The enabling powers of SSO: a health plan's path to greater utilization of its Web site may rest with a familiar technology

Health Management Technology, Oct, 2004 by Tom Feitel

The Internet has become a major healthcare resource for consumers. In fact, it is a primary source of health information for more than 80 million consumers, according to a December 2003 study by Manhattan Research. This number is expected to grow substantially in the coming years as baby boomers age and increase their use of healthcare resources.

This clear evidence of consumer willingness to logon for health-related information has not gone unnoticed by health plans. In response to growing consumer use, many health plans are now expanding their Web capabilities to provide their members with greater convenience and enhanced services, while lowering costs for plan sponsors.

SSO Provides "One-Stop Shopping"

Single sign-on (SSO) is one feature being adopted by health plan providers. SSO gives consumers a single entry point through which they may access Web services for their various health plan components, including medical, pharmacy, vision, dental and flexible spending accounts. In its simplest terms, SSO lets a plan member log in once to a secure Web site, then navigate to any related secure sites without having to remember and re-enter additional user IDs or passwords. In most cases, the user doesn't realize he is leaving one site to access another. The process is invisible, secure and streamlined.

Given the benefits that SSO provides to health plan members, it is clear to see why employers and health plans incorporate it in their Web strategies. But members aren't the only ones who benefit.

Gains for Health Plans and Employers

A brand-building opportunity. SSO can be customized so that all linking benefit sites (such as pharmacy or vision care) are either fully branded or cobranded to look and feel like the health plan's Web site or the employer's Web site. This creates a cohesive online experience for the user, with the plan's branding elements prominent throughout. This can greatly enhance the health plan's brand through exposure (as the user will spend more time on a site that carries the plan's branding), and through experience (as the user attributes the increased access, functionality and service to the plan).

A better end-user experience. For health plan members, SSO is convenient because it provides one point of contact for all of their health benefit needs. By creating one requisite registration and entry point, members avoid the cumbersome and repetitive process that requires visits to multiple sites and the need for multiple user IDs and passwords.

The health plan may choose to enhance the experience even further by customizing the site visit for their members, providing individualized benefit information that makes it more relevant and easier for them to use. Based on an understanding of user goals and expectations, the plan can provide deep links into any partner site connected via the SSO so members have immediate access to the most important features. This enhanced, connected access is exactly what Internet users have come to expect from general surfing of the Net, whether on healthcare Web sites or not.

Increased traffic to the plan's Web site. An SSO strategy allows plans to leverage transactions that are of a more recurrent nature to increase traffic to their own site. One of the most common recurrent healthcare transactions is filling a prescription. In the case of refilling chronic medications, online activity is steady, predictable and ongoing throughout the year. Moreover, Forrester Research expects online prescription drug sales to reach $13.4 billion in 2004, up from $2.8 billion in 2002.

As the users in an SSO environment can be required to use the plan's site as their entry point for all transactions--including access to their pharmacy or PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) site to fill a drug prescription--this growing use of online pharmacy can significantly increase the plan's online traffic.

A recent study supports the idea that including a pharmacy benefit in an SSO approach can help increase traffic and transactional activity at a health plan's Web site. The analysis looked at the implementation of an SSO on a large, national health insurer's Web site, measuring online pharmacy transactions through its pharmacy benefit manager's site (Medco) against a control group without an SSO. The analysis found that the SSO feature increased usage of the pharmacy plan site anywhere from 40 percent to 150 percent above that of the control group, depending on the specific online activity involved, with overall Web site visits being 45 percent higher than those of the control group.

Increased utilization of online functions. Because members can be required to logon to the health plan's or employer's Web site each time they use one of their health benefit services, there are more opportunities for exposure to messaging that can encourage utilization of other online features such as self-enrollment, physician selection, checks for eligibility and access to medical forms. Increased use of these functions can reduce a plan's customer service calls and administrative paperwork, resulting in lower costs.