Health Experience: The difference between loyalty & leaving

Healthcare experience:
The difference between
loyalty and leaving
Healthcare consumers’ rapidly evolving experience expectations

Healthcare organizations want to make meaningful progress in
responding to people’s rapidly evolving experience expectations.
After all, loyalty and engagement hang in the balance.
Healthcare consumerism isn’t new. But
people’s experience expectations are evolving.
All the time. The pandemic supercharged a
cultural shift that is continually raising the bar
for simpler, more convenient and more human-
centric experiences tuned to the changing
context of people’s lives. Healthcare is more
experiential, less transactional. Providers’
growth and customer retention is increasingly
tied to experience. And payers are getting
disrupted by players with digital-native
business models centered on delivering
breakthrough experiences.
Healthcare organizations have recognized the
need for change and have begun to invest in
and transform experience capabilities in recent
years. But are they making the right
investments fast enough to keep pace?
We surveyed almost 21,000 US consumers of
both providers and payers to find out.
The results reveal that access, ease of doing
business, digital engagement and trust are non-
negotiable when it comes to creating health
experiences that meet consumers’ experience
expectations.
These findings underscore how essential it is to
get health experiences right on consumers’
terms, and how difficult doing this has become.
Because winning consumer engagement and
loyalty not only requires the ability to meet
people where they are, it also means
understanding where they are going.
Healthcare experience: The difference between loyalty and leaving Copyright © 2022 Accenture All rights reserved. 02

People are holding providers
and payers more accountable
Healthcare organizations have been fully aware of the rise in consumerism for several
years. Yet they have often struggled to respond fast enough to people’s changing
expectations.
Our survey shows an increase in people’s intentions around provider selection and
their propensity to switch when dissatisfied. Nearly one-third (30%) selected a new
provider in 2021—up from 26% in 2017. One quarter switched providers because they
were unhappy—up from 18% in 2017 (Figure 1).1
Figure 1
People are switching providers more often than they did five years ago.
Source: Accenture Patient Experience Benchmark Survey, 2017 and 2021
Selected New Provider Switched Because Unhappy
2017 2021 2017 2021
26% 30% 18% 25%

Future decision-makers are a flight risk ...
Switching is far more common among younger people,
especially Gen Z and millennials. Younger generations are
nearly six times more likely to switch providers (Figure
2).2 They are in an important and unique position as
frequent healthcare decision-makers for both their aging
parents and children today. And they might need care for
themselves now or in the future. Healthcare
organizations’ future growth depends on how well they
understand what it takes to keep younger people loyal.
Figure 2
Younger generations are nearly six times more likely to switch providers than
older people are.
Source: 2021 Accenture Patient Experience Benchmark Survey
Overall Switching Rate
25% 8%
6%
19%
46%
55%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Silent Older Adults GenX Millenials GenZ
40% average
7% average

...and they lean into experience
We see a similar dramatic shift among younger people when
looking at selection drivers for health insurance plans.
The survey results indicate that younger generations
increasingly value experience factors like customer service,
convenience and trust over price. Millennials are three to
five times more likely to value these factors than older adults
when selecting an insurance plan.
Figure 3
Younger generations care more about experience factors when selecting
a health insurance plan.
Source: 2022 Accenture Consumer Payer Experience Benchmark Survey
Younger people are less likely than older
adults to consider price, medical benefits
and network coverage to be top factors
when selecting a health plan.3
To get a better price or value
To get better medical benefits (e.g., lower deductibles or copays, higher service
limits)
To get better network coverage (e.g., more doctors, hospitals)
To get better customer service
To find more convenient healthcare options (e.g., retail clinics)
To find a more reputable/trusted company
To get a customer service and solution via digital/mobile interactions
33%
51%
28%
36%
25%
16%
23%
8%
22%
6%
21%
5%
21%
4%
Millennials
Older Adults

Experience factors are
driving the upswing in
switching

For providers:
Once people begin their healthcare experience, many find it difficult to navigate the entire care journey. In fact, nearly 80% of provider switchers cite ease of
navigation factors as the reason for leaving. These factors include difficulties in doing business, bad experiences with administrative staff and inadequate
digital solutions. Consider too that the rate of switching for ease of navigation factors is nearly double that of even a poor clinical experience (Figure 4).4
Figure 4
78% of people say ease of navigation factors are the reason for leaving their providers.
Identified as Top Factor Switching Provider Factors
• They were difficult to do business with
• I had a bad experience with the front desk or administrative staff
• The digital/online service and support solutions do not meet
my needs (e.g., mobile, digital/virtual assistants)
• I had a bad experience with a doctor or a member of the care team
• Got referred by someone I trust to a better provider
• Found someone more expert for my clinical needs
• Their appointment hours were inconvenient
• I was not able to get an appointment quickly enough
• Their location(s) were not convenient to work or home
Ease of Navigation
Clinical Experience/Expertise
Access/Network
78%
40%
8%

