We’ve seen and heard the tremendous digitization buzz in the healthcare insurance market the past two years, and here’s one trend that stands out: Direct mail is surging back as a critical demand gen channel for making tactile connections with consumers. In fact, research shows one in three consumers is engaging more with direct mail ads now than before the pandemic.
Perhaps nowhere is this direct mail surge more pronounced and promising than with marketing communications around Medicare Advantage Plans. We’re seeing leading healthcare insurance organizations leveraging a new breed of hyper-personalized direct mail to both stand out from and complement digital channels — to drive member growth, engagement and retention around Medicare Advantage Plans.
What are the keys to capturing the potential of this new direct mail surge? And what are leading health insurers looking for as they seek print vendor partners to help them bring this potential to life?
Cutting through the digital noise
There’s no question that the last two decades saw a decline in direct mail communications from health plan providers. Consumers increasingly opted for digital channels e-delivery of documents and our clients have followed that trend — also enjoying the cost efficiencies of digital delivery. Many believed the pandemic would be the predicted “death of direct mail.” And indeed, we saw print volumes decline by half from 2019 to 2020.
But something interesting happened over the last two years: Print bounced back — in a big way. Consumer preference for digital communications overwhelmed their email inboxes, driving open rates, engagement and effectiveness down. But their physical mailboxes are often empty. So, we’re seeing more and more innovative companies using direct mail as a core channel for demand generation and member engagement — beyond meeting regulatory requirements.
Health plan providers are increasingly leveraging direct mail to drive omnichannel campaigns for their Medicare Advantage Plans, alerting recipients that an email is coming soon or directing them to a microsite for a more interactive digital experience. We’re also seeing our healthcare insurance clients using more premium-quality printing capabilities. For example, color printing is up 40% over 2021 because color printing stands out in the mailbox and pulls attention to that all-important call-to-action.
Recent AdAge research backs up this omnichannel approach. Consumers that see a direct mail message complementing a digital message, are more likely to notice and remember the message. More to the point, nearly half of consumers say the direct mail message effectively convinced them to go online to seek more information — the exact flow of action that insurers want to see from Medicare Advantage Plan audiences.
Three Keys to Maximizing Direct Mail to Drive Member Engagement and Growth
#1: Use technology to streamline and simplify ANOC, EOC and regulated communications
A tremendous volume of direct mail communications (often the majority) for health insurers centers on regulated and required member communications. Insurers face the annual burden of updating and distributing the Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) and Evidence of Coverage (EOC) documentation, as well as the constant volume of formularies, pharmacy and provider directories and Summary of Benefits and Coverage documentation.
Beyond the annual “heavy lift” of the ANOC and EOC, healthcare insurers are also facing increasing complexity around their ongoing compliance correspondence including claim responses, denial letters, and grievances. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have strict time-to-respond requirements that directly link to CMS scoring and reimbursement — so there’s a lot on the line here.
Leading print vendors are using technology to simplify the complexity of regulated communications for Medicare Advantage Plans, while also streamlining processes to optimize costs and ensure compliance. For example, here at Toppan Merrill, our end-to-end services leverage the purpose-built Toppan Merrill Connect platform to centralize, manage and validate all data and documentation for ANOC and EOC. And we take on the work of managing and updating the CMS model documents and making last-minute CMS updates.
We’re also using our Connect platform to automate and accelerate the generation of ongoing member correspondence communications, getting them out the door quickly while providing tech-driven validation so our clients can prove that regulatory requirements were met, letters were mailed on time and to the correct recipients.
Here's something that’s harder to measure: The value we provide our clients in the form of ad hoc problem-solving. Take the global paper shortage that experts say may well become the new standard. We’re able to leverage our broad network of connections to securely and consistently source high-quality paper, as well as the envelopes, many clients prefer.
#2: Use technology to guarantee the accuracy for hyper-personalization
One way digitization has reshaped direct mail: Consumers now expect a much higher level of personalization. Digital channels make it incredibly easy to pull in dynamic information to make messages and materials more personalized, customized and relevant to the specific recipient. Consumers recognize a generic form letter in an instant; a dynamically printed name at the top of the letter isn’t enough. They don’t want to waste their time reading something that doesn’t feel like it’s been curated specifically for their needs.
The key to unlocking the potential in this new surge of direct mail, then, is to bring the hyper-personalization of the digital world to direct mail communications. At Toppan Merrill, we’re helping our clients create fully customized materials and offers. For example, we’re weaving personalization throughout Medicare Advantage Plan member kits — providing constant reminders to recipients that these communications are custom-tailored just for them.
However, the big challenge of hyper-personalization is establishing complete assurance in the accuracy of mailings. As every message and mailing becomes more personalized, insurers need to know that the right mailing is going to the right person — every time. This means the kinds of direct mail error rates that were tolerated a few years ago, are now simply unacceptable. These mailing errors not only represent potential compliance risks, they damage member loyalty and brand reputation.
