Courageous Communications - Case Study One - Strategic Planning and Programming - Medica, Minnesota’s second largest health plan, created its first dedicated corporate communications department.

Case Study One
The Whole is Greater than the Sum of Individual Business Units
Strategic Communications Planning and Programming

Situation
In 2000, Medica, Minnesota’s second largest health plan, created its first dedicated corporate communications department. Although an established company, providing Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid products to more than one million members and serving more than 10,000 employers, the health plan’s communication needs had previously been outsourced to the founding company, UnitedHealth, and by its parent company, Allina Health System [1], and outsourced to local PR agencies.

Obstacles
Business leaders and sales staff were thrilled to have their own communications staff focused specifically on the health plan. However, they were also accustomed to making due and creating their own communication materials without the constraints of corporate guidelines. The challenge in creating a strategic communications plan were in not only demonstrating the value of professional communications, but also to create a department with new processes and systems (from mail routing and invoicing to print production processes); keep up with a significant pent-up demand; and hire, staff and create a new department; and build consensus among independently operating business units to create one organizational brand with separate identities/families of products and services.

Actions
The solution was multifaceted, but focused on the three areas:
1. Build relationships with the individual business leaders
2. Build communications support into each of the three businesses, including a dedicated
2. communications plan for each area; Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid
3. Establish a corporate brand identity program that provided an umbrella for each of
3. the business units.

Results
1. Marketing and communication plans were developed and implemented for each business unit:
••••••••a. A new identity and branding strategy was launched through an integrated marketing
•••••••••••program for a $9 million community affairs program, which promoted wellness to the
•••••••••••Medicaid community. This resulted in an increased enrollment in prenatal and diabetes
•••••••••••self-care programs.

••••••••b. Exposure to the Medicaid audience was leveraged through an advertising campaign and
•••••••••••creation of new sales collateral materials to the Commercial market.

••••••••c. The Medicare market also leveraged the campaign through the introduction of a totally
•••••••••••new collateral package and the introduction of a new product. This resulted in regaining
•••••••••••market share after a four-year absence of any institutional presence in the community.

2. These results occurred in spite of a seven-month crisis with significant amounts of negative
2. publicity about the investigation by the Attorney General in the local media, and the eventual
2. separation of the health plan business from the Allina Hospitals & Clinics.

1 The parent company, Allina Health System, now know as Allina Hospitals and Clinics, is a nonprofit, integrated health care delivery system, which serves Minnesota and regions of Wisconsin, North and South Dakota and includes hospitals, clinics and primary care physicians.