From Eligible to Engaged: Connecting Your Employees with their Primary Care 

Launching a direct primary care benefit can be a long process, from selecting a partner to building out a wellness center. Even once an onsite or nearsite wellness center is open, the work isn’t done yet: you need to get your employees in the door. Put simply, you and your population will get the most value possible, including achieving better health outcomes and reducing total cost of care, when your workforce frequently uses their wellness center and or health benefit. How do you make that happen? Let’s look at how you can help your workforce and their dependents learn about their benefit, choose to use it, and come back.

Growing Awareness

The first thing benefits leaders need to do is to educate employees about their new healthcare benefit. Growing engagement with the wellness center begins with educating eligible members about what the resource is, the types of care available, how to use it, and then openly addressing questions or concerns you’re hearing from them in response. This can be done within a company’s existing employee communications infrastructure. When communicating, use messaging that is empathetic, energizing, and encouraging. Avoid jargon by using clear language that reinforces benefits such as convenience and affordability to generate interest and use of benefits. Have a clear call-to-action on all materials. Supporting your vendor in direct outreach to your eligible population also sets the foundation for effective engagement. Everything from emails and newsletters, social media posts, and physical signage and fliers are all part of making sure employees know the benefits available to them.

Leaders can also take growing awareness to the next level by having the wellness center team or other healthcare partner representatives do roadshows, set up tables in high-traffic areas, and otherwise see employees face to face. A good direct primary care partner will work with leaders on awareness and education campaigns to make sure they drive the desired results.

Inspiring Action

As awareness grows, so will the number of employees who want to learn more — but not everyone will be ready to commit to an appointment or visit right away. Supporting people in this consideration phase takes shape in two ways: continuing education and ensuring easy, low-risk first touchpoints.

At this stage, the one-page fliers and info sheets used initially should be supplemented with more informative resources. This step can be anything from a video showing what a visit at their wellness center would look like to Q&As with wellness center staff or deeper dives into the services and clinical resources available. The goal is to find where employees still have questions or concerns and support them with relevant resources.

Continuing education can also be in the form of awareness campaigns, either on campus or direct-to-employee, offered through your vendor. It’s important to stay top-of-mind so that when your employees have a need and are ready to engage, they remember their wellness center.

Making the first touch that prospective members have with the wellness center low-risk can be key in moving employees from consideration to engagement. An important first touch for a new member is signing up for the wellness center vendor’s member app. Make app registration easy and set clear expectations as to what kinds of communication they can expect as a result, as well as the frequency of it, to ensure employees who take this step want to take the next one too. Other options are to offer tours of the center to allow members to see it and meet staff members face-to-face. It can be a lot less intimidating to set an appointment with a care team they’ve met before.

Bringing Them Back

Once employees walk through that door the first time, the experience they have will decide whether they choose to come back or not. That’s why choosing a direct primary care partner who delivers top-notch member experiences — in terms of access, interactions with providers, outcomes, and more — is critical. A terrible experience means an employee may never come back in. An amazing experience can encourage members to come back again and grow positive word of mouth in the organization. It can even convince the most resistant employees, as was the case with this Premise Health member.

“I never go to the doctor because I hate going. I can’t get over how easy and painless the process was. Everyone was prompt, which I deeply appreciate, and very kind. I can’t say enough good things.”

– Member in Indiana

Leaders can work with healthcare partners to ensure that the wellness center member experience is relevant to employees, makes them feel comfortable, and encourages them to engage in their healthcare. Engaging in high-quality primary care can help them live healthy, happy lives.

After launching your direct primary care benefit, keep your foot on the gas. Guide and educate your employees and their families as to what’s available to them, how to use it, and to come back again.

We’ve mentioned how working with your healthcare vendor can help you achieve success. Your vendor should work with you to develop and execute engagement strategies tailored to your population’s needs. At Premise, we view engagement as a partnership with you and are committed to working together to ensure your success. Learn more about what this looks like at Premise and how we help our clients grow utilization at their wellness centers.