Healthcare gamification – including points, badges and leader boards – may be a key to controlling rising healthcare costs, according to a recently completed pilot program by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. The state’s first healthcare plan has adopted a solution from Change Healthcare called Healthcare University,which uses videos, quizzes, games and game mechanics to make benefits education easy and impactful,to teach consumers how their benefits work and how to make value-based healthcare decisions.
Based on the successful pilot, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota will introduce the platform to its members during the upcoming open-enrollment period.
Recent studies have shown fewer than 20 percent of employees understand their health benefits, but they are increasingly responsible for shouldering a greater percentage of health costs. As consumers move to both public and private exchanges, understanding pricing variations will become even more important. Healthcare University will help teach consumers about the price variations that exist in the marketplace and helps drive down costs by demonstrating the advantages of weighing cost, quality and convenience when shopping for care.BCBS of Minnesota hopes Change Healthcare’s platform and approach to benefits education for consumers will allow them to maximize employee engagement as a way to control rising healthcare costs.
Pilot Background
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota implemented Healthcare University for its own employees. The goal was to recruit 20 percent of employees to the platform, however, registration rates exceeded that target by 90 percent, with each user completing an average of eight courses. Course subjects included health insurance basics, benefits selection, billing and ways to save. A user satisfaction survey revealed employees awarded the platform an A- for overall satisfaction.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Healthcare University pilot case study can be accessed at http://info.changehealthcare.com/EN201307.html.
Featured image credit: Change Healthcare