For payers:
While people leave payers for many reasons, those we surveyed cite experience as the most important reason. About half (49%) say that experience factors made
them leave. These factors include inaccurate or inconsistent information, unanswered questions, poor experiences using digital tools, poor customer service and
discomfort with how payers used their personal data. After experience, people are most likely to switch payers because of benefits and coverage (Figure 5).5
Figure 5
Nearly half of people leave their payers because they are dissatisfied with the experience.
Identified as Top Factor
Ease of Navigation
Switching Provider Factors
• Information provided to me was not accurate or inconsistent
• I was unable to get questions answered
• Poor experience using digital methods and tools (e.g., online, mobile app)
• Poor experience working with customer service
• I did not like the way they were utilizing personal data about me
• The prescription drug benefits did not meet my needs/expectations
• Condition Management programs were not robust and did not meet my needs
• The wellness or supplemental benefits/perks were not robust/did not
meet my needs
• My preferred doctor/hospital was not in prior plan network
• Lack of convenient health care options
Clinical Experience/Expertise
Access/Network
49%
35%
32%

How to humanize
experiences to drive
engagement and loyalty
Our research reveals that to deliver the health
experiences that people expect today—and keep people
at the center of engagement—there are four factors to
focus on across every part of the care journey.
01
02
03
04
Access
Ease of doing business
Digital engagement
Trust
People expect availability of services that
meet their unique needs...
Along a personalized healthcare journey of
convenient interactions...
With access to tools that match their
individual level of digital engagement...
To build confidence and loyalty with their
healthcare organizations.

01 Access

Access
An overwhelming 71% of people cite access as a top factor in
selecting a new provider.6 They value things like appointment
availability, convenience, customer service and the ability to
connect to their provider through their preferred channels.
Access is a known imperative across many healthcare
organizations. While it’s a complex issue to address,
organizations that have invested in transformational change
are gaining ground.
Although access factors far outweigh all others, a trusted
referral source is also important. Just over half of respondents
(53%) consider it to be a top factor in their selection of a new
provider (Figure 6).7 This makes sense considering that trusted
sources naturally help people with access and navigation
support, which we know are very important to them.
Figure 6
Access is a top factor influencing how people select providers.
The fact that people value trusted sources
makes sense considering that they help
with access and navigation support, which
we know are important.
Access
• Their location(s) were convenient to work or home
• I was able to get an appointment quickly
• Their appointment hours were convenient
• Evening and/or weekend hours
• The ability to interact with them over digital, mobile, or social media
• Telehealth and virtual care offerings (e.g., phone call or video appointments)
• Online scheduling for an appointment, without having to speak to someone
• Their customer service
Trusted Source
• They were referred by a primary care physician I trusted
• Referred by a friend or someone I trust
• They were referred by a specialist I trusted
• Their proactive and engaging communications to me
• I saw a promotion or advertisement about their services
Coverage/Cost
• They were listed in my health insurance provider directory
• the out-of-pocket costs I would have to pay
• Price transparency tools can tell how much I have to pay before my visit
Reputation/Brand
• Their reputation/trusted image
• Their focus on sustainability, social responsibility and/or diversity
71%
53%
34%
25%

Access
One of payers’ primary roles is enabling people to access the quality care they
need. People want that to happen with the right information, minimal hassle and
flexibility. Payers’ effectiveness across these factors has a significant impact on
people’s perception of their health experiences, and as such, on their likelihood
of staying. People who have a positive perception of payer access factors are far
more likely to rate their overall healthcare experience positively (Figure 7).8
Figure 7
Payer access factors impact healthcare ratings.
Percent of consumers with a positive healthcare rating
Insurer makes it easy to find the
information I need to find a new
doctor or specialist
There is minimal hassle to get
the health care services and
diagnostics tests
Insurer allows me
flexibility to select the
course of treatment
69%
25%
75%
22%
76%
17%
Strongly Agree Disagree

