Humana Insurance Hispanic Market - Essay Example

Humana Insurance Hispanic Market Humana Inc. is the nation’s largest publicly traded health and supplemental benefits companies, which markets as well as administers various health insurance plans. (“Humana Expands Web Site”, 2008). It markets its services throughout United States, plus Puerto Rico and also across international borders in Western Europe and Asia, thereby having or catering to around 11.5 million medical members. Those 11.5 million members come from various backgrounds because “Humana is a full-service benefits solutions company, offering a wide array of health and supplementary benefit plans for employer groups, government programs and individuals.” (“Humana Expands Web Site”, 2008). Speaking of various backgrounds, Humana is also servicing the individuals or customers from varied ethnic backgrounds including the Hispanics. With Hispanics constituting a sizable portion of the population in US, organizations operating in various sectors including the ones in the Insurance sector like Humana are giving extra focus to this section of the population. Although, Humana is carrying out customer friendly strategies in regards to Hispanics, specifically the strategy of localization or customization, when viewed in an overall manner, it is not doing it effectively, and so if it can optimize or improve that strategy, it can give Humana the competitive advantage in relation to the Hispanics Market. According to US Census Bureau, more than 50 million Hispanics currently live in the United States, comprising about 17 percent of the total U.S. population. (Black, 2013). Although, Hispanics are a varied ethnic population, differing in the aspects of country of origin, race, etc., they speak the common language of Spanish. Their population is on the rise and that is making impacts on the health sector as well. “They are the fastest growing racial or ethnic population in the United States today and are expected to comprise approximately 30 percent of the total US population by 2050.” (Black, 2013). Despite witnessing fast growing rates, the Hispanics continue to face discrepancies regarding health coverage as well as care, thereby making them “the highest uninsured rate among racial/ethnic groups, with nearly one in three lacking coverage” (Black, 2013). These facts about the Hispanics, apart from reflecting how they are not completely covered under insurance, also brings out the key point of how they are a strong prospective customer base for the insurance companies including Humana. In that direction, Humana has formulated and implemented many Hispanics friendly or localization strategy, but still there is room for further improvement. As stated by Phyllis Anderson, vice president of Humana’s marketing arm, “Humana has had the Hispanic segment on our radar for years and discovered some interesting trends with needs, preferences and other traits that make this market unique.” (“Humana Expands Web Site”, 2008). By finding out through extensive research and surveys that prospective Hispanics customers like to access information about insurance products and services mainly through the web instead of other media sources, Humana launched Spanish version of is official website. “Humana.com en Español engages Spanish-language consumers with actionable information, tools and support to make informed decisions when choosing and financing health care benefits.” (“Humana Expands Web Site”, 2008). Along with this strategy, Humana has come up with various steps specifically to cater to the Hispanic market. On those lines, Humana has established an Interactive Voice Response Systems (IVRS) consisting of pre-recorded responses in Spanish, through which Hispanics can choose options and hear details about products and services. Although, the IVRS has an option to directly talk with Humana’s customer service representative and there is an option of Personal nurse, still face-to-face interaction and the resultant customer service for all the prospective Hispanic customers is missing. That is, talking with the customer service representative through the phone, even if it is Spanish, may not be that effective compared to face-to-face interaction, as the representative may not be able to judge the “scenarios” of the prospective customer, and accordingly orient the conversation. As far as Personal Nurse concept is concerned, although it involves face-to-face interaction, it is available only to the members and not to all the prospective customers. Thus, these strategies cannot be termed effective because both these strategies did not involve personal interaction and is also devoid of personal touch. Although, Humana have agents and brokers, who can personally market and sell the products or services, the number of agents or brokers catering to the Hispanic segment is minimal. Thus, the change management strategy for Humana, as part of localizing or customization strategy for the Hispanics, could be increasing the number of agents or brokers to specifically cater to the Hispanics. This strategy is particularly applicable to the Hispanics because Hispanics in many states are considered to be among the most elusive for the insurers, and so “a deeper personal touch and targeted and consistent grass-roots outreach is required to better engage them” (Abelson & Thomas, 2014). To provide that personal touch, personal interaction with the customers will be main strategy and for that Humana has to allocate more agents or brokers with bilingual skills to cater to the Hispanics. “Agents who place a priority on honing basic Spanish language skills will be better prepared to reach out to Hispanic customers and effectively communicate life insurance benefits.” (Harmeling, 2013). Not just the language, those agents or brokers need to have good understanding of the Hispanic culture, so they can think and offer products or services, which would be apt for Hispanics’ way of living, family structure, etc. As this strategy could provide the Hispanic customers an easy, friendly and importantly personal purchasing experience, it can give Humana the competitive advantage especially over its competitors. With its competitors like Medicare Advantage and CAC already providing these types of personalized service to their customers, if Humana incorporates this strategy, it can further elevate its position. That is, Humana already has strong edge over its competitors, due to its strong stranding, quality products as well as success over the years, and with this strategy of personalized customer service, it can optimize its strengths and thereby leapfrog over its competitors particularly in the Hispanic market. References Abelson, R & Thomas, K. (2014, Mar 24). Insurers Push to Enroll People as Health Care Deadline Nears. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/business/deadline-nearing-health-insurers-make-a-final-push-to-sign-people-up.html Black, N. (2013, April). Health Coverage for the Hispanic Population Today and Under the Affordable Care Act. Retrieved from: http://kaiserfamilyfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/84321.pdf Harmeling, J. T. (2013, Feb 5). The Hispanic market: A Huge (and Growing) Opportunity. Retrieved from: http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2013/02/05/the-hispanic-market-a-huge-and-growing-opportunity “Humana Expands Web Site For Spanish-Language Customers.” (2008). Humana. Retrieved from: http://press.humana.com/press-release/current-releases/humana-expands-web-site-spanish-language-customers Read More