Meeting Consumers Where They Are: Patient Engagement in New York's Evolving Commercial Insurance Market

Authors: Peter Newell, Nikhita Thaper 

Read the related press release

With the number of uninsured rapidly dropping under the ACA, the focus is shifting to other goals-improving quality, the patient experience with care, and controlling costs among them. One of the most promising strategies for achieving those goals: patient engagement. This report examines patient engagement in New York's commercial health insurance market, finding mixed evidence to date on the most effective ways to engage patients, but also a broad commitment to the effort, a byproduct of a growing consensus that “it's the right thing to do.”

It is organized around four forces shaping benefits and services available to commercially insured patients-New York's insurance regulatory framework, employers, health plans, and providers. In addition to providing a review of the current research on the effectiveness of various engagement activities, the report concludes with a discussion of options for purchasers and payers to improve patient engagement.

Support for the work that resulted in this report was provided by the New York State Health Foundation.

(Updated May 29, 2015, to correct the understatement of one insurer's 2012 expenses related to improving health care quality. This correction affected the table and figure on pages 9 and 10, as well as the accompanying text on page 9.)