Limited health literacy is a costly issue for the healthcare system, leading to unnecessary morbidity and mortality. Enhancing health literacy could prevent nearly 1 million hospital visits annually and save over $25 billion each year, according to the CDC.
But what exactly does health literacy mean? According to the CDC, health literacy is “the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions.” By improving health literacy, we can empower individuals to make informed health decisions, ultimately saving lives and reducing healthcare costs.
This goal aligns perfectly with what Human Resources and benefits professionals have been striving to achieve for years: transforming employees into savvy healthcare consumers. For employees to excel in this role, they must first understand the full scope of the healthcare landscape. They need to master the critical definitions within our complex healthcare system and, more importantly, learn how to apply this knowledge effectively.
Effective Communication Is Key to Health Literacy
Achieving health literacy is a gradual process, not an overnight transformation. Relying solely on annual open enrollment communications won’t suffice for employees to grasp everything they need to know. So, what can you do?
A great place to start is by identifying where employees are struggling, using your claims data, the questions your department receives, and calls to carriers. Regardless of your starting point, it’s essential to develop a year-round communications plan. This plan should not only cover relevant topics, but also commit to using plain language and leverage the most effective channels to distribute information. Work with your benefits consultant and carrier—they likely have resources and content in various formats to help you with your health literacy goals.
Employee communications should be written at a 6th to 8th grade level.
Healthcare Literacy in Practice: 5 Examples for Educating Employees
When employees increase their literacy around healthcare, it’s a win-win situation for both the employee and the company. If you don’t know where to start, here are some example scenarios where helping employees with health literacy can help them apply their knowledge in real-world situations.
- Highlight the importance of preventive care through monthly newsletters or intranet articles. By featuring key aspects of prevention, it reminds employees about essential exams, screenings, and immunizations. For instance, an October article on mammograms can help female employees understand their importance and encourage them to schedule an appointment. Once they have started the process of getting a mammogram, they will get yearly reminders from their clinic. Talk to your benefits consultant and carrier about what resources they have to support this education.
- Teach employees how using in-network providers can save them money by using an infographic to compare the cost of using in-network versus out-of-network providers. Showing examples with dollar figures can help employees understand the true benefit of seeing negotiated providers. It can get them to start thinking about how that cost would affect their pocket.
- If you have employees willing to share, ask them to provide a video testimonial on how, for example, they were hesitant to move from a PPO to a CDHP but ended up saving money on premiums and contributing to a health savings account (HSA). Hearing the thought process of non-benefits people can resonate better with employees and make them less averse to change. It can change their mindset from being hesitant to “if they did it, so can I.”
- Highlight the cost differences between pharmacies, even within the same network, and how to perform price checks. Educating employees about prescription drug pricing variances can encourage them to consider whether they are using a pharmacy that is more convenient location-wise versus one that charges less. During a doctor’s visit, if they get prescribed a new medication, they can pull up their medical provider’s mobile app to run a cost comparison of pharmacies before the office faxes over the script.
- Compare the various care options available—telemedicine, urgent care, primary doctor, and emergency room (ER)—in an engaging, creative way. One example might be a visual comparison of costs for the same service at each of the care options. By helping employees understand that many non-emergent illnesses can be effectively treated outside of the ER, you increase the chances they will choose more appropriate and cost-effective care options.
Become a Trusted Source of Information
When you put in the effort to provide employees with education to build their health literacy, you become their trusted source for information. Start with the basics and build from there. Don’t forget to remove the benefits jargon and use clear, concise, simple language that employees will understand. Ensuring your employees are healthcare literate will benefit both the employees and you as the employer. Reach out to your Woodruff Sawyer service team for more details about the employee communications resources available to you.
