Insurance and Uninsured
Understanding important differences between consumer-directed health plans and traditional PPO plans is more difficult for consumers with lower literacy skills and comfort with numeric data, according to a study in the American Journal of Managed Care.
Individuals with low literacy skills and limited comfort with numeric information who choose to enroll in CDHPs often do not understand the plans because of the way information about them is presented, researchers say. Low-income, minority individuals often are at increased risk of not understanding the specifics of CDHPs, the study notes.
The authors recommend further research into the disparity between the presentation of CDHP information and consumers' comprehension of that information, with particular attention given to how information is provided to consumers at various levels of literacy (Greene et al., American Journal of Managed Care, June 2008).