Top Payer Strategies for Overcoming Coronavirus Vaccine Hesitancy

As payers continue to search for answers to overcoming coronavirus vaccine hesitancy, safety net health plans in the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) have consolidated their most successful strategies which included incentives, provider education, clergy leadership webinars, and more.

Safety net health plans are plans that are available both through Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. They aim to provide continuity for low-income individuals who may be eligible for either form of coverage.

There are three populations that payers must engage in order to improve coronavirus vaccine uptake: members, providers, and community partners. The report addressed how payers can improve their collaborative efforts with each population to improve vaccination rates among members.

Member engagement often relies upon claims data, but a couple of challenges make this an unreliable guide for payers’ coronavirus vaccination efforts. 

Many vaccination clinics do not take insurance information, meaning that insurers do not get a claim when the member has received a coronavirus vaccine. When a claim is submitted, certain crucial information such as race and ethnicity data or homebound status may not be included in the claim information. 

For dual eligibles, Medicare retains sole access to their vaccination information since that falls under Medicare coverage, so Medicaid health plans have no data on this population.

ACAP health plans prioritized member education in order to overcome these obstacles. They used television advertisements, billboards, and social media to spread important information regarding the coronavirus vaccines. Other plans reached out to beneficiaries by phone, email, or another channel in order to share accurate coronavirus vaccine data.

For beneficiaries who wanted the coronavirus vaccine but could not access it on their own, health plans either brought members to the vaccine sites or brought the vaccine sites to members. 

Some health plans offered non-emergency medical transportation to vaccination locations, in collaboration with transportation companies. Other health plans deployed mobile vaccination units.

Payers have also implemented incentives, such as health reward cards and gift cards. However, not all states permit Medicaid programs to offer financial incentives for vaccination.

Payers have used incentives in other health insurance settings in order to drive healthy behaviors, particularly in wellness programming. However, the approach has seen mixed outcomes in these areas.

For coronavirus vaccination uptake, financial incentives appear to have a positive influence on beneficiaries. In particular, beneficiaries responded well to employers’ promises of paid time off to manage the coronavirus vaccine’s side effects and health insurers’ assurances that they would cover any necessary treatment for side effects.

Provider engagement is critical due to providers’ influence on their patients’ willingness to receive the vaccine.

ACAP’s health plans used a variety of methods to collaborate with providers on coronavirus vaccine uptake. Some plans published frequently asked question sheets, held forums, and reached out to providers directly. Health plans also worked with providers to set up vaccination events, particularly critical for smaller providers in need of support.

Incentives strategies are not limited to member uptake. With some providers hesitating to receive the coronavirus vaccine themselves, health plans have considered incentivizing vaccine uptake among providers who work with particularly vulnerable populations.

Communities also have an impact on beneficiaries’ vaccine hesitancy. As a result, payers have partnered with community leaders, faith-based leaders, community influencers, and others to produce town halls, panel discussions, clergy leadership webinars, and other spaces for members to ask questions and hear accurate information regarding the vaccines.

Payers worked with state and local agencies to facilitate a consistent message across public health agencies, hospitals, businesses, and other institutions. Some plans have gained access to state data to identify high-risk members, though many payers still do not have access to this information, according to ACAP.

“As vaccines became increasingly available, ACAP health plans faced novel challenges that required creative, resourceful strategies to increase vaccine uptake and promote equity of distribution. As a result of their efforts, significant progress has been made in these areas, but it remains an uphill battle to curb the pandemic, especially with the recent circulation of highly contagious variants of the virus,” the report concluded.