Bringing transparency to health insurance
Why would Walmart launch an insurance education service for the 140 million Americans who shop its stores each week? For one thing, because more than 60% of Americans have a tough time understanding their health insurance plan options, according to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, and nearly 40% feel that they picked the wrong plan after enrolling.
(To view the full report, click here.)
Those troubling statistics helped spur the creation of Healthcare Begins Here, an in-store program to educate customers at Walmart pharmacies about their health insurance options and the benefits and costs of one plan over another. Walmart teamed up with DirectHealth.com to provide the service.
“For years, our customers have told us that there is too much complexity when it comes to understanding their health insurance options,” said Labeed Diab, president of health-and-wellness for Walmart U.S. “Healthcare Begins Here addresses that complexity by bringing clarity and increased choice to the insurance enrollment process through DirectHealth.com.”
DirectHealth is an online health insurance comparison site and independent licensed health insurance agency that helps Walmart customers gain access to health insurance information and enrollment support. The company also arranges for licensed insurance agents to temporarily locate at some 2,700 of its pharmacies to educate customers directly on their coverage options, and to “enroll in the plan that is right for them,” said Marcus Osborne, VP health-and-wellness payer relations for Walmart U.S., “whether that be a Medicare plan or Public Healthcare Exchange plan through online, phone and in-store services.”
The DirectHealth website is operated by TZ Insurance Solutions LLC, which is also the agency licensed to sell health insurance in all 50 states on behalf of DirectHealth. Walmart serves as the company’s marketing partner.
Walmart customers have had in-store access to health insurance information since 2005, when the company began hosting “insurance agents from individual insurers in stores to answer questions and enroll customers in specific healthcare plans,” Osborne said. However, he told DSN, “Healthcare Begins Here, through DirectHealth.com, takes this offering to the next level in response to customers who want more options to choose from.”
The education and enrollment process in Walmart stores is “timed to open enrollment” in the fall for Medicare, and from mid-November to mid-February for the health insurance marketplace open enrollment period.
“For customers over 65,” Walmart reports, “DirectHealth.com offers access to more than 1,700 plans from 12 leading carriers, including Aetna, Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealthcare and participating Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. For customers under the age of 65, DirectHealth.com offers access to thousands of Health Exchange plans from more than 300 leading carriers.”
Customers can compare and enroll in health plans online at DirectHealth.com or over the phone.
The program has been an unqualified hit, Osborne said. “We have received great feedback from our customers on the Healthcare Begins Here program and DirectHealth.com resource,” he noted. “While we can’t share specific numbers, we can say the number of enrollments exceeded our expectations.”
“DirectHealth.com is not designed for our associates. The healthcare plans we offer our associates are among the best in the retail industry,” Osborne added.