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Metavante And Change Sciences Reveal How The Web Can Enhance HSA Potential |
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Sixty-seven percent of health savings account (HSA) provider Web sites fail to help a prospective customer decide if an HSA is right for them, and 33 percent of those sites do not support online enrollment. These findings are part of a series of Metavante-sponsored Change Sciences research reports that benchmark existing, publicly available online experiences, including education concerning HSAs. The reports establish suggested best practices for using the Internet to increase HSA adoption by quickly and easily enabling consumers to get started.
A recent Wall Street Journal article1 suggests HSA adoption hasn’t gone mainstream “largely because of consumers’ unease in using them,” and that even “those who are in consumer-directed health plans often report lower satisfaction and confusion about how the plans are supposed to work.” The Metavante-Change Sciences research reveals that, while consumers have become increasingly comfortable making healthcare decisions using online diagnosis and treatment information, they are confused and frustrated by their experience with online information about health savings accounts and other aspects of consumer-directed healthcare, such as hospital quality information. According to the research, existing Web sites may be hindering rather than effectively promoting the growth of consumer-directed healthcare programs, such as HSAs. The Metavante-Change Sciences research also benchmarks what Web sites are doing now and establishes suggested best practices for improving the overall customer experience around consumer-directed healthcare programs and HSAs. The research methods included asking consumers to use existing Web sites of companies offering HSAs to learn about the product. For example, after spending a few minutes trying to learn about HSAs, consumers were asked a fundamental question about HSAs: “Will you lose the money in the account if you don’t use it (i.e., the money doesn’t “roll over”) from year to year?” While the correct answer is “no,” only 60 percent answered correctly, meaning 40 percent either answered incorrectly, or felt they didn’t have enough information to respond. “HSAs and high-deductible health plans constitute a departure from traditional health coverage. Americans have been asked to take on more responsibility around controlling healthcare costs, but not without an incentive. This research offers suggested best practices for using the Web to make a good first impression with your HSA offering by highlighting the positives, helping consumers learn how they work and determine whether it’s a good choice for them, and finally get started with an HSA,” said John Reynolds, president, Metavante Healthcare Payment Solutions. “If companies offering HSAs aren’t using intuitive HSA calculators and healthcare cost estimators to show individual customers how much they can expect to save with an HSA versus a traditional healthcare plan, why would they change?” Key research findings include: - Forty-seven percent of Web sites fail to clearly demonstrate the relationship between an HSA and high-deductible health plan (required to open an HSA).
- Sixty percent of sites fail to enable prospects without an HDHP to get one.
- Nearly half the consumer group described themselves as either neutral to existing HSA calculators and cost estimators or found them very hard to use.
- Consumers trusted healthcare cause and treatment information 80 percent of the time online, but HSA information only 47 percent of the time, on average.
For those interested in a detailed report overview, visit http://changesciences.com/healthcare . Metavante and Change Sciences will co-present the results and associated analysis this fall through a series of Webinars and speaking engagements including a presentation at America’s Health Insurance Plans: Business Forum 2007 (Chicago). 1 Fuhrmans, Vanessa. “Health Savings Plans Start to Falter.” Wall Street Journal 12 June 2007 |
