Healthcare Change Communications: Aim and Summarize
In the coming months your company will need to explain how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Healthcare Reform”) will affect your employees. You’ll probably receive some model messages from your insurer explaining each of the changes and telling you what you are required to communicate in order to be in compliance with the law. So, just forward the memo, right?
Hold on.
If you explain these health plan changes using lots of layers of detail, your employees’ eyes will quickly glaze over. They’ll glance at your five page memo and move on without reading it, often to their detriment. To be more effective in communicating these changes, commit that you will Aim with Headlines, Summarize and Annotate.
Aim with Headlines
First, use headlines to aim each chunk of information to those affected by that chunk. For example, the headline “For Children under 19: Pre-existing Conditions Now Covered under New Law” will draw the attention of your employees whose children are younger than 19 and who also have a pre-existing condition. Employees not in that group can move on another well-worded headline that does apply to their situation. Another headline might be “For Flexible Spending Accounts: OTC Drugs Now Require Supporting Documentation for Reimbursement.” Employees who use a FSA and expect to receive reimbursement for over-the-counter drug purchases will recognize that they will have to obtain proper paperwork in the future.
Summarize and Annotate
Second, summarize the detail provided by your insurer. Consider writing an executive summary-style paragraph for each section if what they have provided to you isn’t clear. Then use bold face type, underlines, indentions or other typographic conventions to draw the reader’s eye toward what is most important about each provision. Read over the model messages or your insurer’s notice to you as if you were a college student.
Using a highlighter, note phrases within each paragraph that absolutely must be understood. Test your summarized/annotated version of the change communication by sharing it with a colleague and then asking them to explain verbally what they learned. Adjust your summaries and annotations to assure that only what is most important draws the reader’s attention.
In the next few months, a flurry of healthcare reform changes will deposit themselves on your desk. Rather than just mindlessly pushing those communications out to the employee base, invest your time to make these change communications more effective. Your employees don’t have time to waste reading sloppy, undecipherable memos; they’ve got work to do.
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Jean Houston Shore works with organizations that want their people to work together better. She can be reached at 770-643-9724, by email at jean@thinkbusiness.com or through her website at www.working-together-better.com. Ask for your free copy of her book Working Together Better.
Copyright © 2010, Jean Houston Shore, Business Resource Group. All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used without prior written permission.
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