Improving Member Retention in a Healthcare Organization

What Do They Need To Do To Better Position Themselves To Deal With This Issue In The Future?

Does Their Defection Rate Suggest That There Is Something Inherently Wrong With Their Services To Members?

What Role Does Information Technology Play In Member Retention?

Also, Please Note That There Are Discrepencies Int He Numbers In The Case. These Are The Numbers That Were Provided By The Organization. It Is Not Uncommon To Find Variability In Statements Of Revenues, Number Of Members, Number Of Vists, And So On, Particularly In Services. The Definitive Anser To What To Do With Variability In a Case Study?

The voluntary disenrollment rate is flexible as it is consists of the balance between the customer services and primary care physician. Incapability of the office staffs adds an interrogative parameter to the calculations. Cause and effect analysis, trial and error analysis is a means for mapping the impact of the feedbacks shared by the healthcare professionals, employees and others. Lack of access regarding primary care physician and healthcare centres deprives the patients of the emergency care services. Inability to provide proper referrals and access to the specialists also aggravates the complexities regarding management of the human resources. Interpretation of the costs was a difficulty among the finance team of HMO. As a result of this, revenue also suffered from major losses in the premium services of CHA. The time for which the premium was not paid, the variable costs of serving the members were not incurred.

No. of voluntary disenrollees (per year): 14060

Total no of disenrollees: 900000 approximately

Quarterly basis calculation: 3515

Therefore, annual basis calculation: 75000

Per member per year premium: $2039

Per member acquisition cost: $162

Voluntary disenrolled members (per quarter year): 14060

Premium cost for placing the lost members: $28668340

Therefore, cost of placing the lost members: $2277720

Disenrollment trend: According to the marketing budget of 2008, the advertising expenses estimate to be $6600 in terms of communication. The expense of new member enrolment is $13200. However, the segmentation cost is also high ($68713). All these figures states that concrete and crisp contents need to be advertised for regaining the lost members. Premium services are needed in the form of social media marketing for increasing the trafficking of the audience towards the brand. Expense of new member enrolment is to be catered for ensuring that the cost per member is applied according to the requirements. Continuous improvement strategy is effective for ensuring whether the contents are according to the requirements of the premium services.

Revenue Percentage

CHA is in need of cross functional team work for improvising on the retention of the disenrolled members. Customer service lead team was to be constructed for gaining an insight into the priorities towards employee retention programs. When Amisys system was functioning on HP 3000, customization was used for catering to the specific needs of the clients and customers. At this critical juncture, there were independent systems, where there was an absence of integration between the systems. The immediate result of this was adverse affectation in terms of customer satisfaction. One of the striking results is that it aggravated the complexities in tracking the information shared by the members in the distinct system environments.

After mergers and acquisitions, integrated product offering was developed in CHA. The decision revolved around creating integrated systems, which would help in executing the business. Extensive customization contradicts the consistency in the packaging of the off-the-shelf version. The objective was to acquire migration in the independent systems for adopting new version of the Amisys system in the period of several years. This extensive customization also created distance gaps in the upgradation. One of the striking facts was lack of software support. The overall result was that the conversion project extracted more of the resources in the IT department. Feasibility was lacking in case of the collection of data for analysing the impact on the overall productivity. In the reports of the HSM group research set the ground for disenrollment. Analysis of the data and processes also paved way of opportunities, which can be availed for addressing the opportunities.

Evaluation of the customer service processes would be effective for detecting the weaknesses. Tracking systems are needed for monitoring the processes, which would reflect transparency in the services. Investments in the training and development services would be beneficial for developing loyalty among the employees. The employees need to be trained on aligning the performance to that of the customer expectations. The members need to be briefed about the loyalty programs, so that inclusive practices can be generated. The researcher needs to be provided with easy access to the problems and the waiting times for planning the services and its delivery in an efficient and effective manner. Proper communication channels like social media needs to be undertaken for ensuring that the employees are well informed about the referral programs. In this context, the involvement of the finance team is essential in terms of determining the cost and utility of the special services for the premium members and the disenrolled members.

Expenses of losing the customer was high, therefore, the management team emphasized on the defection rate, which reflected that the customers were switching over at a rapid speed. Therefore, it can be assumed that the services were not according to the requirements of the customers. One of the striking facts is that the cost of attracting a new customer was five times the cost of keeping the customers satisfied. It was in the era of 2000, when customer defection rate was at its highest, which necessitated the need for acquiring retention strategies. The recommendations pertained to creation of high switching barriers and increasing the satisfaction through the loyalty programs.

Information technology assisted HMO to customise the business needs according to the requirements of the customers. Disagreement on the action plans resulted in non-consolidation of the systems. This situation acted as a biggest challenge for achieving growth and development. Information sharing was poor, generating complexities in delivering information to the other units. Information in the originating systems was not deleted, which required posting of officers at various sites for operating the systems manually. As a result of this, approvals were generated for multiple services. As information could not be shared, the identity of the members lacked proper presentation. There was only one consolidated system, which supported the business needs. Interviews were conducted online, which expanded the scope and arena of the supply chain network.

Information technology is an integral part in the HMO business for attracting new clients and members. Members of research and development team needs to be contacted for creating lucrative websites, where the services and the discounts can be promoted.

Authenticity in the organizational data is vital for the publication of genuine results and reports. Discrepancies are inevitable in case of the manual labour. Therefore, skilled and efficient members are needed for making accurate calculations. Well in time evaluations are needed for ensuring whether the results are accurate, representing the accurate number of members and the services. Consistent evaluations are needed for reducing the arrears in these areas. Variability is also possible in the data and results between the departments, as the requirements of the patients also vary. Therefore, communication is needed between the departments, so that a negotiation point is reached. Mutual understanding is the integral aspect for developing common results in order to attract large number of customer and achieve their satisfaction.