Healthcare engagement is a paradox. Health plans spend billions of dollars each year on marketing, technology, and outreach. Yet, members still feel like their plan doesn’t understand them.
A common refrain that is often repeated from members alike is: “Why does my health plan speak to me like a stranger?”
Healthcare has long approached consumer engagement as a broadcast medium. What does this mean? Health plans use mass mailers, generic portals and impersonal call center scripts to communicate relevant healthcare information that they expect plan members to act upon. Most of these go ignored by consumers.
This is 2025. If we can do this for streaming movie services and the buying experience at retailers with the use of AI, we should be able to also make this happen for patients with their healthcare.
According to PwC’s 2024 US Healthcare Consumer Insights & Engagement Survey, consumers now expect and are willing to pay for personalized care and support – ranging from priority clinician access, to tailored wellness services like personalized nutrition and workout plans.
AI is a powerful tool on this path forward. But obsolete persistent beliefs, many from the last two decades, are holding people back. Let’s consider the five most common myths, and the realities that are proving them wrong.
Myth 1: “Our members won’t engage with us.”
Reality: Members absolutely will engage — when the outreach is relevant to them.
When members receive personalized support — whether reminders to refill prescriptions, encouragement to enroll in a diabetes program, or nudges to schedule preventive screenings – they respond. According to a 2023 industry summary of digital and AI-driven care engagement, “patients using AI-enabled reminders are 20–25% more likely to adhere to their prescribed care plans” compared to standard outreach or no reminders. Clearly, engagement isn’t the problem. Relevance is.
Myth 2: “Our data is too siloed and messy to use AI right now
Reality: This new AI can unify complex, disparate data in ways legacy systems never could.
Health plans sit on a goldmine of data – from claims, diagnostics, demographics, marketing interactions, app usage, and more. Historically, making sense of it required years of data engineering projects. Today, AI-powered health data engines can unify 100 million+ member data points across these silos in weeks, not years. Data complexity is no longer a roadblock thanks to AI.
Myth 3: “It will take us years and cost tens of millions of dollars.”
Reality: AI-driven engagement can go live in weeks and cost far less than the status quo.
Many people still believe that implementing AI takes a long time. That is outdated and legacy thinking. The assumption that AI requires multi-year, multimillion-dollar investments is no longer true. Most plans can move from contract to live deployment in six weeks. At the same time, intelligent personalization reduces overhead too. Personalized AI-driven interventions have been reported to increase medication adherence by up to 30%, improving health outcomes and reducing costs
Myth 4: “We will need to allocate dozens of people across multiple teams to make this work.”
Reality: AI campaigns free up human teams, rather than overwhelm them.
Traditional engagement requires manual workflows such as pulling lists, coding campaigns and chasing approvals. AI changes that. Campaigns can be set up,optimized and scaled with a fraction of the staff, allowing internal teams to focus on strategy and innovation.
Myth 5: “Members only contact us to complain about costs.”
Reality: Members want guidance, not just grievance channels.
Yes, cost concerns are real, but members also want help navigating their care journey. AI-powered voice agents are proving to be especially effective in things like reminding members to refill prescriptions, guiding them through Medicare onboarding, and even encouraging preventive care.
Breaking the Cycle
The myths that hold back healthcare engagement are grounded in yesterday’s thinking. In the past, data silos were immovable, campaigns took years to launch, and outreach felt generic. AI changes the game.
Healthcare can deliver the right message, to the right member, at the right time. That’s the promise of AI-driven personalization.
And it is happening now, in weeks, not years. Organizations and payors really have no option now. They must find a way to implement AI into their operations in order to drive preventative behaviors, close gaps in care and help programs like Medicare and Medicaid work efficiently.
Ultimately, this is about better care and better clinical outcomes– making healthcare feel human again.
Anmol Madan
Anmol Madan is founder and CEO of RadiantGraph.