02 Ease of doing
business

Ease of doing business
Closely connected to access, ease of doing business also keeps
people loyal and engaged in healthcare. Together, these factors
make up the entire experience of navigating and interacting across
the healthcare journey. Considering how much people care about
and prioritize their ability to access services, it’s only natural that
they have the same expectations for the rest of the experience.
Access to services is so important that ease of doing business has a
considerable impact on loyalty. People who find their providers
very easy to work with are nine times more likely to stay than
those who find them difficult to work with—and three times more
likely to stay than if their provider is even somewhat easy to work
with (Figure 8).9
Similarly, people are four times more likely to stay with payers they
find are very easy to work with compared to those that find their
payer difficult—and twice as likely to stay than if the payer is even
somewhat easy to work with (Figure 8).10
Figure 8
People who find their providers and payers very easy to work with
are the most likely to stay.
How easy is
doing business?
Provider
How likely to
stay?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
How easy is
doing business?
Payer
How likely to
stay?
Very easy
Somewhat easy
Somewhat difficult
Very difficult
82% 15% 3%
27% 51% 11%
13% 35% 52%
9% 10% 81%
76% 19% 5%
38% 51% 11%
17% 46% 37%
17% 21% 62%
Source: 2021 Accenture Patient Experience Benchmark Survey,
2022 Accenture Consumer Payer Experience Benchmark Survey
Most likely Somewhat likely Unlikely

03 Digital
engagement

Digital engagement
The research also shows that digital engagement is a strong predictor of
loyalty. Put simply, people who are highly digitally engaged are
significantly more loyal. Nearly 80% of highly digital people are likely to
stay with their providers. This is more than 20% greater than all other
digital engagement categories.
The most highly digital people are also more likely to find their
providers easy to do business with and to trust them. The connection
between digital engagement and trust is particularly notable. Almost all
(90%) of highly digitally engaged people have complete trust in their
providers—more than 30% higher than all other digital engagement
categories (Figure 9).11
Figure 9
Highly digital people are the most likely to be loyal, find
providers easy to work with and trust them.
Likely to stay Complete Trust Easy doing business
79%
58%
90%
57%
81%
60%
Highly Digital
Other Digital
What does it mean to be digitally engaged?
Low Digital
Selectively Digital
Mostly Digital
Highly Digital
They prefer to rely on traditional channels and
interactions. Even then, they leave digital traces.
They selectively engage in digital for utility value and
convenience but will quickly fall back to traditional
channels and interactions based on experience.
They are more likely to attempt to leverage digital
methods to engage and demonstrate a preference
for omni-channel experiences.
They make digital part of all dimensions in their life
and are likely to have a “digital first” approach to
engagement–only falling back to traditional channels
when digital methods fail or are unavailable.
Digitally Enabled

Digital engagement
When it comes to how highly digitally engaged people interact with payers, they
are more likely to stay (64% versus 55%) and more likely to consider their payer
very easy to do business with (74% vs 50%) (Figure 10).12
Figure 10
Highly digital people are the most likely to be loyal and
find payers easy to work with.
Definitely Stay Very Easy
64% 55% 74% 50%
Highly Digital National Average

04 Trust

Trust
Like highly digitally engaged consumers, nearly all people who trust their providers stay with them. Trusters13 are five times more likely to stay
with their providers than all other categories, and they are almost seven times more likely to stay than those who don’t trust their providers at
all (Figure 11).14 Similarly, trusters are four times more likely to stay with payers than distrusters—and almost twice as likely as neutrals to
remain with payers they trust (Figure 12).15
Figure 11
People who trust their providers are the most likely to
stay with them.
Figure 12
Trusters are more likely than neutrals and distrusters
to stay with their payers.
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Truster Neutral Distruster
84%
24%
12%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Truster Neutral Distruster
76%
36%
19%
17% Average
34% Average
Overall
61%
Overall
55%
Source: 2021 Accenture Patient Experience Benchmark Source: 2022 Accenture Consumer Payer Experience Benchmark Survey

People trust providers who… People trust payers who…
• Make them feel heard and informed about
diagnosis and treatment
• Are clear about treatment and what it
requires
• Have doctors and care teams that work well
together and answer questions
• Provide consistent information across channels
• Help them understand their coverage
• Minimize hassles to get care
What drives
trust in healthcare?
Trust is grounded in people’s experiences across many
interactions. However, the experiences that have the
biggest impact on trust for both providers and payers
relate to clear communication and ease of engagement.

Meeting experience
expectations. Where to start—
and what to take on.
Experience is a transformational agenda. It’s important to resist the
muscle memory of siloed improvement efforts that lack the scope
and scale needed for real change. With the real-world constraints of
budgets and resource limitations, a business case and roadmap will help
leaders establish their experience north star, prioritizing factors most
likely to impact the bottom and top lines.

