Health Insurance Sector Fails Website Evaluation

Study finds that only websites for cable companies, telephone utilities and cell phone companies have received lower customer satisfaction scores than health insurance companies.

Insurance Networking News, November 3, 2011

Justin Stephani

According to ForeSee’s fourth annual health care benchmark study, health insurance companies, as a whole, provide the least satisfactory websites in the health 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—including health information websites (78) and hospital and health system websites (78). Only websites for cable companies, telephone utilities and cell phone companies have received aggregate scores lower than health insurance companies.

Many individual health insurance websites score in the 70s, a respectable score that shines in comparison with this industry's average; the lower-scoring websites, which bottom out at 30, bring the aggregate score down. The measured health insurance websites 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 websites report being:

• 139 percent more likely to return to a website

• 149 percent more likely to recommend the website

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

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.

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