While consumers’ satisfaction with inpatient care experiences improved a few points over the past year, health insurance and hospitals still fall in the bottom-third of all industries with which people interact, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Insurance and Health Care Study 2021-2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“With visitor restrictions relaxing and more elective procedures going forward, hospitals are slowly coming out of a COVID-induced satisfaction slump,” the study press released quoted Forrest Morgeson, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University.

This year’s ACSI Insurance and Health Care Index was developed through 12,840 consumer interviews conducted between October 2021 and September 2022.

While consumers’ satisfaction with inpatient care increased by 3 percentage points over the past year (from an Index of 70 to 74), experiences in emergency rooms remained flat (at a 66 Index score),

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health consumers’ satisfaction with health insurance remained flat over the year with an overall industry sector Index of 73. Improvements were made among several plans between 2021 and 2022, including:

  • Humana, up 4% points, to 77 (ranked first for satisfaction in this study)
  • UnitedHealth up 1 point to 75
  • Aetna/CVS Health, up 1 point to 74. and,
  • Cigna up 3 points, to 71.

Other plans in this study were Blue Cross Blue Shield (overall), Kaiser Permanente, and Centene, all three of which lost a bit of consumer-experience ground in the year.

What do consumers value for their health insurance experience? The bar chart arrays the CX values, starting with the plan’s mobile app’s quality and reliability, followed by access to primary care doctors, specialists, and hospitals, and website satisfaction. In addition, the plan’s coverage of services and prescription drugs, ease of submitted claims and understanding insurance statements, timeliness of processing those claims, and call center experience all closely cluster as important benchmarks for health insurers to address in the eyes of health consumers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health Populi’s Hot Points:   The last chart arrays every industry ACSI gauges relative to customer satisfaction. Your eyes should focus on the bottom third of the graph, finding health insurance, nonhospital care, and hospitals all ranking below most consumer-facing sectors.

The consumer-experience love goes to food manufacturers, full-service restaurants, TVs, breweries, cell phones, household appliances, personal care and cleaning, and personal computers.

Ranking below hospitals are hotels, social media, landline phones, the US Postal Service, gas stations, video-on-demand, subscription TV, and internet service providers.

As patients continue to evolve as health care payors — especially following peoples’ digital transformation in the wake of the pandemic and in the current inflationary era — heath consumers seek greater digital engagement and service levels that reflect those they find in the top-ranking industry experiences.

We see from the top-ranked benchmark metrics for health plans — quality and reliable mobile apps — that these digital front-door experiences bundle with the health service access issues such as primary care, hospital, and drug coverage.

With that in mind, all health care feels like a retail experience, for better or worse, when the patient is the payor.