Health fund pulls together raft of services to create COVID-19-specific support package and boosts telehealth offering
Medibank has brought together a broad range of health services to develop COVID-19 Health Assist, a program of customised health and wellbeing support for customers throughout the pandemic.
The program will be offered to all Medibank and ahm customers. Medibank senior executive, brand and marketing, Fiona Le Brocq, said the fund mobilised a cross-functional customer communications team as the crisis started to unfold to develop appropriate ways to respond. It tapped into existing customer panel research and frontline feedback to properly understand customer concerns.
“We identified the need to provide personalised support and advice to our members at a very confusing and stressful time. We reviewed existing programs to see what we could pivot or accelerate, or even stop if we deemed it was no longer relevant,” said Le Brocq.
Medibank started with direct member communications and created a COVID-19 landing page with key information.
"We kept this very simple and straightforward as our members told us they were feeling overwhelmed with information," Le Brocq continued. Next it accelerated the existing Health Concierge program, which provides assistance to our members going to hospital, to create COVID-19 Health Assist to provide advice and guidance for COVID-19 related issues.
The health fund said its highest level of support will go to customers most at risk, members aged over 70, those living with chronic health conditions or who have recently been to hospital, as well as customers diagnosed or recovering from COVID-19.
A team of health professionals from Medibank will proactively reach out to these more vulnerable customers to offer a review of their physical, mental and social needs. From there, these teams will customise an individual support package for the customer that draws upon our range of clinical services, practical help and other health and wellbeing expertise.
Clinical services may include hospital in the home services, medication advice and home support, while customers recovering from COVID-19 will have access to home-based respiratory rehabilitation where clinically appropriate.
The fund also says it’s in discussions with other public and private groups about offering key elements of this program to more Australians.
In addition, Medibank said it’s ramping up access to telehealth throughout the coronavirus pandemic so customers with extras cover can now claim for these consultations, such as physiotherapy, dietetics, podiatry and speech therapy, delivered by phone or video.
Le Brocq said the Medibank culture is deeply purpose-driven and that comes to the fore in this kind of situation.
“When we encounter a major health crisis, such as COVID-19, the whole organisation feels prepared and able to respond quickly, to help deliver relevant support to our customers,” she said.
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, follow our regular updates via CMO Australia's Linkedin company page, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia.
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
