Well, summer was nice while it lasted for our friends in the Medicare Advantage world! If your focus is on maintaining and growing a Medicare Advantage block of business, then it is time to roll up your sleeves, crack your knuckles and get ready for the upcoming Medicare Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) 2025, which starts on October 15th.
While you are all wondering how competitive the plans you filed in the spring will be vis-a-vis your competition, and how others have dealt with rate compression and STAR changes, consumers will be hearing a non-stop chorus of, this is the year to shop around. They will see that messaging show up in their snail mailbox, in their email box, in late night infomercials, at tables set up in their local supermarket, drug store and mall. Constant chatter will inundate your members, beg for their attention, in an effort to steal them away.
While Wider Circle moves the needle on quality and cost of care, one of the greatest values of our Connect for Life program is its ability to help plan sponsors retain their hard- earned membership. I have seen many different valuations for retention over the years, but with an average plan retention of 90%, improving your disenrollment rate by even 10% has major benefits. Costs of member acquisition vary, but it is generally accepted that it costs 4-5 times the amount to gain a new member than to keep an existing one – and that does not even take into account all of the downstream benefits of retention in HEDIS, Star Ratings, and continuity of care.
Making the Most of AEP 2025 with Connect for Life
Although it is getting close to AEP, it is not too late to put in place a comprehensive program to improve your retention rates. Our Connect for Life program can be funded as a Quality Initiative, which does not require being filed as a benefit. That means we can put in place our comprehensive member outreach and engagement program, helping to build member loyalty by building relationships now. Our Community Engagement Specialists can be on the ground in the communities you serve to help mitigate and counter the barrage of messaging members will receive this fall to switch plans.
In actuarially validated studies, we have seen our program reduce member attrition by up to 50%! For every member you retain, there is one fewer member who needs to join your plan just to keep you treading water at the AEP starting gate.
The Wider Circle team is expert in launching this program quickly, with minimal health plan resources, so your teams can concentrate on gaining new members. By starting to build Connect for Life communities in the fall, those communities will be vibrant by winter, connecting members to each other and helping them feel the plans’ love at a time when it is easy for your retention message to get lost in the shuffle.
This is the perfect time of year to launch Connect for Life and see an immediate impact and return on investment. Let us help you retain your hard-won members by demonstrating support for their healthcare journeys and putting in place a Wider Circle, Connect for Life AEP program.
By Bill Friedman, VP of Payer Engagement, Wider Circle
