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Maximizing Open Enrollment Success: 6 Key Print Materials Every Insurer Needs

Maximizing Open Enrollment Success: 6 Key Print Materials Every Insurer Needs

Maximizing Open Enrollment Success: 6 Key Print Materials Every Insurer Needs

Open enrollment is a crucial time for insurance companies to attract new members and retain existing ones. In the competitive marketplace, print insurance marketing remains a tried-and-true strategy for communicating your benefits and value to potential policyholders. In this blog, we’ll explore six essential insurance print materials to maximize open enrollment success and elevate member experience.

Direct Mail Open Enrollment:

Direct mail marketing remains a powerful tool for reaching new members and reminding existing ones during open enrollment. Postcards, mailers, letters, and advertisements come in all shapes and sizes and can be used to send personalized messages, promotions, renewals, and important information about insurance plans. Direct mail allows potential policyholders the time to review and research your offerings, directly or online. With Preferred Direct’s experience and technology in direct mail services, we’ll help you create eye-catching designs with a strong call to action and targeted audience to increase your campaign ROI.

Printed Newsletters:

open enrollment direct mailCreating a printed newsletter, with professional finishing such as saddle stitch binding, will certainly leave an impression. This print insurance marketing approach not only caters to a diverse demographic, including those who may prefer traditional communication methods but also makes it more likely to be noticed and retained. Including member benefit summaries, featured doctor and hospital news, and even a nutritional cooking recipe, can help create an engaging newsletter that establishes a tangible connection with your audience, encouraging policy enrollment and retention.

Third Party Billing:

Third-party billing can provide a seamless process for collecting premiums, deductibles, and communicating coverage details. These documents should be designed with the utmost clarity to ensure that policyholders can easily understand their financial responsibilities. Preferred Direct is a HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST-certified printer, excelling in high-quality third-party billing services. We take pride in making sure your customers have a smooth experience during open enrollment and billing because we know happy customers can equal lifetime policyholders.

Explanation of Benefits:

Explanation of Benefits (EOB) statements are essential for policyholders, providing a breakdown of the costs associated with their services. Just like third party billing, having a professional and concise EOB document and communication process will improve your member experience making them more likely to renew each year.

Member Handbooks:

Member handbooks are valuable tools for insurance companies seeking to provide their policyholders with comprehensive information about their coverage. These handbooks serve

book printing services fulfillment

as a go-to resource for policyholders, offering details on benefits, claims procedures, network providers, and other essential information. A well-structured member handbook can be a valuable asset for both policyholders and insurance companies during open enrollment, fostering trust and confidence in your services. With state-of-the-art printing and finishing technology, Preferred Direct can create a professionally printed and bound resource that strategically covers all your insurance offerings.

 

Document Printing:

During open enrollment, insurers have a multitude of documents to print, ranging from member forms, contracts, and more. Preferred Direct offers state-of-the-art document printing services that guarantee accuracy, consistency, and professionalism. Your insurance company can rely on us to produce high-quality insurance marketing print materials that reflect your commitment to providing excellent service.

PDM teamPreferred Direct has over 35 years of experience as a second-generation family business working with insurance providers throughout the US. In our experience working with some of the largest insurance companies in the nation, to maximize success during open enrollment, it’s essential to invest in the right print materials. By incorporating third-party billing, direct mail marketing, advertising postcards, explanation of benefits, and document printing into your open enrollment strategy, you can create a comprehensive and compelling marketing campaign. These materials not only convey essential information but also reflect the professionalism and trustworthiness of your insurance company and its services.

For a successful open enrollment season, trust Preferred Direct as your full-service business communication partner. Contact us today to discuss our marketing and design services to help you goals this enrollment season.

Print Campaign Ideas for Higher Ed Marketing

Print Campaign Ideas for Higher Ed Marketing

Whether you’re looking to recruit new students, engage alumni, or share important updates with faculty and staff, print campaigns are a highly effective medium for higher ed marketing.

Boost Your Political Marketing Campaign with Print

Boost Your Political Marketing Campaign with Print

When it comes to elections, every detail matters. This is especially true for local downticket elections — those that involve smaller, local offices like city council members, school boards and more.

