We know the motivation of those who are using every dirty
trick in the book in a futile attempt to undo the ACA. This week they're busy highlighting the glitches in the
federal HealtCare.gov portal (many of
which arise when an older, underfunded IT platform is asked to do extreme heavy
lifting to accommodate thousands of people each day who are enthusiastically
trying to get affordable health insurance).
But I'm not going
there.
There's another group of "critics" that shouldn't get lumped in with the bad guys.
People like me and my colleagues. We're trying to figure out how to critique elements of enrollment based on our research with health consumers.
We believe in the ACA and the powerful change that can come when more
people in the US have access to affordable health care. We see things that can be done to improve consumer engagement and decision-making. BUT we run the risk of being caste as "friendly fire" - good motivations, but deadly just the same.
Based on years of research with patients/consumers, studying how they take
in and understand information - countless patient participants in the lab
telling us, showing us, what they do and don’t understand, and even being
gracious enough to tell us how to do our job better - we’re bringing that
empirical knowledge to our assessment of current open enrollment practices.
And so we’re commenting on the literacy, health literacy and
financial literacy demands (load) of what we see. Karen Palladino's story today in US News and World Report, “When Buying Insurance on the Exchanges, It Helps to Have Help” reports on some of the areas where
we know consumers have historically had difficulties in understanding and
making good choices.
• understanding
health insurance terms – network, co-pay, generic…
• understanding
insurance concepts – deductibles, out of pocket limits…
• health
literacy skills – specifically numeracy – working with numbers
• health
literacy concept – recognizing the connection between you/your family's health
needs and the plan you choose…
We are spot on.
It’s smug and I hate when I find myself saying this to my bright student, but we have years of experience dissecting information and watching people trying to work with this information. Some of us predicted and now are seeing some problems here in River City. But they're fixable problems.
We are spot on.
It’s smug and I hate when I find myself saying this to my bright student, but we have years of experience dissecting information and watching people trying to work with this information. Some of us predicted and now are seeing some problems here in River City. But they're fixable problems.
We want to point out the needed repairs because we live in a world we're “review and repair” happens every day, and all to the good.
No successful software or app today is designed without this
imperative. And the tools that win are
the product of user centered design.
That’s how your bank’s ATM and your favorite Apps, Facebook, Google Maps and Yelp all
made it to the big time.
It takes careful analysis, time and money and input from
experts.
So now, anyone have ideas on how to get our best information
on users, health choices and health insurance to the toolmakers?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete