Using online enrollment to cut through wellness clutter

Tired of the eat-more-vegetables-do-more-sit-ups approach to (trying to) reduce medical costs? There is an entirely different angle that few cost management programs address: savvy-ness about medical services, also called health literacy. Imagine if employees could be comfortable turning down medical care that they do not need. For example:

• Would more people think twice about having a CT scan if they knew it had 500 times as much radiation as an X-ray?
• Would some people ask their doctor about weaning off of nasal spray, if they knew it might be making their chronic rhinitis worse?

Quizzify, an online education program, delivers this kind of information to participants in a fun, game-show contest format. Participants click through questions, earn points for right answers, lose points for wrong answers, and compete with their co-workers for prizes. It’s much more engaging than the Choose Wisely brochures, which educate readers about similar kinds of issues.

At times, it crosses the line between irreverent and snide. It would be more effective keeping the tone light but respectful. For example, a question about in-network doctors could have skipped the reference to overcharging.

One of its advantages is that Quizzify does not gather or require any medical data from the participant. Given the surge of discontent around wellness programs’ use of personal data, this is very attractive. After playing the game, however, I wished that Quizzify could have been customized to my interests – which it could do without asking personal questions. For example, Quizzify could ask: Are you interested in X, Y, or Z? Thus, a person could get information about anti-depressants, antibiotics, or anteaters. Without stating that I am taking (or housing) any of those, I could get relevant information.

The correct answers to questions have links to other resources. This was a nice touch, though some of the resources were not designed for a layperson. I’m guessing that most regular people would not read an abstract from a peer-reviewed journal and get something from it. (Confidence intervals anyone?) I might be wrong about this, but I don’t have many “regular” people to ask.

In keeping with its light tone, Quizzify has very simple, plain language user agreement and game rules. It’s a refreshing change from the fine print, click here and we’ll sell your data to big pharma style of some online health programs. Users can feel confident that what they see is what they get, no surprises.

Quizzify will guarantee, with some limits, that participants will reduce use of certain medical services. Their guarantee has been validated by Care Innovations’ Validation Institute, so buyers know it is valid and measurable. This sets their guarantee apart from the many unsubstantiated ROI guarantees.

Quizzify makes learning about medical care fun and interesting. With its refreshing approach, it is well poised to cut through the wellness clutter and make a real difference.