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State Insurance Marketplaces Need to Improve Functionality and Transparency

August 26, 2014

new report shows that states need to make improvements in the clarity, accessibility, and functionality of their online insurance marketplaces to make them more consumer-friendly and transparent. The paper was prepared by researchers at the Urban Institute and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The report authors studied nine marketplace websites (California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington) and healthcare.gov to determine how easy it is for consumers to find what type of plans are offered (e.g., PPO, HMO), as well as which providers are in a plan’s network and the overall consumer-friendliness of the site. They found most states fail to clearly label what type of plan is offered. Most states also send consumers to insurance company websites to discover which providers are covered under the network, instead of listing physician directories on the marketplace website.

Based on their analyses, the authors suggested site improvements, including creating clear and accurate “hover over” definitions of plan and network types and sizes for consumers scrolling over specific plans. The authors also propose creating fully functional physician directories for each plan within the marketplace website. These and other specific, actionable recommendations are included in the full report.

"There is a consensus that the websites consumers use to choose health plans are not sufficiently transparent, particularly with regard to provider networks," said Katherine Hempstead of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "More needs to be done to improve health insurance tools so that they better support consumer choice."

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