The key is to balance consumer and business benefits over time
Here are the fundamentals for success:
Build a strong foundation Focus on a connected journey
Understand your customer Balance the human + machine equation
Healthcare organizations can evolve their capabilities from systems
of record to systems of engagement and understanding. Doing so
requires an operating model and integrated ecosystem that is
experience-led and scalable. What’s non-negotiable?
The ability to enable ease of access and navigation,
engagement across channels and
personalized interactions.
Meaningful customer insights are key for healthcare
organizations to create life-centric experiences that
reflect the needs of consumers as real people with
complex and sometimes contradictory expectations and
needs.16 It’s critical to build capabilities around data and analytics
that incorporate the ability to measure and evaluate experience
factors and their impact on the business over time. Balancing
automation and human intervention, organizations can develop the
insights necessary to anticipate consumers’ needs over time and
engage more proactively with them.
Digital is not a destination. It is the means to the
end of humanizing health experiences. Not only do
digital capabilities help meet people where they are,
but every digitized interaction also frees up human
capacity to focus on people’s high-touch needs.
Finding the right balance, particularly in today’s
rapidly evolving landscape, is essential.
Addressing experiences across interactions is non-negotiable to
build loyalty and trust. Creating an omnichannel experience that
seamlessly powers the whole journey means linking individual
experiences to each other and across channels.
Even the best isolated experiences are less meaningful
if they aren’t part of a cohesive journey.

A national payer wanted to transform its member experience. The company relied
heavily on direct mail—some members were receiving up to 300 touchpoints each
year. We helped the payer declutter the experience by identifying quick wins and
defining a future member journey to enhance the experience and reduce costs.
Implementing communication and campaign management capabilities and new
processes and governance were critical to the transformation. The plan is expected
to deliver a significant revenue uplift for campaign management.
A We worked with a large health system to improve access to care and create a
connected patient experience. Working across marketing, contact center, digital
experience and clinical operations, the transformation included developing an
enterprise access operating model, an omnichannel customer engagement platform
and robust customer analytics. The new patient experience includes streamlined
access to care, navigation to the right point of care that is more responsive to
patient preferences, and expanded access across channels.
Decluttering
member experience
Creating a connected
patient experience
Copyright © 2022 Accenture All rights reserved. 23
Healthcare experience: The difference between loyalty and leaving

Healthcare organizations that do not
improve experiences will find themselves
falling behind. The good news is that we
know what people expect from their
interactions—and the factors that are the
top drivers of loyalty and engagement.
By finding meaningful ways to deliver on
these expectations across the healthcare
journey, healthcare organizations can set
themselves apart—and set themselves up
for success.

References About the Accenture 2022 Consumer Payer
Experience Benchmark Survey
About the Accenture 2021 Patient Experience
Benchmark Survey
About Accenture
1. Accenture Patient Experience Benchmark Survey, 2017 and 2021
2. Accenture 2021 Patient Experience Benchmark Survey
3. Accenture 2022 Consumer Payer Experience Benchmark Survey
13. Survey respondents were defined as trusters, neutrals or distrusters
differently in the two surveys. For the Patient Experience Benchmark Survey,
we merged a four point scale to three points by merging middle values based
on respondents’ answers to one survey question. For the Consumer Payer
Experience Benchmark Survey, the trust scale is based on respondents’
answers to six survey questions related to different aspects of trust.
16. Accenture, “The Human Paradox,” at
https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/song/human-paradox
Accenture surveyed almost 11,000 US consumers 18 years and older to understand how their
insurance companies perform across nine key healthcare consumer touchpoints. The research was
conducted online between March 2022 and May 2022. Respondent data was aggregated and
normalized by payer and coverage type.
Accenture surveyed more than 10,000 US consumers 18 years and older who had sought or
received care in the past 12 months to understand how their healthcare providers perform across
10 key healthcare consumer touchpoints. The research was conducted online between October
and November 2021. Respondent data was aggregated and normalized for age, income, region
and gender.
Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and
security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we
offer Strategy and Consulting, Song, Technology and Operations services—all powered by the world’s
largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 710,000 people
deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than
120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients,
people, shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at accenture.com

About the authors Contributors
Loren is a Principal Director in Accenture Health & Public Service with
a focus on consumer engagement and health insurance exchanges.
With over 37 years of experience working across national and regional
payers, health delivery systems and healthcare banking, he focuses on
assisting healthcare organizations execute their strategic business
transformation and product initiatives.
Loren McCaghy loren.e.mccaghy@accenture.com
Sarah leads Accenture's Health Customer Engagement offering for the
provider industry. She has over 20 years of experience leading
complex transformations in health care, with expertise in consumer
engagement strategy and design, patient access, contact center
transformation and CRM and digital enablement.
Sarah Sinha sara.I.sinha@accenture.com
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@Accenture
Copyright © 2022 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered
are trademarks of Accenture.
We thank the following colleagues for contributing with subject
matter expertise to this report:
Daniel Owczarski
Health Research Lead, Accenture
daniel.owczarski@accenture.com
Anna Dzikowska
Health Research Associate Manager, Accenture
anna.dzikowska@accenture.com
Shehla Khowja
Management Consultant, Accenture
shehla.khowja@accenture.com
Tara LePage
Management Consulting Senior Manager, Accenture
tara.m.lepage@accenture.com

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