Aetna won an Award of Distinction for its short videos designed to help members comprehend and use their benefits. I’m generally a curmudgeon when it comes to such videos and their cousin the infographics. I typically find them cutesy, patronizing and generally useless. The animated people and simulated blackboard drawing are pet peeves.
But I quite like the Aetna videos, especially the one about Aetna Payment Estimator. In under 90 seconds it clearly conveys several important points:
- Aetna has an online tool that provides out-of-pocket cost information based on a member’s specific plan
- Members should use the tool prior to making a doctor’s appointment
- You don’t need to understand medical coding to use the tool
- Out-of-pocket costs can vary a lot by doctor, even for the same specialty and geographic area
- Using the tool could save a member hundreds of dollars on deductibles and co-insurance
- The tool is available on the Aetna portal with step-by-step instructions
I like it that there are pictures of actual people and that the animations are reserved for things like calculators, office buildings and charts.
I could quibble about a couple things. The out-of-pocket image looks weird (is it a purse?) and I don’t know why they need to talk about medical coding. And narration is by the familiar sounding, professionally enthusiastic woman who does a lot of these sorts of things. But those are nits.
In general, Aetna, you’ve done a great job with this one.
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By David E. Williams of the Health Business Group.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
