PROVIDENCE– Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island is offering secure mobile messaging to help its members better connect to their health care information and needed services. Providing members with access to personalized messages and important health reminders via a private web app, Your Blue Wire secure messaging is BCBSRI’s latest communication tool to communicate with customers.
Developed with Relay Network, Your Blue Wire sends notifications to members about primary care and dental visits, flu shots and even fitness classes at BCBSRI retail stores, in an effort to help members stay healthy via proactive outreach and education. The notifications bring members to their secure web app, where content is personalized to each member’s needs, and messages can be customized to reach members in certain high-risk groups. For example, individuals with diabetes may receive a message about glucose testing, while others may be reminded to schedule a colonoscopy or mammogram.
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“We want to ensure that we are reaching out and communicating to members where they are, through the channel they prefer,” Melissa Cummings, BCBSRI senior vice president and chief customer officer, said in a statement. “In addition to continuing our traditional outreach avenues, such as direct mail, phone calls and email to reach our customers, secure messaging allows us to increase the number of opportunities we have to answer questions and provide support to our members. It’s already proving successful in helping members take action to improve their own health.”
So far, the response from members has been overwhelmingly positive. During open enrollment in December 2016, more than 50,000 members signed up for the new service; and some 15 to 20 percent of the company’s 400,000 members are currently enrolled. Members are engaging with content at a very high rate – 30 to 35 percent – far higher than email or traditional mail. Similar messages delivered through other channels such as email tend to receive less than a 3 percent engagement rate in comparison, BCBSRI reported.
“Texting capabilities aren’t new to our members in their personal lives, but they are relatively new in health care,” John Auger, BCBSRI director of channel management, said. “Blue Cross has been actively looking for new ways to embrace technology to better connect with customers. Today, this is what our members want and expect, and the positive response rates prove the need for this type of communication.”
In the future, BCBSRI will expand the use of secure messaging to further improve the customer experience with expanded options for self-service, ways to save on out-of-pocket costs and simplified benefit information. For more information or to sign up for this service, click HERE.
Nancy Kirsch is a PBN contributing writer.
