How to Educate New and Existing Patients About Their Medicare Options

Healthcare

Dec 8

Written By

Marketing to New and Existing Medicare Patients

Open enrollment is here, which means it’s time for millions of Americans to make critical health care decisions. For those near or above the age of 65, Medicare is on the table.

The responsibility is on health care providers to educate qualifying patients about various plans, as many people aren’t aware that they have options. For instance, Medicare Advantage may be more fitting for patients who want to minimize out-of-pocket expenses — or simply prefer additional coverage for hearing, dental, or fitness programs.

As a result, providers need to establish a Medicare marketing plan.

Three Ways to for Medicare Marketing to Cut Through the Noise

As people near the age of 65, they’re often inundated with Medicare marketing materials. Breaking through the clutter can be a challenge, but there are a number of ways to inform prospective and current patients about all available options.

Targeted Campaigns

Direct mail is an efficient way to engage existing patients and attract new ones. The average direct mail piece has a 17-day lifespan, which translates to a wide window of opportunity for recipients to act on your ad. Not only does the shelf life of direct mail stand out, the personalization factor works wonders.

That said, if you truly want to maximize the response rate and expand your reach, you can leverage a hybrid direct mail and email campaign.

Educational Blog Posts

Health insurance is complicated. There are a lot of moving pieces and unfamiliar terminology for the typical person. So, the more helpful information on your website, the better.Sharing educational blog posts not only helps your patients make informed decisions about their health care coverage but also drives organic traffic, which you can direct to landing pages designed for lead generation.

Social Media Ads

While the typical 65-year-old isn’t perusing Tik Tok, that doesn’t mean you should rule out social media marketing altogether. In fact, according to DMN3 research, 82.3% of Baby Boomers have at least one social media account — with Facebook serving as the most popular platform.

Providers can utilize social media to at least raise awareness of plan options and hopefully open the door to conversation.

Don’t Forget about Requirements

Providers must abide by the marketing guidelines of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which underwent comprehensive changes a year ago. For instance, providers now have more flexibility to contact potential enrollees and hold marketing events — however, such events still must be properly labeled to avoid confusion or misrepresentation.

As always, noncompliance will result in penalties and fines.

Secure, Personalized, Direct Mail Solutions from Sepire

This is a critical time of year for providers as they strive to retain and attract patients. Sepire offers various secure and CMS-compliant communication solutions — including direct marketing communications and data-driven postal-optimization to ensure a timely and targeted campaign.

Sepire’s security protocols, proprietary technology workflow and WBENC certification provide a true differentiator in the marketplace – and they provide you with a vendor that place your and your customers’ best interests as a top priority. As an expert in the direct mail space, Sepire carries all the required certifications you need from your vendors—and a few others that set us apart.