At Toppan Merrill, we’ve earned our reputation for simplifying complex communications by continually investing in leading-edge digital technologies — and supporting that technology with deep experience and expertise to solve problems and get results. We could go on about the leading-edge print technology that enables us to create hyper-personalized direct mailings. But the real differentiator is in how we leverage technology to manage the entire end-to-end process and ensure complete accuracy throughout.
Our Dynamic Publishing Solution delivers complete visibility, tracking and validation through the creation, production and distribution of Medicare Advantage Plan communications. At the core of this solution is the Connect platform, which gives our clients — and their dedicated team of Toppan Merrill experts — a single source of truth work environment. In our state-of-the-art production facility, we use 2D barcodes and real-time production dashboards to maintain comprehensive visibility and tracking throughout production. This enables our clients to confirm on-time delivery and get the robust, audit-ready reporting they need for internal validation and regulatory compliance purposes.
We’re particularly proud of our voice-directed warehousing system. It pulls in proven technologies and processes from logistics leaders in the retail and e-commerce world, to ensure the right materials are packaged for the right person — on time, every time.
And the Connect reporting platform goes well beyond compliance: Marketers can directly track performance results, to see their direct mail spend ROI.
#3: Combine people, process and technology to protect data security and information privacy
There’s no question that the kind of next-generation personalization we’re doing for our clients in direct mail, presents heightened privacy concerns. Healthcare insurance organizations are dealing with a tremendous amount of highly sensitive, regulated and protected personal information. In fact, print vendor regulatory requirements have significantly increased in the past several years, as regulators recognize the potential for this Personal Identity Information (PII) to fall into the wrong hands as it moves to a print vendor and then out into the world.
As healthcare organizations lean into the potential of direct mail, it’s imperative to ensure print vendor partners have appropriate security measures in place for technology and workflow processes. This data security isn’t just a compliance box to check, it’s essential to protecting member personal information — and protecting your relationships and reputation.
At Toppan Merrill dedicated print production facilities, we’ve invested in state-of-the-art cybersecurity to protect all our systems and technologies. We’ve built a risk-based security program specifically aligned with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements and other regulatory requirements governing healthcare insurers. Because of this, our clients have full confidence that our facilities can pass the most stringent audits. This security program goes beyond technology and includes in-depth background checks of all employees. And we take this same approach in vetting all our suppliers and partners, holding everyone we work with to the same rigorous requirements and expectations.
Tech gets all the buzz, but people make the difference
Print vendors need to continually investment in technologies to deliver on modern direct mail demands. And we’re incredibly proud of the technologies we’ve implemented to keep our Toppan Merrill print production facilities at the absolute leading edge. But the truth is technology can only go so far; people still make all the difference.
For example, the root of our Dynamic Publishing solution is the core team of Toppan Merrill Member Communications Consultants. These industry veterans have an average of 15 years of experience in Medicare and Medicaid compliance, CMS and state-regulated communications and benefits data. Our clients continually tell us our Member Communications Consultants go further, functioning as true partners and an extension of their teams. They take the time to understand everything about our clients’ plans, their goals and their unique requirements. And then they relentlessly work to solve challenges, meet these goals — and simplify our clients’ lives along the way.
That same pride and integrity mark the team that drives the Toppan Merrill print production facilities. We were early adopters of the principles of integrity manufacturing and delivery — and these core principles remain foundational to our business and our company culture. Every team member in our production facility takes responsibility and pride in their role to deliver the highest quality and assurance for our clients — from monitoring and ensuring 100% validation that the right mailing is going to the right person every time, to strictly following stringent security protocols to keep PII private and protect our clients’ relationships and reputations.
What’s your strategy for success in this “new normal”?
As we continue to assess the permanent impact of the pandemic, it’s clear that through this industry surge, direct mail has only gained value as an essential tool for making meaningful connections with audiences. It’s also clear that capturing that potential requires a completely new level of personalization — which itself presents new demands around security, privacy and accuracy.
How is your organization leveraging that potential? What are your goals for member engagement and new member acquisition?
Whether it’s streamlining your ANOC, EOC and other regulated member communications or driving print-powered demand gen strategies, we’d love to talk about how Toppan Merrill can help you achieve your goals to drive success in this “new normal.” We’re confident we have the technologies, security and processes in place to support your needs and meet modern demands. But more importantly, we have the people-powered expertise and ideas to help you optimize, simplify and do more with your marketing communications.
Learn more about Dynamic Publishing for Healthcare Insurance
Learn more about solutions for Health Plan Regulated Communications
Mike Zimny – V.P. of Global Production
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With over 25 years of experience in the manufacturing industry. Mike graduated from St. Cloud State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and completed his MBA at St. Cloud State University. Mike is a CPA and started with the organization as the Controller for the St. Cloud/Sartell facility in June of 1994. Mike moved into a manufacturing leadership role in 1998. Mike has helped design and build Toppan Merrill's print and fulfillment platform. Mike oversees all U.S. production facilities and has extensive experience in project leadership, system installations, financial management, and process improvements. Cost management is a focus for Mike, utilizing his financial/CPA background. Mike has also held financial and project leadership roles at Medtronic and Rollerblade prior to working at Toppan Merrill.
