Many consumers are unfamiliar with health insurance terminology and can become overwhelmed by the complexity of benefits and costs in a typical health insurance plan. Uncertain, confused, and anxious to make the “right” decision, consumers often settle for plans with the lowest premium even though this may not be the best decision for themselves or their families. Navigators and brokers provide an excellent resource, but technology also plays a critical role in the decision-making process.
Our state-based exchange (SBE) solutions are designed with the consumer front of mind. Minimizing consumer confusion and holding their hand along the way increases consumer satisfaction and leads to higher enrollment. Our plan comparison and decision support tool design encourage consumers to take a holistic view of each plan’s cost and benefits structure and make optimal decisions based on their unique health situation and needs.
Plan comparison and decision support functionality are the backbone of GetInsured platform’s plan shopping experience. Unlike other SBE technology platforms that utilize a third-party decision support product, our platform comes out of the box with comprehensive functionality to allow consumers to calculate expected out-of-pocket costs based on their projected health care needs as well as fully integrated provider search and formulary lookup capabilities.
In technology platforms using a third-party decision support tool, consumers are redirected to a new browser window to compare and choose plans and are then routed back to the main exchange site to complete enrollment. If a consumer gets distracted and is logged out due to security reasons, they must restart the entire shopping experience when they log back in. While the functionality of the third-party system may be adequate, the user experience presents a risk to the Exchange that consumers will drop out and not complete the enrollment process. In states operating exchanges on our platform, if a consumer needs to step away in the middle of comparing plans, when they log back into their account through the consumer portal they will resume right where they last ended their session, as our system saves all data immediately.
Consumers typically have two important concerns when shopping for health insurance: “What kind of health coverage is available to me, and what will it cost?” Understanding terminology is a critical part of ensuring that a consumer selects the most fitting plan. Tool tips, available in English and Spanish, are provided as hover-over text throughout the user journey and help educate consumers regarding complex terms.
Based on over a decade of user testing, consumer assistance center experience, interaction with consumers through our online service portals, and feedback from our SBE customers, our tools are carefully designed and continuously improved to help consumers cut through the complexity of unfamiliar terms and concepts and comfortably shop for insurance. Our design processes and principles are tailored to understand how well people understand health plans and how they make choice decisions, and we continuously make changes to improve these choices.
