Humana Boosts Member Satisfaction while Saving Millions in Customer Communication Costs with HP Exstream

For Humana, Inc., a Louisville, KY-based health benefits company that offers health and specialty benefits to employer groups, government-sponsored plans and individuals, business success depends on good communications with customers. That’s why Humana has implemented HP Exstream software to cost-effectively automate the production of high volume, personalized documents for customers.

Strategic communications

Humana learned through market research that it needed to improve its customer communications. “We established a Strategic Communications group to specifically address improving communications with our customers,” notes Christopher Nicholson, director of Strategic Communications, Humana. The team identified several areas for improvement based on customer feedback. For instance, it learned that its Explanation of Benefits (EOB) statement, intended to explain the status of a benefits claim, was confusing for customers to understand. This document is also Humana’s highest volume customer-directed piece—EOBs are sent to Humana’s 4 million Medicare drug benefits customers as well as 1.1 million commercial customers. So Nicholson’s team began by redesigning the EOBs, changing them from point-in-time transactional documents to consolidated summary level communications that provide relevant and actionable guidance, which is easier to read and understand.

The new design was well-received, Nicholson notes. But there was another problem. Humana didn’t have the personalization technology it needed to produce the redesigned statement for the volume of customers it serves.

Technology to produce user-friendly personalized statements

Humana then evaluated document production software applications, using four criteria. The software had to support highly personalized output; easily integrate with Humana’s existing databases and technology systems; be easy to use and maintain; and be cost-effective.

HP Exstream software met all of the criteria, and today Humana uses it to produce its redesigned EOB statement, which it calls SmartSummary RX. This makes Humana the only company to use a non-model EOB for Medicare beneficiaries—truly differentiating the experience.

To produce the SmartSummary RX statement, HP Exstream software draws data from Humana’s customer database and other sources. It incorporates colorful icons and images, tables and charts to communicate information like costs and co-pay amounts. In addition, it dynamically inserts customer-targeted messages and marketing information. The result: the statements are easier for customers to understand. Customers can also make more informed decisions about how to manage their healthcare benefits.

The EOB implementation was highly successful, Nicholson says. For instance, Humana’s initial research compared retention rates of customers who received the newly designed statements to a control group of customers who did not. Customers who received the new statements were 14 percent more likely to say they would renew their Humana plan. They also reported that they were seven percent more likely to recommend Humana.

Humana also tracked calls into a dedicated customer service phone number for inquiries about the new statements. Calls to that number lasted, on average, 390 seconds, compared to an average of 420 seconds for calls from customers receiving the older EOB statements: a drop of about 15 percent. Humana’s customer service department receives about 80,000 customer service calls per day; reducing the time customer service representatives need to help customers, therefore, helping reduce the company’s customer service demands.