About the authors

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Infographic: HIPAA Compliance Checklist

Infographic: HIPAA Compliance Checklist

Infographic: HIPAA Compliance Checklist

 

Is your printer HIPAA Compliant? From choosing the right vendors to maintaining secure digital files, remaining HIPAA Compliant takes planning and oversight of facilities, technology, third-party vendors, and more! Check out this quick HIPAA Compliance Checklist for the top tactics to remain HIPAA Compliant. 

Preferred Direct stays up-to-date on the latest regulations to remain HIPAA compliant. We’ll apply the necessary security measures so you can rest assured you’re always in compliance and your patient data is in safe hands

HIPAA Compliance Checklist
Print Campaign Ideas for Higher Ed Marketing

Print Campaign Ideas for Higher Ed Marketing

Whether you’re looking to recruit new students, engage alumni, or share important updates with faculty and staff, print campaigns are a highly effective medium for higher ed marketing.

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10 Healthcare Marketing Ideas To Help Grow Your Practice

10 Healthcare Marketing Ideas To Help Grow Your Practice

10 Healthcare Marketing Ideas To Help Grow Your Practice

As a medical professional, the care of your patients is top priority. When operating a medical practice, however, the business side of medicine is not far behind. Whether you are facing patient retention challenges, looking to expand locations, add new talent, or simply increase the number of patients you see, healthcare marketing can help with sustainable growth of your practice. Here are ten ideas to do just that:

#1 Develop a Brand Identity

A medical practice is still very much a business, and with that comes the need for a brand. Develop a cohesive brand for your practice by choosing a logo, color scheme, and fonts. Work with a marketing professional to take the branding a step further by developing a brand tone and brand values. Combined, these visual and emotion-provoking components will become your enterprise’s brand and create a clear identity to your customers. Over time, your brand will become synonymous with the quality of care that your practice provides. At Preferred Direct, we can create the professional look and branding needed to engage customers and grow your business.

#2 Outsource Billing to a Third Party

If your office is still billing internally, you may find you can maximize your staff’s time by outsourcing your bill printing and mailing processes. After bill coding and contact verification, your team can transfer billing data through a secure data portal to a print and mail partner for fulfillment. This allows your billing staff to attend to patients, customer service and more urgent matters.

It’s important to seek out a partner with expertise in handling sensitive medical information. Be sure to verify they can uphold HIPAA standards and have appropriate data security protocols. Working with an inexperienced printer can lead to problems ranging from reputational damage to costly lawsuits. Preferred Direct is proud to be a HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST-certified commercial print and mail partner. Our state-of-the-art print technology and strict data security standards ensure our medical customers can safely outsource their billing and maximize their internal staff for other pressing financial and care-related matters.

#3 Create a Healthcare Marketing Plan

Healthcare marketing is necessary when growing your enterprise. However, your efforts may be wasted without setting specific goals. Identify measurable areas in which you wish to grow and develop a strategy around those goals.

Utilize both print and digital marketing and seek out ways to integrate them. Examples can include using social media to promote an upcoming event, sending out a brief version of your company newsletter via email, or including a QR code on a postcard.

#4 Become a Thought Leader

Leverage your knowledge as a medical professional and find ways to share your expertise publicly. Medical blogs and publications often seek guest writers. Be sure to name drop your practice, so your expertise is attributed correctly.

For a more direct, local impact, create a printed newsletter for your practice. In one of the segments, include informative content. This can include debunking medical myths, explaining emerging medical technologies, or a list of preventative health advice.

If you want to be very hands-on, get in front of the camera. Some medical professionals have seen success on video-centric platforms like TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn etc., delivering knowledge in short, digestible formats.

#5 Set Up a Referral Program

Word-of-mouth is still among the strongest ways to grow a business. Encourage your current patients to tell friends, family, and coworkers about your practice. You can offer an incentive for them to do so, such as grocery gift cards, entries for a giveaway, or a complementary service. Use forms or comment cards, where new patients can disclose if they were referred by an existing patient and capture the ROI of your healthcare marketing campaigns.

#6 Recruit and Retain the BestHealthcare medical billing support

A medical enterprise is only as good as the people who work there, from the doctors to the front desk personnel. It is important to attract and retain the best possible staff when growing your practice.

Celebrate employee accomplishments and milestones in your newsletter, to express appreciation. Recognize the risk of burnout in the medical field and make resources available to keep your team happy and healthy, so they can keep patients happy and healthy.

