Employees with low health insurance literacy frequently utilize more health care services.[1] Often, they do not understand how to choose the appropriate healthcare services and may select an insurance plan that is not right for them. This lack of knowledge not only impacts their lives, it can also impact your bottom line.
Health insurance literacy is the “the degree to which individuals have the knowledge, ability, and confidence to find and evaluate information about health plans, select the best plan for their own (or their family’s) financial and health circumstances, and use the plan once enrolled”.[2] According to a 2017 Survey, United Healthcare discovered that only 9% of the US population showed an understanding of all the following basic health insurance terms such as:
If your employees are not well-versed in health insurance literacy, they may be less efficient when it comes to utilizing their plans effectively. They may:
All these scenarios create higher costs for both themselves and you, their employer.
It’s important that employees feel confident in their skills and knowledge when it comes to health insurance literacy. According to a report from the Health Insurance Literacy Expert Roundtable, a person with a high level of health insurance literacy would be able to:
Fortunately, employers are in a great position to help strengthen their employee’s health insurance literacy. When you provide assistance, it can increase their knowledge and confidence when using their plans correctly.
Consider the following tactics:
When you empower your employees to make good decisions, they not only gain confidence in their choices, they can make decisions that will ultimately impact your bottom line by reducing overall expenses and improving their health.
[1] https://nnlm.gov/initiatives/topics/health-literacy
[2] https://consumersunion.org/pub/Health_Insurance_Literacy_Roundtable_rpt.pdf