Independence Blue Cross, one of the largest healthcare insurance companies nationwide and the biggest healthcare payer in Philadelphia, is making better use of text messaging and the mobile web to engage plan participants, says Paula Sunshine, vice president, consumer sales and marketing.

Speaking last month at the Americas Health Insurance Plans Digital Health Forum in Chicago, Sunshine told attendees that while multiple healthcare insurance carriers are building digital and mobile tools on their websites and apps that allow consumers to find doctors, comparison shop medical costs and fees covered by the plan and various wellness initiatives, use of those tools isnt catching on with many consumers. The challenge is to engage them effectively, she says.

Citing research in various consumer surveys and health insurance industry research done for Independence Blue Cross, health insurers rank behind even cable TV and Internet Service Providers in overall customer engagement and satisfaction, Sunshine says. In fact, health insurers came in last when consumers were asked how satisfied they were with their interactions with 13 major types of consumer-facing companies, including retailers, hotels and national delivery companies. Health insurance trails nearly all other industries in customer experience, Sunshine says.

In particular, while 96% of big health insurance companies have a tool for searching for approved providers on their website, the feature is used by only 50% of enrolled consumers. While 68% of major health insurers provide mobile access to their website, only 17% of enrollees use their smartphone or other mobile device to do so. Many consumers find digital and mobile health too hard to use, including 42% of consumers who find desktop and mobile health features and functions too time-consuming, 33% too difficult to understand and 30% too complicated to access. Consumers have significant barriers to using tools potentially stemming from poor understanding of health insurance terminology Sunshine says.

In response, Independence Blue Cross, which covers nearly 10 million people in 24 states and the District of Columbia including about two million in Philadelphia and southeast Pennsylvania, is trying to reach members through their mobile phones.

That includes making targeted use of the mobile web and personalized secured text messaging to motivate plan enrollees and their covered dependents to use digital self-service tools. Independence Blue Cross is using its mobile technology to link customers to its recently updated mobile app with faster ways to access the payers online self-service tools for information such as finding cheaper generic drug substitutions for brand name drugs.

To generate a response among plan enrollees and sign up more people for its mobile app, Independence Blue Cross sent out personalized and targeted text messages aimed at educating consumers. For example the insurer sent out messages on cost-saving alternatives to using an emergency room and adding a primary care physician to their HMO plan.

The targeted text message campaign generated several positive responses, such as higher click-through rates and bigger percentage of plan enrollees taking action as a direct result of the message. For example a text message for a flu shot reminder, in which users could go to the carriers website or use the app to find a convenient in-network provider location, had a click-through rate of 54% and led 72% of those people to take action after reading the message.

Although Sunshine didnt say how many plan enrollees have downloaded the mobile app since the first version was launched in 2013, over the period of June 1-18 total app downloads increased and grew from 43 downloads on June 1 and reached a peak of 1,179 downloads on June 18 when text message reminders were sent.

Going forward more personalized text messages will be a mainstay of Independence Blue Cross digital and mobile health initiative, Sunshine says. We meet customers where they are and deliver targeted, bite-sized content to the right user at the right time, Sunshine says. Smarter tools find what consumers need delivered in a usable way.

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