Consumers want someone in their corner who they can trust to guide them through today’s health care mess. And they’re willing to pay for it.
“Patient advocacy” is a broad term encompassing a range of services, but in its most general sense can be defined as a service or individual who helps patients navigate the complexities of the health care system and who works on their behalf to solve health care-related problems.
Since patients’ choices can directly impact health care costs—and even a “right” choice can still result in quality and cost issues—the concept of equipping plan members and employees with good information, tools, assistance, and guidance seems like a no-brainer for insurers and plan sponsors.
As attractive as the concept of patient advocacy may be to health plans and employers for containing costs, it doesn’t work if patients don’t participate. That’s why The Karis Group partnered with Nelson Associates to find out if employees and plan members see value in specific patient advocacy services. In addition, these perceptions of increased value can be linked to higher Net Promoter Scores (NPS) for health plans (which, for employers, may equate to increased employee engagement).
Through our work helping clients and their members or employees contain health care costs, and through our research on patient advocacy programs, The Karis Group believes more strongly than ever that effective, objective third-party advocacy programs are an essential piece of the U.S. health care jigsaw puzzle.
To review our research findings, download the full report below.
