52% of Members Surveyed Saw No Member Engagement on Coronavirus

Communication is key to fighting coronavirus yet some members found payer member engagement lacking in the early weeks of the pandemic, a recent eHealth survey underscored.

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Based on a voluntary survey of members on ACA-compliant individual and family health insurance plans, most respondents said they were unaware of their health plan coverage for coronavirus testing and treatment and that, shortly before White House declared the pandemic a national emergency, many still had not been received contact from their payer.

At the time that eHealth conducted the survey in the second week of March, many consumers said that they had not yet heard from their payers or providers about the coronavirus. 

Over half (52 percent) of the nearly 600 respondents said that they had not heard from their payer or provider regarding the coronavirus when they took the survey. A quarter said that they had only received one communication. Nineteen percent had received a few messages and only four percent were receiving daily communications from a payer or provider about the crisis.

The communication seemed slightly skewed toward the younger populace, even though seniors are at higher risk. Over six in ten respondents between the ages of 55 and 64 had not received any communication from their payer or provider about coronavirus. Among those between the ages of 45 and 54, the exact opposite was true: six in ten had received a message regarding the disease.

Notably, the response has been rapidly evolving, so these statistics could look different by the time that this article is published.

Payers have recognized their role in educating and communicating with the public.

On March 11, during the week leading up to the White House declaring coronavirus a national emergency and the timeframe of eHealth’s survey, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) committed to help educate patients about prevention techniques. 

On February 26, early on in the crisis, the payer organization also released a list of actions that payers were taking, outlining their member engagement and communication steps.

Health payers are informing members about how they can prepare for the coronavirus pandemic, AHIP said. Payers were also pointing members to the CDC as a resource.

But were these communications sufficient?

In spite of payers’ efforts, most respondents who took the eHealth survey between March 9 and March 12 lacked a solid understanding of how their payer would cover their testing and potential treatment for the coronavirus.

Seventy percent of respondents in the second week of March said that they were not familiar with the status of their health care coverage for the coronavirus. The rest claimed a basic knowledge of their coronavirus coverage. Tangentially, the study found that men were more likely to feel confident in their understanding of their coverage than women.

There are many reasons why payers may have failed to connect with members about the coronavirus—emails can get lost in an inbox, messages may go straight to spam, or members may not have internet access during quarantine. Perhaps payer efforts to educate the public on their coverage are being drowned out by more immediate, members' more pressing concerns.

Affordability of care was an issue for many respondents. Most (64 percent) said that if they had to pay their full deductible at that exact moment, they would not be able to do so. 

Gender was significantly evident in an individual’s ability to pay their deductible.

Women were less likely to have the disposable funds to meet their deductible than men, with only 32 percent saying that they would be able to meet the deductible while nearly half of the male respondents said they could meet their deductible.

Higher education also corresponded to higher likelihood that a respondent could pay their deductible in full on the spot. College graduates were 16 percent more likely to be able to pay their deductible than those who had a high school education.

The inability to work from home might lessen an individual’s ability to pay their deductible, depending on their circumstances.

Those who cannot work from home could lose their income if they stop going to work to practice social distancing or to self-quarantine. Without a steady flow of funds, out-of-pocket healthcare spending could become even more intimidating.

Respondents were split nearly in half as to whether or not respondents could work from home. The report highlighted the correlations between education or income level and the ability to self-quarantine, with higher incomes and higher education being more likely to accommodate the self-quarantine than individuals with lower incomes and less education.

Ideally, the Families First Coronavirus Response bill, which has passed in the House and is likely to become law, should go a long way in providing for those who expect to take a financial hit for staying home. The bill includes provisions to provide emergency paid sick leave to individuals who would not normally receive it, thereby reducing unaffordability as a barrier to care. It also requires private payers to cover testing and waives many of the costs under Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid.

The survey does not elucidate the reasons for the failed communications earlier in the month. However, if payers fail to improve their member engagement when communicating the impacts of the new legislation, members’ expectations of high out-of-pocket healthcare spending may continue to be a barrier, fueling the pandemic further.