Rethinking Member Connections in a Digital-First World

A Survey Report on Evolving Member Expectations in Health Plan Engagement

Are your digital tools driving meaningful member engagement—or just checking a box?

In a fast-evolving digital healthcare landscape, payers are investing heavily in digital platforms to boost engagement with members—but are these tools truly connecting in ways that matter?

Emids surveyed 789 health insurance members across Employer-Provided Plans (EPP), Direct Purchase Plans (DPP), and Medicare Advantage Plans (MAP) to uncover insights that can help payers improve digital experiences, close care gaps, and boost long-term engagement.

What’s Inside the Report

This report is a must-read for payers seeking to understand and improve member engagement in digital health environments.

The most and least used digital features by health plan members
Key barriers to adoption and opportunities to close the care gap
Member preferences a cross different plan types
How health prioritization and chronic conditions influence ongoing member engagement
Segment-specific insights across Employer-Provided, Medicare Advantage, and Direct Purchase plans
Practical strategies for Payers to optimize and build more personalized, accessible digital experiences

Why This Matters

Health plans that align digital investments with member expectations see stronger engagement, better outcomes, and lower costs. This report helps you:

Identify what your members value most
Rethink how you deliver wellness and support digitally
Build a data-driven engagement roadmap across populations

About the Authors

Lorraine Chapman

VP of UX Consulting, Emids

Lorraine is the VP of UX Consulting at Emids and has been practicing in the field of User Experience for 20+ years. As part of her role, she provides strategic UX and business direction to digital and connected health companies and providers across the United States and Canada. The result of Lorraine’s commitment to solving customer problems is a unique ability to harmonize technology with the needs of people who use it. Lorraine’s goal is to make interactions with healthcare (services and technology) easier, satisfying and meaningful for all stakeholders involved – including patients.

Highly engaged in the healthcare industry, Lorraine has authored and contributed to countless articles, white papers, and events on the topics of user experience in healthcare, and in 2014 was appointed to a two-year term as chair of the HIMSS HIT User Experience Committee. As if she weren’t busy enough, this supermom regularly gets up at 5:30 am, does workouts that most of us would associate with Navy Seals, and runs half-marathons when she doesn’t find this tiring enough.

Akash Radia

User Experience Researcher

Lanre Jerry-Ijishakin

User Experience Researcher

Solving complex problems is challenging and fulfilling – this is why I am devoted to solving complex problems because it keeps me motivated. I enjoy opportunities to apply human-centered approaches to improving systems and designing for all.

As a user experience researcher, I work with organizations to discover their target users’ latent needs and potential opportunities to achieve successful product adoption and users’ satisfaction. I am a proud member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) and engage teams to carefully consider accessibility in product or service design.