Benefits Business

Creating savvy customers

New tools help producers and employers introduce health and health care education directly to employees

By Len Strazewski

Do you understand how health insurance has evolved to fund health care expenses? Do you know how the U.S. health care system works and how health claims are processed by health plans?

Of course you do. Agents and brokers who specialize in employee benefits have expertise in the complex and sometimes baffling health care provider systems and health plan claims processes.

But their employee benefits clients and their employees probably don’t. And even though they are being progressively more challenged to navigate those systems, they may never learn enough to be successful in managing their high-deductible insurance policies, health savings accounts and health reimbursement accounts—unless health plans, producers and employers who pay for health benefits introduce health and health care education directly to employees.

Cigna University, the education division of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based health insurer, is introducing a new series of interactive health education programs that is available online through the company’s new education Web site, http://www.itstimetofeelbetter.com, and other popular high-tech communication systems, including the social network sites, Facebook and MySpace as well as direct download from music distributor iTunes.

The program is designed to appeal directly to a younger generation of health care consumers and interactive technology users. Users choose an “avatar,” a male or female figure to guide them through a learning narrative set in a museum, a neighborhood and a theater among other online locations.

The narratives combine music, text animation and other devices to communicate three formal learning sessions:

• “Back to Basics,” an overview of the history of health insurance and how the health care system works today—featuring a rap song that explains the claims process

• “What’s Your Plan?” an interactive comparison of health plan designs that explains how each works and how to choose the type of plan that works best for an individual employee and family

• “Take Action Now,” a non-partisan look at Democratic and Republican health care proposals, including a virtual town hall meeting

One highlight of the education series, released in October, is an interactive game, “Why Water?” Supported by Cigna’s partnership with Water for People, an international charity, “Why Water?” encourages users to learn about health by winning charitable donations from Cigna. For every three questions a user answers correctly, Cigna donates clean water for a day to a student at one of five schools in India.

Karen Kocher, Cigna chief learning officer, says the program is being promoted to health plan sponsors and through employee benefits producers as a supplement to the insurer’s and each employer’s own wellness and health education efforts.

The health education programs are also good components of employee benefits communications programs, Kocher says, and they directly support consumer directed health plans.

“We paid a lot of attention to multi-generational learning styles in making the series creative, interactive and available on multiple platforms that can appeal to the widest possible range of users,” she says.

Cigna’s health education program and efforts by other insurers, health plans and wellness program providers come at a time when employers are beginning to recognize the importance of employee benefit communication and health- and fitness-related education—even if they haven’t exactly started to offer them—and when employees are under financial pressure to make better decisions.

The latest research indicates that employers recognize that health education programs are likely to be important even if their employees don’t share that position. According to recent research from Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire, Illinois, more than 60% of employees do not make an active choice of health plans—choosing to stay in the same plan they elected in previous years.

“Health care costs are a significant expense for many Americans, and with the high price of gasoline, the mortgage crisis and the sluggish economy already pressing heavily on employees’ pocketbooks, finding ways to better manage these costs becomes even more critical,” says Sara Taylor, annual enrollment leader at Hewitt.

“What’s surprising is that most workers don’t take the time to be savvy health care consumers. They default into their existing plans, opt for the cheapest plan, thinking they will save money in the long run, or select the richest plan to minimize their out-of-pocket costs.”

Employers, however, are making some strides in providing some education tools and incentives for employees, she says. About 90% of employers in the Hewitt survey database offer health care cost estimators—tools for making health care decisions—and more than 60% provide incentives for employees to be involved in health risk assessments, wellness or fitness programs.

Nine out of 10 employers also think that it is important for their employees to understand and appreciate their benefits, according to a survey conducted by Colonial Life & Accident Company in Columbia, South Carolina, a division of Unum Group.

The insurer surveyed more than 650 human resource managers and employee benefits administrators at the 2008 Society of Human Resource Management National Conference in June. Employers were asked about their employee benefits programs and their employees’ relative understanding of the nature and value of their benefits.

More than 90% of respondents said employee comprehension and appreciation of benefits was important to their business. About 21% of respondents think that their employees have a good understanding of their benefits and about 5% said that they think employees know nothing at all about their benefits.

“These findings are critical for all employers, but we aren’t surprised,” says Tom Gilligan, senior vice president of Colonial Life. “Employers that have implemented a benefits communication plan have been telling us for years how important that has been for the bottom line.

“Employees who have been properly educated about their benefits tend to stay on the job longer than those who don’t understand their benefits,” he says.

The insurers also asked employers about the methods they use to communicate with employees.

About 90% of employers said having one-to-one meetings with employees significantly improves their employees’ understanding of their benefits, but only 58% hold such meetings. About 80% use group meetings and about 44% have employees learn about and enroll for benefits using Internet-based transactions. About 40% of employers require employees to self-enroll online.

Employers are also stepping up health and fitness services for employees, wellness program providers say. For example, HealthFitness, a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based health management company that manages fitness centers for employers, has added 10 new centers since last September and expanded services to several others. The company employs about 3,000 fitness professionals nationwide.

Among the new locations are a 5,000 square foot fitness center at the Littleton, Colorado, plant of Lockheed-Martin Corp., a 30,000 square foot center at the Kimberly-Clark Co. plant in Neenah, Wisconsin, and an 8,500 square foot facility for HealthNow, a diversified health and information technology company in Buffalo, New York.

“Our clients view investing in their workforce as an important strategic action to enhance their corporate competitiveness,” says Gregg O. Lehman, president and chief executive officer of HealthFitness. “By providing easy access to on-site fitness centers and health improvement programs, including a fitness component, employers empower employees to maintain their health and reduce health risks and absenteeism—which can significantly reduce structural costs.”

The author
Len Strazewski has been covering employee benefits issues for more than 20 years and is employee benefits editor of Human Resource Executive magazine. He has an M.A. in Industrial Relations from Loyola University.