If a Medicare staff recommendation is approved,听 may be up for a rebranding.听
Because, Medicare officials say, consumers understand words like 鈥渕arketplace鈥� better.
鈥淲e are recommending not using the word 鈥榚xchange鈥欌�� in enrollment materials, Julie Bataille, director of the CMS Office of Communications, said last week at a meeting of outreach advisers. And while she didn鈥檛 mention the preferred substitute, she dropped hints.
鈥淲ords like 鈥榤arketplace鈥� resonate much more with the consumer and also tend to be something that is all inclusive,鈥� she added.
Later, during a break in the meeting, Bataille mentioned that 鈥渆xchange鈥� 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听establish health insurance exchanges in states that don鈥檛 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 鈥� or whatever they may be called 鈥� are to begin operations in 2014, unless the Supreme Court overturns the law.
The word 鈥渆xchange鈥� appears 247 times in the health care law and 鈥渕arketplace鈥� not once, according to a Kaiser Health News text search. But that doesn鈥檛 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.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe that Congress is any kind of expert on how to communicate with consumers,鈥� she said.
But 鈥渕arketplace鈥� 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 staff鈥檚 advice to avoid the term 鈥渆xchange鈥� is supported by听 and the agency鈥檚 focus group testing this year in Cleveland, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia and Phoenix. Sessions were also conducted in Spanish in Houston and New York.
CMS 鈥渞outinely鈥� tests its materials and websites with consumers 鈥渢o make sure we are serving our beneficiaries as well as possible,鈥� Bataille said in an email. 鈥淪o we see our work on the exchanges as an extension of that.鈥�
Bataille said CMS also would seek public comment on the enrollment materials before making a final decision on whether to use the word 鈥渆xchange.鈥�
Contact Susan Jaffe at听jaffe.khn@gmail.com.