Obligations & Understanding: Improving Health Insurance for Patients

This assignment delves into the crucial role of patient understanding in health insurance, examining the obligations consumers have to comprehend their insurance policies and benefits. It assesses whether the average patient adequately understands their health insurance, explores how past experiences shape future behavior, and investigates policy decisions at the state level that can enhance patient comprehension. Furthermore, the assignment outlines specific steps healthcare providers can take to improve patient understanding, including consumer education, 24/7 support, and viable shopping platforms. It highlights the importance of patient activation, behavioral economics, and program evaluation in fostering better health insurance knowledge and promoting positive public health outcomes. This assignment emphasizes the need for a collaborative approach to empower patients with the knowledge necessary to make informed healthcare decisions.

Questions & Answers
Health Insurance

Contents
Answer 1:.........................................................................................................................................2
Answer 2:.........................................................................................................................................2
Answer 3:.........................................................................................................................................2
Answer 4:.........................................................................................................................................2
Answer 5:.........................................................................................................................................3
Answer 6:.........................................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................5

Answer 1:
For the patients, it is important to understand the health insurance covers the costs of the medical
tests, office visits, treatments, supplies and the other medications. The formulation is about the
tax contribution to make the health saving account that will help in creating a network with
hospitals, doctors and pharmacies. The health insurance just need to be planned by the patient
and an amount is quoted for the same, which has to be paid at a certain rate, each month.
Answer 2:
It has been seen that the major number of people/families (average patient) are able to
understand their insurance policies (Cohodes, Grossman, Kleiner, & Lovenheim, 2016). But they
are not able to understand the structure of payment. Hence, there is a need of increased education
for the same or simplifying the insurance benefit structures could be helpful to aid the consumers
to make better economic choices. It is seen that less people have the idea about prepaid group
practices and other programs of insurance.
Answer 3:
The future would be greatly impacted, as the families will be able to know how much they have
to pay for the hospital expenditures, and if there is a full reimbursement due to the insurance plan
(Handel & Kolstad, 2015). With this, the patient, in his old age will be exempted from the tax
and have a financial security which is imperative to secure the future with healthy heart.

Answer 4:
The health policy and the medical practices are important for a better outcome of the patient. The
decisions could be made for the systematic cost effectiveness analysis which can be used for
improving the allocation of resources (Mahoney, 2015). The first issue is to consider the cost
savings and effectiveness, where the separate evidence-based care. The value of patients improve
when a better outcome is achieved at a lower cost. Access to the healthcare is considered to be
the major goal which provides an opportunity for value to be created by the delivery system.
Answer 5:
a. The healthcare industry needs to speak to consumers who can understand about the job of
heling consumers about their health needs.
b. The insurers and healthcare systems need to staff 24-7 support on phone with qualified
healthcare navigators (Shepard, 2016).
c. The providers need to develop a viable shopping platform for the healthcare standards.
d. Consumer education and engagement is health literacy with the capacity to seek and
understand the health information.
e. The health literacy acts as a social determinant of health for individuals and population
due to the impact on the employment and the ability for accessing the services.
Answer 6:
Some of the steps that should be taken by the healthcare providers are:
a. The patient activation or the readiness to determine the engagement by individuals and
successful achieve a better understanding or behavioral change.

b. The behavioral economics with consumer education, and self-management work will
help in improving the knowledge of the patient about health insurance.
c. The evaluation of program and its impact on the public health is also considered to be
notified through Re-AIM framework ( Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation
and Maintenance).

References
Cohodes, S. R., Grossman, D. S., Kleiner, S. A., & Lovenheim, M. F. (2016). The effect of child
health insurance access on schooling: Evidence from public insurance
expansions. Journal of Human Resources, 51(3), 727-759.
Handel, B. R., & Kolstad, J. T. (2015). Health insurance for" humans": Information frictions,
plan choice, and consumer welfare. American Economic Review, 105(8), 2449-2500.
Mahoney, N. (2015). Bankruptcy as implicit health insurance. American Economic
Review, 105(2), 710-46.
Shepard, M. (2016). Hospital network competition and adverse selection: Evidence from the
Massachusetts health insurance exchange (No. w22600). National Bureau of Economic
Research.