Be proactive in hiring by attending job fairs, connecting with post-secondary institutions, and using recruitment resources to find the right fit for your practice.

As a bonus, recruiting within the community can double as a promotional activity, increasing brand recognition in the area.

#7 Leverage New and Existing Technology

Seek out opportunities to add new technologies to your practice that are patient-friendly. Telehealth is quickly moving from a “nice-to-have” to an expectation of care. If your practice can offer these visits, make it known!

For a busy office, scheduling can be challenging for both the office and the patient. Online scheduling can help by reducing call wait times and automating the confirmation process.

Keeping your web presence updated can impact the impression of your practice. While not a new technology, regularly updating your social media pages with relevant content shows that you care to keep patients informed where they are. Similarly, your website requires routine content updates, as the place many new and existing patents will go first for information.

#8 Solicit and Utilize Reviews

If you are unsure where to focus your time and efforts, encourage feedback from your existing patients in the form of reviews.

When you receive a five-star review, ask the reviewer for permission to share their feedback in your healthcare marketing. This feedback can also be used to get an idea of the patient’s experience. This information can highlight critical growth areas for your practice.

#9 Expand Your Reach Locally

As a medical enterprise, you will likely have multiple locations under your business umbrella. When it comes time to open a new office, develop a healthcare marketing campaign around introducing yourself to the local community. This can be done through a direct mail campaign, social media ads, or even a grand opening event! Using every door direct mail (EDDM), practitioners can target every house within a specific radius to the facility and introduce local households to their practice.

Adding additional practitioners can also bring new patients that may not have previously sought out your practice. Highlight expansions of service in your direct mail newsletter or on your website, encouraging new patients to make an appointment.

#10 Stay Connected

Make it easy for patients to stay connected to your practice. A mailing list, both for physical mail and email is a great place to start. Appointment reminders also remind people to connect with your office. Work with a healthcare marketing designer to develop an eye-catching, on-brand design that cannot be missed among other pieces of mail.

For a more hands-on approach, participate in local events as a vendor or sponsor. Health fairs, holiday festivals, and marathons are great venues for a medical enterprise to engage with the local community. Give out branded freebies, offer screenings, or host a giveaway. Be sure to include a sign-up for your mailing list at the booth!Preferred Direct Marketing

*Bonus: Leverage Preferred Direct!

Healthcare marketing takes effort and strategy. When it comes to your medical print and mail campaigns, Preferred Direct has years of experience in managing sensitive healthcare information, as well as marketing materials, with security and diligence. From designing to printing to finishing to postage, Preferred Direct has the experience, technology, and security to help you grow your medical practice. Contact us today for a print marketing estimate!

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Outsourced Medical Billing – The Top 5 Advantages for Healthcare Providers

Outsourced Medical Billing – The Top 5 Advantages for Healthcare Providers

Outsourced Medical Billing – The Top 5 Advantages for Healthcare Providers

If you don’t send patients their bills in a timely manner, your account receivables will suffer and your collection rates will be very low. It may be time for outsourced medical billing.

Should billing be done in-house or outsourced to a direct billing company? There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Third party billing comes with many advantages. Medical organizations and businesses need cost-effective and efficient ways to collect their hard-earned revenue. Businesses can either outsource medical billing or hire qualified employees to do it in-house. 

Take a look at our blog on the 5 Key Considerations When Choosing a Third-Party Medical Marketing Partner.

Here are the top five advantages of outsourced medical billing:

1. Outsourcing Can Save a Company Money. When billing is outsourced, a company saves money on monthly salaries and benefits for those who would do in-house billing. Flat rates charged by billing companies are generally less than what it would cost to staff an employee to do the same job. Companies who outsource also do not have to purchase or maintain billing software and computer equipment.

2. Outsourcing  Helps a Company Collect More Money and Improves Cash Flow. Billing duties can be slowed and lost in the shuffle of running a business, but billing companies keep billing moving in an efficient way to get money to the medical organization faster. Ultimately, the timely submission of bills increases the influx of cash.

3. Billing Professionals Are Less Likely to Make Errors. Because billing companies have the sole purpose of getting billing correct, they are less likely to make errors. Billing companies are equipped with the knowledge and equipment to ensure that claims and bills are submitted in a thorough, speedy process.  This reduces the amount of denied or rejected claims.

