Decision Support:The Employee Experience

Private Exchanges

Nicole AschbrennerhCentive Webinar - May 27, 2015

SPEAKER

Nicole is a Senior Product Analyst at hCentive where she focuses on providing insurance industry subject matter expertise, Federal and State compliance research, and design direction for the Private Exchange Product. Nicole has more than 30 years of experience in the insurance industry including sales, underwriting, training, and running her own brokerage agency. Prior to joining hCentive Nicole spent 13 years with several Blue Cross Blue Shield entities before establishing her brokerage agency. Nicole has also done volunteer work with Federal and State legislators who focus on the modernization of the insurance industry and passing positive consumer legislation.

Nicole Aschbrenner, RHU, LTCISSubject Matter Expert | Sr. Product

Analyst, hCentive

Empowering Everyone to Access Healthcare

Founded in 2009

Based in Reston, VA | Washington D.C. Metro

750 employees and growing

Serve leading health plans / insurance carriers, brokers and benefit consultants, plus state & federal agencies,

Focus on health insurance exchange solutions & technologies

ABOUT hCENTIVE

hCentive at a Glance

25+ Governments, Health Plans, Brokers Rely on hCentive Products To Distribute And Manage Health Benefits

5 Million ACA Enrollments Processed Using hCentive Technology

37 States’ Constituents Access Health Coverage Via hCentive’s Public Exchanges

hCentive Technology Connects Health Plans to 50 States’ Marketplaces

30+ Insurance Carriers Use hCentive Platforms To Offer Health & Voluntary Benefits

25+

5m

37

50

30+

Decision Support Tool

Why ?

Did you know that … ?

• Hospital and medical expense policies were first introduced during the beginning of the 20th century

• During the 1920s, individual hospitals began offering services on a pre-paid basis

• This eventually lead to the development of Blue Cross organizations in the 1930s

And here we are almost 100 years later …The use of technology and Private Exchanges are becoming more and more abundant

Decision Support Tool

Our Goal

• Better understand the support that employees need

• How we could improve the employee shopping experience

• Find better ways to recommend benefit options for employees

• Where to start?

Decision Support Tool: Focus Groups

Our Methodology

• More research

• Input from 100+ employees

• New design sessions

• Post design update with

original participants

Decision Support Tool: Focus Groups

The Sample Pool

No(35%)

Yes(65%)

Non-IT(71%)

IT(29%)

What is Your Primary Job Function?Have You Used an Online Health Insurance Shopping Tool Before?

Our Findings – Overall Experience

“The tool could use more hover over capabilities to help with clarification”

“Navigation of tool is not user-friendly…the system is confusing, needs a better flow”

The overall design of the tool is pleasant and encouraging. Need to make SAVE and CONTINUE buttons more prominent for clearer navigation”

“Could be more intuitive”

Decision Support Tool: Focus Groups

Our Findings – Educational Help

Yes(59%)

No(41%)

Did You Use The Educational Help?If Yes, Did You Find The

Educational Help Useful?

No(61%)

Yes(39%)

Decision Support Tool: Focus Groups

Our Findings – Key Concerns

Notifications + Confirmations

Tailored to My Needs

Navigation Flexibility

More Instructions

Help Me With My Choices

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Key Concerns Raised by Employees*

• Need better explanation of HMO, PPO, HSA, etc.

• Separate support paths to choose from – not all consumers shop the same

• Consumer friendly language – less jargon

• Step-by-step guide to support

• Allows me to move back & forth easily in tool if I change my mind

• Allows me to bypass information I don’t want to complete

• Allows me to include cost of dependents if needed

• Allows me to bypass support tools if desired

• E-mails To Notify / Remind Me• Confirm my submissions

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

* Note: Multiple responses per employee

Decision Support Tool: Focus Groups

The Evolution of Decision Support

12

Recommend the best plan for the employee and/or family

Educate the employee on what their insurance means

Instill more expectation setting and transparency

Always explain what we are doing and why

Create better step-by-step experience

Pay attention to sequence and pace

Playback what we heard

Dual focus

Greater trust

Better engagement

Decision Support Tool: Focus Groups

The New Design of Decision Support

Friendly and personal

tone

Clear expectations

Step-by step guide

Trust & transparency

Why we ask and

repeating what you

said

Better flexibility

Easy-to-understand

benefits

Evolving support tools with consumer needs

Decision Support Tool: Focus Groups

Decision Support: Sample

Orienting the Consumer

What we heard

• Quick explanation of benefits• Clearer expectations up front• Easy opt-outs

What we did

• For consumers wanting details right away, added expandable tabs for all benefits offered

• In the expandable tabs, each benefit plan is clearly defined

• Added an easy option to “waive all coverage” if consumer does not need benefits

Helping with Choices

What we heard

• Better support on determining which plan they should choose

• Better page navigation

What we did

• To support the decision making process, we created 3 paths for the consumers to choose from:- Quick click health profiles- Detailed health profile - Bypass recommendation

Decision Support: Sample

Better Flow, Trust, + Expectations

What we heard

• Clear explanation of what’s coming

• Logical step-by-step instructions

• Ability to jump back easily

• Ensure comfort level of consumer before asking for private information

What we did

• Set the stage for what’s to come

• Ordered, step-by-step instructions

• You should know & why we ask

• Easy jump backs

Decision Support: Sample

Intuitive Utilization Support

What we heard

• Easy to understand terms to help assess potential medical costs

• Allow an advanced option for those more comfortable providing detailed numbers

What we did

• Questions asked in simple to understand language

• Where am I in the process

• Why we ask

• Easy jump backs

Decision Support: Sample

User Preference Support

What we heard

• More simplified way to prioritize criteria that is most important to consumers when purchasing a health plan

What we did

• Added prioritization statements with simplified wording that consumer can drag & drop based on importance

• Statements start with cost and expand to doctor preferences

Decision Support: Sample

Making a Recommendation

What we heard

• Don’t understand why you recommend that plan for me

• Don’t understand my total out of pocket costs with the recommend plan

• Don’t understand how an HSA would work with recommend plan (if applicable)

What we did

• Playback preferences – consumer can see or change any answers easily - “change answers” button

• Estimated out of pocket cost bar graph

• Added tax savings button if plan qualifies for an HSA

• Tool tips and more tool tips

Decision Support: Sample

Tax Savings – “How it works”

What we heard

• Don’t understand how HSAs, and tax savings plan work in general

• Don’t understand how to use the tax savings programs

What we did

• Tax savings highlight for HSA qualified plans on the medical page

• Created a consumer friendly graph showing how HSA contributions can work

• Show the consumer exactly how much savings they can anticipate from using an HSA

Decision Support: Sample

Decision Support Tools: Focus Groups

Additional Feedback

• New intro pages were a nice addition

• Navigation + page flows were

easy to use

• Liked new additions – such as

using potential medical cost for

plan recommendation

Q+A

Nicole Aschbrenner12355 Sunrise Valley Drive, Ste 310, Reston VA  20191

sales@hcentive.com