Managed Healthcare Executive - October 2008 - (Page 24)

{ HEALTH MANAGEMENT } Design communication with health literacy in mind Plain language and video technology help simplify medical, insurance terminology for those struggling BY ED RABINOWITZ Ed Rabinowitz is a freelance writer based in Bangor, Pa. 24 OCTOBER 2008 touch-point analysis found that the health plan overall communicated with members an average of 12 times a year. “That’s a lot of people trying to communicate a lot of di erent things to our members,” says Cocotas. “How can we make sure every one of those interactions is an e ective interaction?” A nity began developing a partnership with the Literacy Assistance Center of New York (LAC), the organization responsible for preparing all the English as a Second Language and adult literacy programs for the city. LAC built a curriculum so that sta could be trained on how to exchange e ective communication with members, in writing, on the telephone, or face to face. The organization also helped A nity sta recognize low health literacy and respond appropriately. An interactive health literacy software tool was put to use that links to other applications and contains a database of more than 10,000 medical words, disease names, and health plan and insurance vocabulary which has been simpli ed into plain English. RECENT STUDY BY THE University “Our regulatory requirement is that of Connecticut indicates that the cost of low we write between the fourth- and sixthhealth literacy to the U.S. economy is as high grade reading level, but in fact, some of as $238 billion annually. With 36% of the adult U.S. our materials were at a much higher level population having basic or less than basic health lit- than that,” says Cocotas. eracy levels, it’s imperative that plans and healthcare Members of A nity’s recently formed systems drive new e orts. Health Literacy Guiding Coalition quick“We’re not talking about a small issue here,” ex- ly recognized the tool’s potential impact plains Carolyn Cocotas, director of Community on all written materials, including scripts Health Innovation for A nity Health Plan. “It’s very used by the organization’s clinical outchallenging, and it’s tough to get it right.” reach sta . Two years ago, A nity Health Plan, a New York Group Health Cooperative, a nonCity-based insurer of underserved populations, began pro t healthcare system based in Sean organizationwide assessment of health literacy. A attle, is also embarking on a long jourContinued on page 27 Image Source/Getty Images A

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managed Healthcare Executive - October 2008

Managed Healthcare Executive - October 2008 For Your Benefit Editorial Advisors Contents News Analysis State Report Politics &�Policy Healthcare Reform Trends in 2009 Cost Control Strategies Predicted Premium Increase Top Challenges in 2009 IT System Integration Technology Innovation Disease Management Health Management Pharmacy Best Practices Technology Desktop Resource Ad/Edit Index Managed Care Outlook Statement of Ownership

Managed Healthcare Executive - October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.