If a Medicare staff recommendation is approved,泭 may be up for a rebranding.泭
Because, Medicare officials say, consumers understand words like marketplace better.
We are recommending not using the word exchange in enrollment materials, Julie Bataille, director of the CMS Office of Communications, said last week at a meeting of outreach advisers. And while she didnt mention the preferred substitute, she dropped hints.
Words like marketplace resonate much more with the consumer and also tend to be something that is all inclusive, she added.
泭 Later, during a break in the meeting, Bataille mentioned that exchange can have a number of different meanings to consumers, including the idea that they may have to swap something.
The health law requires the federal government to泭establish health insurance exchanges in states that dont create their own. They are often described as an online marketplace similar to Travelocity.com or Amazon.com, where consumers will be able to search for insurance policies that fit selected criteria.
Enrollment information will be available in the fall of 2013 and the exchanges or whatever they may be called are to begin operations in 2014, unless the Supreme Court overturns the law.
The word exchange appears 247 times in the health care law and marketplace not once, according to a Kaiser Health News text search. But that doesnt mean officials are obligated to use it, said , a professor of consumer economics at the University of Georgia, and a consumer representative for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
I dont believe that Congress is any kind of expert on how to communicate with consumers, she said.
But marketplace may not be a fool-proof alternative, said Cude. She worries that comparing a health insurance exchange to a shopping website encourages the notion that the lowest price policy is the best choice. That may be true when looking for a commodity like a cheap airfare to a single destination, but not for health policies offering different benefits, she said.
Bataille said the Medicare staffs advice to avoid the term exchange is supported by泭 and the agencys focus group testing this year in Cleveland, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia and Phoenix. Sessions were also conducted in Spanish in Houston and New York.
CMS routinely tests its materials and websites with consumers to make sure we are serving our beneficiaries as well as possible, Bataille said in an email. So we see our work on the exchanges as an extension of that.
Bataille said CMS also would seek public comment on the enrollment materials before making a final decision on whether to use the word exchange.
Contact Susan Jaffe at泭jaffe.khn@gmail.com.
