URAC launches Consumer Education Initiative

WASHINGTON The nation’s leading healthcare accreditation and education organization has launched a Consumer Education Initiative, designed to teach consumers about health insurance and identifies ways they can make more informed decisions about their health care.

URAC developed a toolkit late last month that features republished materials – originally developed by the American Institutes for Research with funding from the California HealthCare Foundation – that have been recreated into several multi-media tools consumers can use to make better healthcare decisions, assume more “ownership” over their health care, and increase their ability to take on new behaviors to improve their health and the quality of care they receive.

“Many consumers need help navigating through the healthcare maze. Often they do not understand what their healthcare plan covers and how to ask the right questions to get the best plan for their individual needs,” said Alan Spielman, URAC president and CEO. “Knowing when to select an HMO versus a PPO versus a CDHP plan can be difficult. Our initiative empowers consumers to take responsibility and play an active role in their health by breaking down the complex selection process into more understandable components.”

To supplement the toolkit, URAC has also developed a free consumer eLearning course, “Understanding Your Health Insurance.” The course covers key areas including defining health insurance concepts; identifying the impact of rising healthcare costs; comparing the different types of health insurance plans; and defining important elements of health insurance, including prescription coverage, case management and wellness.

For additional information about URAC’s Consumer Education Initiative and to download the Health Care Communications Toolkit, please visit www.urac.org/consumers/.