4. Companies/Organizations Can Focus More on Their Patients Leading to Higher Customer Satisfaction. Especially for small medical businesses who cannot hire people to do billing, using front office staff to split their time and efforts between billing and other duties can detract from other areas of their job. Outsourced medical billing improves the office staff’s productivity and can ultimately lead to better customer satisfaction.

5. Adding Advertising Messages to Your Bills Can Encourage Patients to Return and Increase Revenue. When advertising messages are added to bills, using variable data, it is called transpromo marketing. Transpromo marketing is effective because unlike junk mail, people open bills and read them. Medical businesses and organizations can advertise events, vaccines, reminders for preventative treatments or any other relevant messages on bills. Is it flu season? A practice may want to promote coming in for flu shots. Is there a health fair? Advertising on a bill is a good way to get existing customers to be in the knowhow and return to the business.

Whether outsourced medical billing or not depends on multiple factors. Businesses should look at the number of employees, finances, the age of the business and the local labor market. Outsourcing billing can save healthcare businesses and organizations time and money, giving the organization the ability to focus on primary tasks.

Choosing the Right Outsourced Medical Billing Provider

When choosing an outsourced medical billing provider for your organization’s communications, there’s much to consider. Not all print providers have the expertise or equipment to handle the security and volume demands of medical billing.

Below are some key characteristics to look for in your third party provider:

  • direct mail servicesAbility to handle a wide array of variable data printing applications
  • Flexibility in how they can receive your data
  • Experience with billing and postage
  • Compliance with HITRUST and HIPAA
  • Advanced printing technology to ensure the utmost accuracy and print quality
  • Services beyond printing

A medical billing services provider should have all of the technology and measures in place to ensure that your customer data stays safe at all times. For optimal value, also consider if a vendor has the versatility to handle your organization’s diverse needs.

Preferred Direct has years of experience and a stellar reputation in managing variable data and sensitive information to generate invoices and other medical notices, accurately and securely. We guarantee prompt and confidential processing of your information while giving you flexible solutions to accommodate your unique requirements. We can replicate your existing invoice format, give you templates to choose from, or create a custom design to fulfill your vision. You’ll also have several options for submitting your data to us—via our secure FTP site in .xls, .txt, .csv, or .dat formats or send .pgp encrypted files. We can handle printing, folding, inserting, presorting (for postal discounts), and delivering your invoices to the U.S. Post Office. 

When you partner with Preferred Direct, you partner with a data-secure, technology-focused outsourced medical billing provider, dedicated to your goals. Contact us today for an estimate!

Call Preferred Direct toll-free today. 1-833-425-7007

Sources: medicaloffice.about.com, poweryourpractice.com, itservicereviews.com

Print Campaign Ideas for Higher Ed Marketing

Print Campaign Ideas for Higher Ed Marketing

Whether you’re looking to recruit new students, engage alumni, or share important updates with faculty and staff, print campaigns are a highly effective medium for higher ed marketing.

Boost Your Political Marketing Campaign with Print

Boost Your Political Marketing Campaign with Print

When it comes to elections, every detail matters. This is especially true for local downticket elections — those that involve smaller, local offices like city council members, school boards and more.

About the authors

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Do you know your Explanation of Benefits Mailing Requirements?

Do you know your Explanation of Benefits Mailing Requirements?

Do you know your Explanation of Benefits Mailing Requirements?

Health insurance companies provide EOB’s or Explanation of Benefits statements after individuals receive their health care services. Given that individuals’ health information is deemed sensitive and protected under HIPAA, it’s crucial to understand EOB requirements.

The Explanation of Benefits Statement

To have a better understanding of EOBs, it is important to note that at first glance, an Explanation of Benefits statement closely resembles a medical bill. The EOB usually says at the top “This is Not a Bill”; however, it may look like the recipient owes money.

EOB forms give details about a specific medical insurance claim that was processed by the insurer. It explains how much of the insurance claim was paid by the insurance company and how much is outstanding, based upon the costs of the care provided and the individual’s health insurance plan.

To illustrate with an example, consider an allergy screening. The allergist charges a set fee for service, and a health insurer pays a certain amount of that, which is dictated by the individual policy, deductible amounts, and other variables. Individuals usually pay a co-pay at the time of appointment but may owe more money later once the insurer processes the claim if there’s a difference in the service cost and what the insurer will cover.

