Health plan providers can better help members manage their health by interacting with them more via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, so say plan participants responding to HealthMine’s latest surveys. It would also greatly help if providers customized health recommendations based on data gleaned from members’ use of digital tools such as fitness and nutrition apps.

The Dallas-based health care technology company polled 500 Medicare enrollees, 65 or older, in its Medicare Plan Health Intelligence Survey, and in its Digital Healthcare Tools Survey, polled 750 consumers 64 or younger enrolled in a sponsored insurance plan.

Not surprisingly, younger people are more apt than Medicare enrollees to engage with their health plan providers via social media, according to the two surveys – 37 percent of those 64 and under are connected to their plan on social media, compared to 7 percent of Medicare enrollees. For those who are connected, 65 percent of Medicare enrollees and 78 percent of the younger respondents say the connections are helpful.