Rising health care costs are the result of a complicated dynamic. But everyone can play a role in addressing the problem by making smarter consumer decisions.

First, however, people need a better grasp of this complex problem. That’s why the Business Health Care Group is developing a series of online education modules, “A Buyer’s Guide to Health Care,” to be available exclusively to member organizations on our website. These interactive modules lay out the issues in a memorable, easy-to-understand format.

The first of the eight modules—featuring “Joe,” an average health care consumer—is accessible via password at our website. In a video vignette, interspersed with short activities, Joe learns about some of the causes behind the health care costs dilemma.

“This is a way to get consumers to understand what happens behind the scenes with a user-friendly, painless learning tool aimed at everybody,” says Julianna Olson, Community Health Initiative Director of member company DaimlerChrysler and leader of the consumer education project. “They'll travel with Joe as he learns new things and becomes empowered.”

Remaining modules will focus on topics such as how insurance works and how to get the most from doctors’ visits. We will release three additional modules sometime in February and the remaining modules by the end of the first quarter of 2007. The modules also include a downloadable list of health care tips, links to other key resources for health care consumers and a glossary of health care terminology.

“The shift to a health care system that’s driven more by consumers is critical to our efforts to stem cost increases,” said Dianne Kiehl, BHCG Executive Director. “These modules will arm our members’ employees with easy-to-understand information they need to make more efficient, effective choices.”

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