Helping elders include quality in health plan choice. Final report

Abstract

Purpose: Choose with Care is a decision support tool for employers to use to educate
and counsel people approaching age 65 about their Medicare health plan options and how to
incorporate quality information into their health plan choices.

Scope: People aging into Medicare need to decide if they will get insurance to
supplement Original Medicare and, if so, which type of coverage and which specific plan they
will choose. Several challenges exist for consumers in choosing a Medicare health plan. First,
consumers have to obtain and compare information on employer-based retiree health plans from
their employers or information on other types of plan options from Medicare. Second, Medicare
beneficiaries’ knowledge of the Medicare program is low. Third, Medicare beneficiaries’
willingness to use comparative quality information is currently limited. Employers are the focus
for distributing the Choose with Care materials because they are one of the most recognized and
accessible formal intermediaries for information about health insurance. The Choose with Care
system contains four products for consumers and two products to help employers tailor the
consumer products.