Tips for enrolling and retaining members
These days the health care landscape is constantly shifting – especially after a year of such tumultuous change – so it's always good to stop every once in a while to take our bearings. Here are a few tips for enrolling members and for encouraging current members to renew in 2017.
The Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land and enrollment for Covered California is proceeding. As our CEO John Baackes has recently confirmed, whatever changes may come, L.A. Care's mission remains to make quality health care accessible.
Our membership has now topped the two million mark. L.A. Care is still the largest publicly operated health plan in the nation, and the largest plan by membership in Los Angeles County.
All evidence points to any changes in the ACA being several years off. That's good information to use in allaying any fears members might have about the future of their health care plan.
It's also good to remind prospects and existing members that their decisions should be made in a timely manner because those who wait may not be able to retain health coverage. For example, if a Medi-Cal renewal packet is not returned on time, the individual may lose eligibility and need to re-apply for Medi-Cal.
Similarly, since the government has made new rules about out-of-cycle enrollment, prospective and current members would be well advised to act in a timely manner to sign up and renew their memberships.
Finally, it's good to remind prospects and current members that L.A. Care is also committed to constant improvement. What that will mean for the coming year is the use of literally millions of grant dollars to establish new programs, all for the benefit of L.A. Care members.
All in all, there are a number of important reasons why prospective and renewing members would be well served by looking to L.A. Care for all their health care plan needs.