How to Increase HDHP Uptake

By Roger Travis
Founder of ExperienceLab Inc.

If you’re working to increase uptake of HDHP/HSAs, you face strong push-back from employees who are allergic to the suggestion of higher out-of-pocket expenses. With these groups, HDHPs produce markedly less employee satisfaction than traditional plans.

However, you can avoid the commotion by using Persona^tm research to accurately predict which employee groups are not allergic to out-of-pocket expenses and are more interested than others in HDHP/HSA plans. These groups appreciate the opportunity to choose an HSA plan, with all its savings and tax benefits as well as its health cost reductions for employers.

ExperienceLab can provide you a list of your employees who are in each group. We will also provide you tools to tailor communications to these groups based on the “hot buttons and benefit barriers” that each group responds to most strongly.

How our research uncovered this opportunity

Nationwide, only about 40% of workers have HDHPs, despite the plans’ lower premiums and potential tax advantages. This has been about the same percentage favorability that HDHP plans have had since 2006.

Persona^tm research, as shown below, uncovers that this 40% average uptake for these plans hides a wide variation in uptake rates across different, identifiable employee groups. Our research divides consumers into seven such attitudinal groups.

The chart below indicates what percentage of each group across the U.S. has an HDHP/HSA plan and what percentage has other plan types. The darker blue bars represent those that have chosen the HDHP/HSA. The light blue bars represent those that have not.

The statistics point to two groups (on the far left) who have in the past been most likely to choose these plans and would do the same in the future.

Market the right plans more effectively to the right groups

Using Persona^tm you can identify which of your employees are in each group so, if you wish, you can market HDHP/HSA plans only to employees who have proven they are most likely to be interested. Our experience is that such targeted communications yield up to 300% increases in uptake versus one-size-fits-all offerings.

We offer detailed personality insights for the employees in each group, so you gain an understanding of why they chose the plans they did. Thus, with the chart above and the insights we offer, benefits professionals can target and personalize communications directly to the employees who want and need them most.

Using the insights

When you’re ready to increase HSA plan uptake or retention, these insights are available for your business.

The Persona^tm data has been appended to a comprehensive list that includes 150 million employees, each identified with one of the seven research-based attitudinal segments. This list and the detailed national survey insights that define the Persona^tm groups are available by subscription.

The list and associated Persona^tm tools allow benefit managers to more accurately predict the outcome of benefits campaigns, select the employees most likely to welcome communications and use unique insights into the “hot buttons and benefit barriers” of employees to create powerful personalized communications.  

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