Russ Gagnon, Chief Product Officer
Today we announced the launch of Wellth Northstar™, a dedicated Medicare Advantage health tech solution to support plans in motivating change in the hardest-to-reach member populations and boost Star Ratings.
As we’ve worked with plan partners over the past several years, we’ve seen the impact tougher Star Ratings have on Medicare Advantage plans. Member satisfaction and retention, quality bonus potential, and new member acquisition are all at risk when Star Ratings decline. And when performance starts to fall the negative momentum can be hard to stop. Starting this year, achieving 4+ Star Ratings has become nearly impossible for plans to achieve without changing behaviors in the hardest-to-reach member populations. Previously, the bulk of Star Ratings were based on member experience surveys (CAHPS) and administrative measures. Now, a larger proportion of the calculation is dependent upon medication adherence and HEDIS measures. The result is that plans are far more dependent on what plan members do or don’t do every day in order to deliver better Star Ratings, avoid member churn, and earn bonus payments.
Traditional member engagement tools are typically one-size-fits-all or at best, oriented to basic segments (i.e. senior with diabetes) rather than personalized to the individual (i.e., Jeff). They often rely on mass call campaigns that blindly hope members will answer the phone or be motivated by an out-of-the-blue email. Some solutions often blanket rewards for one-off actions whether the individual really needs the extra motivation or not. With Star Ratings now more heavily weighted to measures controlled by ongoing member behaviors, plans need solutions that create lasting behavior change at the individual level in the most challenging populations.
Wellth is a science-backed behavior change solution that fuels daily motivation, creates sustainable habits, and bridges the gap between individual behavior and 4+ Star Ratings. Wellth leverages behavioral science to empower even those with limited technology experience and low health literacy to be successful every single day. To date, Wellth has facilitated over 20 million daily check-ins from previously unreachable members.
After years of supporting health plans across multiple lines of business and activating thousands of members with Wellth Core, we realized the need for a dedicated Medicare Advantage solution. Wellth Northstar is optimized to improve Medicare Advantage Star Ratings measures by targeting sustainable healthy habits in individual members that move the needle for plans.
Wellth Northstar drives quality ratings for 3x weighted part C and D measures by supporting members with:
Wellth supports these and other measures comprising the 5x weighted Improvement Measures as well improving your Health Equity Index (HEI).
Quality teams who were early adopters of using Wellth for Medicare Advantage populations have seen a measurable impact in engaging previously unreachable members. Wellth was able to quickly target and enroll high-risk, high impact members and within four months achieve 91% daily care plan engagement translating to significant lift in adherence rates for 3x weighted Part D measures.
Watch our virtual session on leveraging behavioral science to improve Star Ratings with Dr. Sarah Watters, PhD. Read more about Wellth for Medicare Advantage plans.