In addition to details about the specific procedure, the Explanation of Benefits forms usually contains policy-specific information, which adds context. After summarizing the recent claim, the EOB form will usually summarize the deductibles and any other out-of-pocket claims for the year.

This way, the insured can better understand what they owe by reviewing how much of their deductible they’ve already paid. While EOBs explain medical billing information to the insured, they can be challenging to understand, and errors can happen. Many patients need to call their insurer to ask targeted questions, so they can better understand both the EOB form and any subsequent medical bills that arrive.

EOBs generally come after any medical or dental service is provided. Dental EOBs are similar to medical EOBs in form and function and have the same requirements. However, since dental insurance is limited in its coverage, patients who need extensive dental procedures may owe far more than they would for medical care.

EOB Mailing Requirements

While some patients choose to view their Explanation of Benefits online, many patients are reluctant to view sensitive information online and would prefer to receive a hard copy by mail.

Our Statement Generation or print on demand services make it simple to create and mail personalized EOB statements to users as the need arises. HIPAA’s privacy rule affects statement generation and EOB mailing requirements. HIPAA mandates that an individual’s health conditions, demographic information, services received, and payment for services be kept confidential.

Thus, any medical information, including adolescent children, that mentions the past, present, or future health care information (including fees for services rendered) must respect the privacy rule regardless of how the data is transmitted (via direct mail or electronically).

Given that your medical organization must comply with HIPAA, any direct mail or electronic service you work with must have a thorough understanding of HIPAA and its privacy laws, and be able to send out confidential medical information in an appropriate manner. Knowing your EOBs is important. Preferred Direct complies with all HIPPA requirements.

An insurer cannot be held liable if a patient’s confidential information is disclosed when all proper measures are taken. However, if an insurer does not take proper steps to preserve the integrity of private information, and they are found to be negligent, they will face fines that range from $100 to $50,000 for every violation.

Digital communication companies, like Preferred Direct, provide insurers with a range of medical statements, including EOBs, medical bills, plan benefits, and other healthcare forms, electronically or hard copies. While healthcare marketing materials may not have any private patient information, thus be exempt from HIPAA.  An individual’s sensitive medical forms must have their confidentiality protected.

Sending EOB Statements

Preferred Direct is a knowledgeable partner for insurers who want to outsource their billing to a third party who can provide fast, accurate, and confidential statement generation or electronic communication services. Since digital communication companies specialize in printing and sending campaigns, hard copies, or electronically, they can do it efficiently.

Outsourcing this service also saves time while allowing employees to focus on mission-critical tasks. Patients enjoy receiving accurate materials promptly.   Preferred Direct’s communication services generally accept health data in a variety of formats, including .csv, .xls, or .txt. Digital communication companies using the supplied data will generate an accurate Explanation of Benefits statement.

Preferred Direct also offers e-billing services, in which medical bills and EOB statements can be generated and electronically transmitted to patient online portals or emailed, streamlining the EOB mail process for insurers.

Since forms must be addressed to individual patients, look for a direct mail shop that offers variable data printing, in which patients’ names and other unique data can be included in the mailings for customized, meaningful communication.

To ensure security and confidentiality protection, insist upon a direct mail provider that has a HITRUST and HIPPA certification, which is the most common security framework for healthcare data in the U.S.

Preferred Direct has HITRUST certification and keeps up to date with all HIPAA requirements so that we can serve our insurance industry customers.

Not only are we attentive to the healthcare industry requirements, but we also offer highly efficient direct mail services. Since we use match mailing and postage automation services, we can efficiently process and send an Explanation of Benefits statement to their members while saving the customer money.

We create and maintain customized printing products for our customers, and we update our in-house stock with measures for inventory control. This way, we’re always ready for your next mailing. Whether you’re looking to outsource all of your medical statements or only need help with EOB mailing, we can take care of everything quickly and accurately.

Conclusion

Eye glasses witting on top of a Medical Billing statementWhen you are dealing with Explanation of Benefits you must be certain that all HIPPA rules are met.  Be especially careful with any and all information relative to the person, and that information should be treated with the utmost confidentiality.

There are savings to be had by outsourcing the EOB statements to a competent print and mail production house.

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