WHCC 09 Interview with Ed Batchelor (Humana)

I had an opportunity to sit down with Ed Batchelor from Humana yesterday.  He has an interesting role driving the Stay Smart / Stay Healthy program for them as part of his Corporate Web Strategy role.  From what I could tell, it’s a program done for the greater good of educating consumers about key healthcare topics.  To accomplish that, Ed has a direct reporting relationship to the operating committee at Humana and was brought in from outside the industry.

Here is an example of one of the videos that they are pushing out on YouTube.  I really like the whiteboard communication approach.

Some of the big takeaways from my discussion were:

1. You have to meet the consumers where they are – Facebook, YouTube, Blogs.
2. If you create a neutral educational message, consumers will trust information (even from health plans).
3. You can only deliver information in “bits”.  Don’t overwhelm them.
4. Fun is good.
5. Regardless of what many (including myself) might think, seniors don’t all shy away from these social media.  [20% of the 1.1M views on YouTube have been from people over 55 years old]
6. Success on YouTube doesn’t translate to blogs.

One question that I had was how to get away from the “healthcare speak” so that consumers could actually understand it.  He talked about 3 things:

1. Bringing in an external person
2. Using focus groups
3. Using an outside agency

The other thing we talked about is that pull through that they are getting around employers and brokers.  They are pulling the videos in (like here) and re-using them.

This was a program they were highlighting in their booth and one of the public areas here so I appreciated the opportunity to sit down and learn more.