Listen in as Phil, Matt and Dr. Steve explore the many pitfalls of traditional patient outreach and enrollment models in health management programs.

by Phil Beene
Co-Founder & President at Nudge
June 5, 2018

For episode 8 of The Nudgecast I invited back in our trusted advisors Dr. Steve Feyrer-Melk and Matt Essex to help us navigate through the many pitfalls that we’ve identified within traditional approaches to member outreach and enrollment for population health management. Dr. Steve, Matt and I discussed…

Several of the most common pitfalls or false assumptions that we’ve come across in working with partners through their member outreach and enrollment strategies. Listen to the first part of this episode to learn more about pitfalls like:
- The “Enroll Everybody” Assumption
  - The mistaken idea that the goal is to enroll as many members as possible into your programs instead of enrolling the right members who are ready to engage and make a change.
- The “Knowledge Is The Problem” Assumption
  - The tendency we have to assume that a lack of health knowledge on the part of the consumer is the primary reason they aren’t engaging.
- The “Perfect Program” Assumption
  - The idea that we created this ideal, one-size-fits-all “program” and if someone doesn’t want to engage in it then it’s their fault.
- The “Motivated Member” Assumption
  - Closely tied to the “Perfect Program” assumption, this refers to the idea that we too often assume motivation on the part of the member when we map out programs for them.
- The “Incentives Drive Engagement” Pitfall
  - The false assumption that because incentives can get someone to enroll in a program that they would not enroll in otherwise that they will also increase chances of long term engagement in the program.
Dr. Steve’s drivers of highly effective outreach that sets us up for longer term engagement (A.K.A. “Engagement Focused Outreach) key factors that increase our ability and power to enroll and engage members in our health improvement programs such as:
- The “Why”
  - What is important to the individual?
- Readiness Stage
  - Based on Behavior Change Theory, i.e. the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change.
- Decisional Balance
  - How individuals balance the pros and cons of changing their behavior.
- Confidence
  - Based on Self-Efficacy Theory. How confident is an individual that they can be successful in making a change?
- Knowledge
  - Sometimes lack of knowledge about what next simple positive steps look like to make a change. Sometimes a lack of general self-awareness about health status or factors.
The danger of using the wrong language with our members, such as controlling, pressuring words like “should, have to, ought to, need to,” instead of collaborative, empowering terms such as “can, could, may, will, try, intend.”

To learn more about how you can work with the Nudge team to build and execute an effective engagement strategy, schedule a free discovery call here so we can learn more about your programs and discuss options.

We’d love to hear your opinion on this conversation! Share your thoughts in the comments section below.