaction scores, which had been negatively impacted for four years.

 

SOLUTION

Exela designed a universal intake and workflow solution to manage several input types (e-mail, fax, paper and Excel) with comprehensive early view reports for all inventory management, organized by platform, work type, specialty, and geographic location. The solution featured a communication module that can manage all print and mail outcomes.

The solution also provided:

  • Cross-training of resources in different workflows and platforms
  • Product mix study for each workflow for training deployment within shorter time frame
  • Load balancing on each queue to handle Spike Volume
  • Skillset-based work allocation
  • High priority to Member Seeking service – One hour TAT
  • Hourly Work Monitoring system for all the work queue during OE
  • Macro Options for Electronic Submission 
  • Quick Reference Card for New Joiners
  • Buddy Audit system for focusing groups

In less than 90 days, Exela delivered 240,000 enrollment installations a month at a quality of 99.5% by supporting 70% of the customer’s total volume while deploying over 80 new resources after rigorous training during the OE spike.

 

BENEFITS
  • - Improved turnaround during Open Enrollment from 72 Hours to 48 hours
  • - Increased customer satisfaction
  • - Stronger brand loyalty for the client
  • - Significant cost savings – reduced call volume a reduced pended items
  • - Provided a platform to complete urgent installation within 2 hours, globally

 

Discover What Exela's Member Enrollment Solution Can Do For You

Exela Provides Right-Sized Labor And Scanning Solutions For A Top 10 Pharmaceutical Company

Exela Provides Right-Sized Labor And Scanning Solutions For A Top 10 Pharmaceutical Company

A global pharmaceutical company moves towards a paperless operation with Exela.

CHALLENGE

A global pharmaceutical company with billions of dollars in annual revenue and nearly 60,000 employees was using a temporary labor solution to complete a substantial amount of scanning and archiving work.

This customer was looking to streamline their cumbersome processes of aggregating content from multiple sources and transitioning it into digital formats. The necessary documentation, per their existing workflows, required that the data collected be converted into a standardized format and then indexed in searchable internal systems, providing access to employees who required it based on standard industry regulations.

The customer’s existing temporary labor solution was serviceable, but this short-term strategy was not adequate to manage their ongoing scanning and cataloging work. For contractual reasons, the company’s temporary workers were only able to stay onsite for a short amount of time.

Given Exela’s existing records management and print footprint already onsite at the customer’s location, they tasked us with processing this existing scanning and indexing work more efficiently.
 

SOLUTION

The customer decided to replace their temporary labor force with four full-time Exela employees who would take over the long-term scanning and indexing work. Exela added a fifth employee to the team, who would serve as a front desk reception point for documents and receivables. This allowed Exela to own the entire document digitization process, enabling the customer to shift focus back to the core, revenue-generating work.

As a pharmaceutical company, this client must adhere to strict ISO (International Standards Organization) standards relating to the secure handling of private materials. Because of this, Exela was tasked with recording all document scanning and indexing processes performed onsite. Leveraging our industry expertise and proven best practices, Exela developed a process that became the company’s internal standard.

Exela developed the following optimized workflow:

  • Reception and front desk mail associates intake documents, which can come from external laboratories, remote employees, or any department onsite at headquarters 
  • Index codes are then uniformly applied to documents with color-coded references, informational distinctions, and other organizational markings, denoting up to 12 total categories, per internal client standards – making the documents easily searchable for employees
  • Documents are scanned and formatted to a uniform standard, before being cataloged in the company’s searchable internal databases

While their process contained manual aspects due to the wide variety in the formatting styles of documents that needed to be indexed, speed was not an issue. Our five onsite Exela associates continue to support over 2,000 drug/clinical trials themselves, handling all related scanning and indexing needs – with up to 10,000 documents converted per day during peak times.

 

BENEFITS
  • - Flexibility and expediency of service
  • - Seamless transition from 95% paper to 98% paperless with no dip in service levels
  • - Best-in-class scanning and archiving
  • - High-volume, high-speed document digitization
  • - Flexible and optimized core team capable of scaling to meet periods of increased workloads

 

Discover what our Document Digitization solutions can do for you!

 

 

Flexible Healthcare Payer Solutions

Healthcare Payer Solutions

Optimize your administrative processes for increased productivity and savings

Leveraging over 35 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Exela’s healthcare payer solutions are built to target and streamline tedious manual processes and provide services to enhance operational efficiency. These solutions are anchored by our powerful digital exchange platform, PCH Global, that provides a single point of access for claims management, correspondence, and payments. Our solutions are designed to strengthen the relationships between payers, providers, and patients, while also increasing economic value and supporting value-based care models for health plans.

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Healthcare Payer Solutions Overview