The "choose with care system" - development of education materials to support informed Medicare health plan choices

People aging into Medicare need to choose a health plan. Several challenges exist for consumers in choosing a Medicare health plan, including limited knowledge of Medicare, limited experience in using comparative health plan quality information, and limited experience and ability to pull together and use plan information from different sources like employers and the Medicare program. The Choose with Care System was developed to help consumers aging into Medicare make informed Medicare health plan choices. Choose with Care is an innovative decision support tool for employers to use to assist people approaching age 65 to learn about their Medicare health plan options and how to incorporate information on the quality of care and services offered by health plans into their choices. Employers are the targeted channel for distributing the Choose with Care materials because they are one of the most recognized and accessible formal intermediaries for information about health insurance. We used multiple methods to test the Choose with Care products. Product testing showed that the Choose with Care materials increase older consumers' knowledge of Medicare and how it relates to retiree health insurance and improves their comprehension and use of comparative quality information when choosing a health plan.