The types of changes that health insurers implement to their public and member sites can shed light on their ongoing digital strategies. Some insurers focus on promoting new and existing resources, while others seek to improve their digital properties to enhance the customer experience. This January, Health Plan Monitor published a pace of change report evaluating the changes that 21 leading health insurance organziations made to their desktop sites from January 2024 to December 2024. The report tracked and examined the frequency at which insurers updated their public and member sites. In 2024, we observed 482 site changes. In this report we rated changes as high-, medium- and low-significance and sorted them into nine categories:
- Alerts, Education & Information
- Coverage & Account Details
- Design & Navigation
- Homepage & Dashboards
- Login & Security
- Plan Servicing
- Products, Services & Coverage
- Tools & Digital Resources
- Quote & Enrollment Tools
Below are brief previews of two key findings from the report:
High-significance changes accounted for a quarter of total website changes
High-significance changes include extensive site redesigns, new services or capabilities, and significant changes to tools and homepages that benefit members. Of the 482 changes from health insurance organizations in the pace of change report, less than half (43%) were low-significance, 32% were medium significance and the remaining 25% were high significance. All insurers—except Oscar—covered in this report introduced at least two high-significance changes in 2024.
- UnitedHealthcare made the most total changes (41), followed by BCBS of Illinois (38) and Aetna (37)
- Select Health has the highest ratio of medium- or high-significance changes (77%)
- BCBS of Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim and Kaiser Permanente introduced the most high-significance changes, with nine each
Member site changes carried higher significance than public site changes
Insurers introduced 204 changes across their member sites, accounting for 42% of total site changes in 2024. While fewer changes occurred on the member sites, firms introduced higher-significance member site changes than public site changes. Many (62%) member site changes were of medium or high significance, compared to 52% on the public sites.
- Aetna, BCBS of Massachusetts and Horizon Blue introduced the greatest number of high-significance member site changes with five each.
- Cigna had the highest percentage of medium- or high-significance member site changes at 78%. Some of these changes include:
- Updated its public site aesthetic as part of an ongoing rebrand
- Added member site Contact Us page
- Introduced member site claim filters
Member Site Contact Us Page (Truncated)
Member Site Claim Page Medical Claim Status Filter
For more insights into digital innovation in the healthcare space, check out our research services and download a sample report from four key areas—Health Plan, Medicare, Health System and Pharmacy. And don’t forget to check out our Insights section for more industry trends and best practices in the healthcare and financial services space.
Blake Floyd
Blake Floyd is an Analyst on CI's healthcare team.