Health Insurance Sector Fails Web Site Evaluation

According to ForeSee's fourth annual health care benchmark study, health insurance companies, as a whole, provide the least satisfactory web sites in the health industry.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based ForeSee is a customer experience analytics firm that assesses web presences of various sectors, with over 80 benchmarks used to track and measure performance relative to a particular industry.

Health insurance companies received an aggregate satisfaction score of 51 on a 100-point scale, placing the industry far behind other health care categories measured in the same benchmark. These include health information Web sites (78) and hospital and health system sites (78). Only Web sites for cable companies, telephone utilities and cell phone companies have received aggregate scores lower than health insurance companies.

Many individual health insurance Web sites score in the 70s, a respectable score that shines in comparison with this industry's average; the lower-scoring Web sites, which bottom out at 30, bring the aggregate score down. The measured health insurance web sites range from 30 to 79, a 49-point gap that indicates an industry without a clear set of online best practices.

When compared to less satisfied visitors, highly satisfied visitors to a health care Web sites report being:

• 139 percent more likely to return to a Web site;

• 149 percent more likely to recommend a Web site; and

• 127 percent more likely to use the Web site as their primary resource for interacting with a healthcare organization (as opposed to call centers or office locations).

The report is available here. Registration is required.

This story originally appeared in Insurance Networking News, a SourceMedia publication.