It’s no secret that healthcare is confusing to navigate. There are major barriers for most people to quickly and easily access healthcare. Such as:

• Opaque pricing
• Disconnected systems
• Competing incentives between major players
• Language that's difficult to understand.

Even once someone engages with the healthcare system, they’re often exhausted or frustrated by the end of it. Even worse, someone may receive care thinking they did everything right, only to later get a surprise medical bill.

As a health plan or other type of payer, you can play a big role in eliminating the confusion and difficulty that surrounds your members’ healthcare experiences. Doing so benefits their health and wellbeing and results in better member satisfaction for you. After all, when members have a negative experience with healthcare (especially healthcare billing) they often point an angry finger at you, their health plan.

So what’s the answer to faster, easier healthcare? Platform technology.

What is platform technology?

Platforms have revolutionized almost every industry and even created new ones. Facebook, Airbnb, Amazon, Google, Uber, iTunes, OpenTable, are all a few examples of platform technology. Platform technology creates and improves the connection between producers and users to create value. It also leverages network effects; aka the more users, the more value to everyone involved. Platform technology has the potential to streamline patient experiences, reporting, scheduling, and even payment processing. It also has the potential to be a user-friendly application for patients that allows them to directly communicate with their provider and payer. In Point Health’s case, we have a platform that provides procedure pricing and makes it possible to shop and compare a wide variety of medical services. At the end of the day, platform technology in healthcare is any intuitive tech that allows people to manage and control most of their healthcare in one easy-to-use space.

Benefits of platform technology.

Did you know it can cost five times more to attract a new member than retaining an existing member? Or that improving retention by just five percent can increase profits by more than 25 percent? By improving member retention, you cut down on acquisition costs. And who doesn’t like to save money? That’s just one of the many benefits of platform technology. Platforms with digital self-service tools and patient advocacy can be especially successful in increasing member satisfaction and retention. One study even found that health plans with digital capabilities outperformed others in overall satisfaction and retention by nearly five percent. Patient advocacy services of any kind also contribute to member satisfaction. Another report showed an average NPS growth of 16.5% for health plans that offer a patient advocacy service. These increases in retention could decrease costs by reducing your need for new member acquisitions.

What to take away.

So now you know what platform technology is and a few of the valuable benefits it can offer, but how do you move forward? As a health plan, you can partner with a third-party company to provide platform technology that simplifies your members healthcare experiences. A platform that allows members to shop-and-compare medical care would be especially helpful to:

• Health shares
• Discount medical plans
• Limited benefits medical plans
• And plans offering high-deductible options

Why? Because finding affordable providers directly saves members’ money on their out-of-pocket costs. If you have a goal to lower overall costs, improve member satisfaction, and increase retention, platform technology is an ideal solution.