Stop Throwing Facts at Patients: VAL Health Shares the Power of Strategic Nudges

Every healthcare organization says they want to change patient behavior, but flooding people with more texts and emails is not effective. Driving true engagement takes an understanding of behavioral economics. Karen Sussman Horgan, CEO and Co-founder of VAL Health, recently sat down with Swaay.Health to discuss how applying boutique behavioral science helps health systems and payers double screening rates by leaning into the irrational nature of human behavior.

Core Insight: Healthcare consumers don’t need more facts; they need strategic nudges that overcome innate human inertia and present bias to inspire healthier choices.

Healthcare organizations often assume patients will act purely on logic, but simply providing clinical facts isn’t enough to overcome our natural biases. Instead of fighting human nature, VAL Health harnesses it to drive better outcomes.

“Behavioral science recognizes that as a human, you’re irrational,” shared Horgan. “Healthcare systems are really good at just giving you facts, but it’s so easy to push that off to the future. It’s hard for people to anticipate the future. What we do instead, is bring the impact back to the present.”

“At Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, we achieved a 15% reduction in no-show,” said Horgan. “We did that by bringing in social proof. We told them, nine out of 10 people show up for their appointments.”

That minor tweak to the language of the reminder yielded the significant increase in patients showing up on time for their appointments.

How can we integrate behavioral science into our existing AI and marketing automation tools? Marketing leaders should evaluate their current AI investments to ensure they are not simply increasing the frequency of generic communications. Instead of just sending more automated reminders, teams need to weave principles like social proof, loss aversion, and exclusivity into their AI-generated messaging. This approach ensures the technology actually nudges patients toward healthier decisions rather than just bombarding them with easily ignored facts.

Are we measuring the right engagement metrics to identify where behavioral nudges are needed? If digital marketing campaigns and patient portals have hit a plateau in conversion rates, it is time to look beyond standard open and click-through metrics. Marketing and patient experience executives should audit their communication touchpoints to identify where patients are stalling due to friction or choice overload. By pinpointing these drop-off areas, teams can strategically deploy low-cost behavioral interventions, like simplifying choices or reframing the call to action, to reignite engagement without needing a massive budget increase.

Learn more about VAL Health at https://valhealth.com/