Supplemental benefits are becoming increasingly important for patient satisfaction and cost of care management because they help offset the cost of ever-increasing medical expenses and the risk of value-based Medicare contracts. In fact, there are very few primary care providers that have not yet allied with a supplemental benefits partner yet. However, that does not necessarily mean there is no room for further improvements. Keeping that in mind, let’s look at some key features that you should expect from them.
Cost-Effectiveness of their Pricing
From the perspective of a primary care provider, the pricing of each plan itself should not be of as much concern as the estimated returns from investing in those plans. The goal should be that of finding a company that provides you with the best value for your money, and not just the lowest pricing. For example, if the estimated reduction in cost of care is high enough to justify investing in a more premium benefits plan from a different provider, then such an arrangement would be the better plan with a more beneficial business partner.
Relevance in Offered Features
The healthcare industry is a broad segment, so there is no universal plan that fits everyone. A healthcare provider should choose their supplemental healthcare benefits provider based on how their offered features meet the nature of their business. For example, Nation Benefits does not have an independent network of pharmacies and groceries, despite being one of the biggest names in the business. If that’s a feature that is important to you as a PCP, then you should look for alternatives to Nation Benefits that do have a wide network across the US.
Wider Support for Digitization Features
Most supplemental healthcare providers should have basic support for digitized services in 2022, but you should expect more than that. For example, does your supplemental benefit provider have open APIs for your business to integrate itself with them seamlessly? Almost all, if not all providers offer physical healthcare benefit cards to the members, but do they also provide digital cards to facilitate and track online transactions? Such features can be crucial to customizing the PCP’s digital interface, bringing down the cost of care, and improving the success rate of preventive care measures.
Discounts and Coupons: Encouraging Healthy Habits
From a logical point of view, human beings should not need additional encouragement to stay healthy and live healthy, especially when the cost of medical care is so high these days. In reality, however, self-preservation instincts are not always as strong as they should be. There are numerous socioeconomical, psychological, and medical reasons as to why people do not always tend to adopt healthy habits, even if they know better.
On the other hand, rewards have proven themselves to be a better motivator for encouraging healthy lifestyle habits than knowledge. Successful preventative care strategies are generally designed to provide selective discounts and coupons on products and services that benefit members. If your supplemental benefits partner incentivizes the healthy lifestyle, then it can make a big difference for everyone involved.
