Loyalty and Rewards Programs in Healthcare Marketing: A Trend To Watch

Jane Weber Brubaker, Editor of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends

A March 2016 editorial in JAMA authored by three University of Michigan physicians, “Health System Loyalty Programs: An Innovation in Customer Care and Service,” begins as follows:

“Many people belong to loyalty programs for coffee shops, hotel chains, or airlines. Despite a highly consumer-oriented approach in some health systems, similar types of loyalty programs have not been developed.”

Despite this statement, consumer loyalty programs in health systems do exist. They have been spearheaded by both chief executive officers and chief medical officers. They support a range of organizational goals and are managed by people with titles ranging from marketing director and loyalty manager to vice president of population health.

What’s in it for you, as a healthcare provider? The same factors that make loyalty programs worthwhile for other organizations:

1. It costs more to acquire new customers than to retain existing customers.
2. Participants in loyalty programs are positively predisposed toward the organization.
3. Participants refer others to the organization.

In a new article by eHST Editor Jane Weber Brubaker, we look at loyalty in the context of accountable care organizations, where attrition has been historically high. When patients can go anywhere they choose, what can health systems do to entice them to stay in network?

Read the full article now: Emerging Trends in Loyalty and Rewards Programs in Healthcare.

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President