Following the nation's changing demographics at the local level in some major markets, Humana is making a small investment in more convenient service for Hispanic and Latino members.
Humana has updated its smartphone app, MyHumana, adding a new Spanish language version. This puts the Louisville-based insurer among only a handful of other health payers with member apps available in Spanish, among them Aetna, HealthPartners and Independence Blue Cross.
Along with those competitors, too, Humana is positioning itself as a digitally-focused option for consumers, with website and smartphone options to navigate benefit questions, find network providers, get customer service, or file a complaint. MyHumana features a deductible estimator, claims support, provider search and drug pricing, and integrates with the insurer's wellness and rewards program Vitality.
The addition of Spanish language access is small feature that could still go a long way to improving the experience Latinos and Hispanic members in the insurer's major markets, like Florida, as well as places it's trying to expand in, like California. The feature may be a boon to newly-insured Latinos in exchange plans or Medicaid managed care, who across the country account for nearly 8 million of the subsidy- and Medicaid-eligible uninsured population.
The Spanish-language version of the app also makes sense because Latinos are embracing smartphones at a faster rate than any other demographic group in the country, with 72 percent of Latino-Americans 18 and older owning a smartphone, ten percentage points higher than the national average, according to Nielsen.
The challenge for Humana and other insurers in markets with growing Hispanic-Latino communities, however, will be engaging--on a personalized level--with individuals who may have different conceptions of health and health insurance than other Americans.
"You're asking someone to enroll in a plan and there's no relationship with that product," said Steven Lopez, senior policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza. "This concept of an HMO is not something that folks outside of the U.S. healthcare system are that familiar with. They may be more familiar with going right to provider and paying them directly, or a broader structure with a government entity."
As part of efforts to tailor and personalize marketing and engagement, Humana and other insurers are gradually evolving with consumer's digital health habits--developing and refining consumer apps and web platforms for members, even if a small percentage of members are using them. Most people don't wake up and think about how they can interact with their health plan, as Kim Jacobs, VP of consumer innovation at UPMC Health Plan, argues. But with more and more health plan choices and cost-sharing, in tandem with consumer technology trends, health plan apps are likely to be more valuable and utilized in the coming years.
Along with the Spanish language edition, Humana's recent updates to MyHumana include a fix to a location issue that had bugged the doctor and pharmacy search functions, and an option for members to take a photo of receipts to verify medical expenses filed for flex spending or health reimbursement accounts. In another consumer-retail move, Humana is also partnering with CVS Health to let individual pre-65 members pay their plan premiums in cash, credit or debit at CVS stores.
Payers go mobile Web and mobile apps have promise, but can open insurers to scrutiny and raise questions about the very experience they're trying to offer.