5 Tips For Marketing An ACO

How to develop a new marketing strategy for accountable care

#1 Market wellness

The key to wellness marketing is to focus on preventive health and encourage patients to take better care of themselves. This is especially important for ACOs because physicians and organizations are paid more to keep their community healthy, not treat the sick. Some popular wellness campaigns include: weight loss and bariatric surgery, cancer screening and heart disease screening. When caught early, these conditions can be much easier and less expensive to treat.

#2 Study your patient base

Conducting thorough research on your patient base, including popular chronic conditions, services frequently used and where most patients access care can help you tailor marketing efforts to the specific health needs of your community. It can also uncover where spending is high and present an opportunity to steer patients to a lower-cost entry point. For example, encouraging patients to see their primary care physician or promoting extended urgent care hours to prevent ER visits.

#3 Communicate the benefits

It’s important to educate patients on the clear benefits of an ACO and the network that extends beyond your particular office. High-quality, coordinated care isn’t something that everyone has access to, and it’s definitely a benefit that’s worth explaining and promoting. Along with the benefits, it’s a good idea to address your patients’ main concerns: emphasize that although the ACO provides a different care system, the patient’s benefits will not change, they can continue to see any physician who accepts their insurance and an electronic health record still means that their private information is safe.

#4 Get physicians involved

Physicians and nurses are the best advocates for ACOs because they have direct contact with patients. Provide them with talking points and communications materials to share during and after visits that explain the benefits and answer questions about the ACO. You can also put brochures and reading materials in the waiting room for patients to review.

#5 Build marketing campaigns around solid analytics

Now, more than ever, hospital marketers will need to demonstrate ROI. Set up marketing campaigns with clear, measurable goals and analytics. Campaigns should be fully integrated across multiple channels to increase the reach and frequency of materials. Determine an appropriate media mix based on the research uncovered while studying your patient base and adjust media spend appropriately for your community.

Elevating Community Wellness

It takes an entire community to improve health and wellness, and it takes an entire health network, or ACO, to provide the best care for patients. In order to achieve high-quality, coordinated care, marketers and hospital leadership need to work together and create a plan based on the specific health needs of their community. This is based on thorough research, physician feedback and solid analytics. Following these steps will help make the transition from service line to wellness marketing seamless and strategic.

Learn more in our white paper, Transitioning Marketing Efforts to the ACO Model.