A new era in cold-calling has dawned. And although this possible game-changing strategy involves just one company and has little to do with sales, its implication could be widespread.
The company: Equity Healthcare, a health services provider that manages plans for some 280,000 people.
The strategy: According to a recent piece in The Wall Street Journal, to reduce the number of cold calls to plan members reminding them to get regular check-ups and take other actions on behalf of their own health.
Equity Healthcare told The Journal that such calls just weren’t efficient. But, the callers found, a certain group did respond — people with chronic illnesses who had recently engaged in a health care activity, such as hospital visit.
Those are the folks that the cold callers will be calling going forward. The idea is that more targeted calls will result in better health for the least healthy but most responsive plan members, and that the calls will subsequently lead to better outcomes for the covered group.
But 280,000 is not a lot of members, you say? Equity Healthcare is owned by the New York City-based private equity firm Blackstone Group., which, in theory at least, has the clout to implement the strategy throughout its empire and, in so doing, could strongly influence other employers to do the same.
Other measures to be included in this new strategy, as outlined in The Journal article, include offering a concierge-type service to members who need help settling insurance disputes; expanding free weight-loss and smoking cessation programs; and helping members achieve other health objectives that, the company has found, members tend to engage in more frequently than other options.
Andreas Mang, Equity Healthcare's COO, told The Journal he hatched the idea several years ago after he reviewed recordings of cold calls to plan members, far too many of which did not result in the desired action.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
