Reaching participants across multiple channels

Effective communication is essential to helping participants understand and use their health benefits. In multiemployer plans, participants often move between job sites, have varying work schedules and are often not spending their day behind a computer screen, making it difficult to reach everyone through a single communication channel.

A multi-channel strategy—combining printed mailings, email, text messages, websites, union communications, materials at job sites, social media, and other trusted touchpoints—helps ensure participants receive important health benefits information in ways that fit their daily lives.

This approach is especially important when communicating about open enrollment, preventive care, wellness programs, prescription drug updates, eligibility changes, and other time-sensitive information. When participants receive clear, timely communications through multiple channels, they are more likely to understand their benefits, take advantage of available services, and make informed healthcare decisions.

A successful communication strategy also depends on having reliable contact information. Plans can improve data quality by:

• Encouraging participants to update their contact information whenever they change employers or move.
• Providing easy online and mobile options for updating addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.
• Asking participants to verify their contact information during benefit enrollment, eligibility verification, or customer service interactions.
• Working with contributing employers and unions to remind participants to keep their records current.
• Periodically conducting outreach campaigns to encourage participants to review and confirm their preferred communication methods.

For plan sponsors and administrators, investing in accurate contact information is just as important as investing in communication channels. Even the most well-crafted message cannot achieve its purpose if it never reaches the intended audience.

The objective isn’t simply to send more messages—it’s to ensure every participant has a meaningful opportunity to receive, understand, and act on information that can directly affect their health and financial well-being. By combining accurate participant data with a thoughtful, multi-channel communication strategy, multiemployer health plans can improve engagement, strengthen trust, and help participants make the most of their benefits.

Looking to improve participant data quality or explore other communication options like email or text? Let’s talk!