Acquisition mail for Medicare increased for the October 2009 to March 2010 period by about 24 percent over the same period a year ago. Medicare mail has been the largest driver in a steady increase in health insurance mail that has grown at an average annual rate of 5 percent each quarter since second quarter of 2007.

Estimated mail volume

Two companies that continue to lead the list of largest mailers are Humana and UnitedHealthcare. These two companies accounted for almost 50 percent of the mail sent out for this year’s enrollment period. Humana was the leader with 26 percent of the mail, which was a 12 percent increase over 2009. Close behind, UnitedHealthcare increased its mail by a remarkable 42 percent over 2009, contributing almost 21 percent to this year’s total.

Kaiser Permanente came in a distant third with 4 percent of the total mail sent out for 2010 enrollment. There were several other companies close to Kaiser Permanente in this ranking, but Kaiser Permanente is significant in that it increased its mail volume by 87 percent over last year.

Innovative mail campaigns

Humana’s largest campaign was a letter with a flyer and a brochure. The white envelope features a yellow post-it with a checklist—Service, Savings, Valuable Extras—and a prompt to “Look inside!” The letter goes into detail on how Humana satisfies these needs and that the reader will get more information when they call for the Humana booklet. The flyer is interesting with one side for those that have an existing Medicare supplement plan and the other side is for those that do not.

One of AARP and UnitedHealthcare’s largest campaigns was a multifold one piece with the recognizable red wave. The headline on this piece asks the reader if they are “Expecting changes in [their] health insurance benefits in 2010?” Inside the AARP name is prominent in many of the callouts and bolded statements.

Kaiser Permanente sent a picturesque one piece mailer for one of its largest campaigns. With half of the printable area taken up by three pictures, the text presented uses bullet points and plenty of white space. This campaign really stands out from most of the mail that is sent into the Medicare market space by the simplicity of text presented.

It will be hard to tell in which direction health insurers may modify their Medicare mail strategies for next year. Will healthcare reform prompt them to increase mail volume to explain changes to their products? Or, will they continue to pursue the strategy of the past several years that increases mail volumes in an effort to increase market share?

It is certain that the replacement of the Optional Enrollment Period with the Annual Disenrollment Period is going to have an impact on the amount of mail and type that is sent out at the start of next year.

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