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Aetna launches digital onboarding to boost member experience

Aetna's investment in digital onboarding is indicative of a growing payer trend toward enhanced digital member experiences.

Sara Heath
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Published: 10 Feb 2026

Aetna is joining the long list of payers investing more in digital member engagement, announcing last week a new digital onboarding tool designed to make it easier for members to access the information and resources they need at the start of a new plan year.

The tool will leverage Rich Communication Services (RCS) text messages, as opposed to the Short Message Service (SMS) text messages most digital marketing systems typically use.

"Annual benefits onboarding is an important and personal time for our members and their families. It's often the first experience with Aetna and we want to support them with the information they need at the right time and in the right channel," Nathan Frank, senior vice president and chief digital and technology officer at Aetna, said in the announcement.

The payer, which is owned by CVS Health, also said it would scale the RCS message member engagement platform to certain members throughout the remainder of the plan year to complete actions beyond onboarding.

Leveraging RCS text messages, as opposed to SMS, is a key step forward, Aetna indicated.

RCS text messaging uses Wi-Fi or data to send messages, meaning they can contain more high-resolution media and facilitate a richer member experience. According to Aetna, RCS text messages offer a more simplified member experience by letting users navigate what they need within a single text chain, compared to having to click through and download certain assets via an SMS message.

Aetna said this could lead to an 80% overall increase in member engagement and 26% reduction in opt-out rates for RCS member engagement assets.

According to Frank, Aetna is planning more for 2026.

"Aetna's industry-leading, digital onboarding is one of many innovations that we are implementing this year," he noted. "I'm excited to see our technology enabled solutions make health care easier to navigate."

For example, the payer plans on enhancing its existing Aetna Clinical Collaboration tool with RCS functionality. The collaboration tool was launched last year to help members with hospital discharge and care coordination.

In addition, Aetna will integrate RCS functionality to Care Paths, its digital care option made available in the Aetna Health app. The tool helps members manage their chronic conditions.

Health plans focus on digital member engagement

Aetna is another in a long line of healthcare payers turning their investments to digital member engagement.

Earlier this month, Humana announced a partnership with Google Cloud to integrate Google Cloud's software into the payer's Agent Assist. Agent Assist is a form of agentic AI built to help Humana's member advocates answer members' questions.

"We are always looking for new ways to enhance the member experience by making those interactions more personalized, accurate and faster," Japan Mehta, chief information officer at Humana, said in the announcement. "Agent Assist puts responsible innovation directly into the hands of our advocates, helping them to focus on what matters most -- helping our members."

Other payers have jumped in, too.

In June 2025, Cigna announced it was integrating six new AI features into its member portal. Then, in August, Blue Shield of California said it was adding drug price transparency to its member app.

Investments into the digital member experience could be indicative of burgeoning capabilities enabled by AI. With more sophisticated forms of AI becoming commonplace, payers might be leveraging the tool to enhance the systems they already have.

But there's likely a deeper trend at play: health players typically underperform in digital member experiences.

In an April 2025 J.D. Power survey, researchers found that health plans are lagging in their digital member experiences. Even when payers have member engagement technologies, the tools don't work well, and members are reticent to use them.

With premium costs spiking and member trust on the line, payers might be focusing their efforts on the member experience to boost overall plan satisfaction. In doing so, payers can build a product that consumers are more willing to spend money on.

But it remains to be seen how good a member experience tool needs to be to harbor enough goodwill to help consumers forget the astronomical price tag attached to their plans.

Sara Heath has reported news related to patient engagement and health equity since 2015.

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