If youdon't know about the cost differences between emergency care andurgent care, you'll spend a $1,000 or more at the ER instead of$150 at urgent care. (Photo: Shutterstock)

We have some bad news and some good news about health carebenefits. The bad news is that only four percent of Americansunderstand basic terms like deductible, copay,coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximum according to a survey byPolicygenius. Respondents were wildly overconfident intheir understanding of insurance.

Thus, the good news: confusion about health insurance literallycannot get (much) worse. If you're in HR, trying something isalmost guaranteed to create better results than carrying on asusual.

Related: Making health care education fun andinformative

While we wish there was some simple “hack” for health benefitscommunication, there is not. Instead, let's borrow some tacticsfrom marketing to help your employees understand their benefits anduse them.

A communications SOS

At present, employees don't have an appetite to learn abouthealth insurance because it's an alphabet soup of acronyms: HDHP,CDHP, HSA, HRA, FSA, HMO PPO, etc. Few employees understand howdifferent plans work or how costs are shared.

The result is that people don't look for savings or even thinkthere are bargains to be found. If you don't know about thetax benefits of an HSA, you won't sign up forone. If you don't know about the cost differences between emergencycare and urgent care, you'll spend a $1,000 or more at the ERinstead of $150 at urgent care.

We're all complicit in this situation. Employees don't care toGoogle all the jargon and acronyms. The insurance industry has donea spectacular job of making everything unintelligible to consumers.HR's open enrollment seminars and brochures can often be boring,confusing and ineffective. We all need to simplify ourcommunications. A not-so-funny example is that some employees aresurprised to find out there's a high deductible on their company'sHDHP. Perhaps simply calling it by its full name, a high-deductiblehealth plan, rather than its acronym will eliminate the element ofsurprise.

Moments that matter

One approach to health care benefits communication has achievedresults: tapping into “moments that matter.” It is a way to makehealth care information relevant, but it has limitations.

Moments that matter are the transformational events in life:marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, divorce, getting a job, losing ajob, etc. HR platforms have started to create health care contentfor these events.

For example, an employee becomes pregnant but doesn't want toannounce it at work or tell HR just yet. Thankfully, HR built a webportal for maternity leave, where this employee can gether questions answered about benefits, scheduling time off, addingher newborn to insurance and so forth.

The trouble is that most health care situations aren't momentsthat matter. If an employee breaks a collar bone skiing and needs asecond opinion about surgery, the first thought won't be, “Oh, I'dbetter check our company's health care portal!” Chances are, he orshe won't know about the second opinion program. Something needs tobe done about that.

Borrowing a play from marketers

Twenty-first century marketers have accepted that people areperpetually distracted, overloaded with information and skepticalof anyone who wastes their time delivering even more information.So, they run campaigns to overcome the clutter. That's what HRshould do too.

Whereas an enrollment seminar is an event, a campaign isongoing. It hammers home the message that employees can save a lotof money by learning. It's shamelessly self-promotional and willingto use interest-peaking subject lines and rich media to getattention.

The campaign does a little bit at a time, all the time. One openenrollment email blast might share an infographic comparing theplan options and runs scenarios of what employees would pay forthree procedures on each plan. Another email could plug telemedicine in a video and discuss when to useit. Maybe another showcases an employee who saved $3,000 inout-of-pocket expenses by using your programs.

Unlike marketers, you don't have to worry about unsubscribes.That doesn't mean people won't ignore or trash your emails, though,so you need to keep everything short, relevant and useful.

Finding context

Marketers must find a context other than, “Hey, buy this so wecan make money,” which is why they use seasonal events to drivetraffic. Think of President's Day sales or back-to-schoolcampaigns. HR departments also need context when sharing healthbenefits information.

Winter on the horizon? How about reminding employees about thebeginning of flu season and showing the nearbyclinics with the lowest price, as revealed by your nifty pricecomparison app. Or you can remind employees of what to do if theyget sick while out of town, out of the health care network.

There are opportunities to pick up on the news cycle too. WhenZika virus was in the news every day, that was an opportunity toeducate people about their health benefits. Similarly, iflegislators change the Affordable Care Act, that will be a key timeto discuss current benefits and how they might change.

What's working?

As we said, the state of communication in health benefits can'tget much worse. If you use a communication platform to run yourcampaigns, you'll get data back. And like marketers, you can adjustyour messaging and campaign strategy if something's notworking.

Be persistent. HR teams work creatively to get employees thebest benefits they can, but our target audience is a distractedone. Cutting through the noise could turn our teams intointelligent, engaged consumers of their own health.

KeithKitani is CEO and co-founder of GuideSpark and bringsover 20 years of digital communications and eLearning expertise tocreating, building and leading GuideSpark as it transformsworkplace communications.

ColleenBlake is SVP of People at GuideSpark. Colleenis passionate about helping GuideSpark customers developoutstanding company cultures that enable employees and increaseproductivity. Colleen has extensive experience in HR, Marketing,Sales, IT, M&A, Operations and ProfessionalServices. 

Read more: 

• 10 tips to improve employee benefits communicationand enrollment
• Benefits enrollment: up close andpersonal
• Understanding social contracts and benefitengagement