People who receive insurance through the Affordable Care Act need better education from health care providers about their health problems and prescriptions, said Assistant Surgeon General Nadine Simons, Rear Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Having a health insurance plan is mandatory for most U.S. residents under the act — also known as “Obamacare” — and many who will be choosing a plan are uneducated about health insurance, Simons told a group of students, professors and health care professionals Thursday at the Downtown Nursing and Healthcare Innovation 2 building.
Patients need to know that each plan in the exchange covers comprehensive benefits, such as doctor and hospital visits, vaccinations, screenings and counseling, Simons said. They also need to understand what is happening with their health and be able to explain it back to their doctors, a process known as health literacy.
Health care providers can supply this literacy by communicating with patients in ways they understand best, whether through drawings, text or oral communication. People can begin to apply for insurance Oct. 1.
“We have an incredible and unprecedented opportunity to apply what we know about health literacy and patient education principles so that the millions of Americans who will become consumers of healthcare for the first time will be able to make appropriate, well-informed health decisions,” Simons said.
Simons illustrated her point with the character “Mr. Smith,” a 61-year-old man with several health conditions and no health insurance. Smith missed his original appointment because he didn’t receive a reminder call. When he finally had an appointment, he had to fill out complicated forms and deal with medical jargon. Smith’s story ended with his medical costs rising while his condition remained unchanged.
These are the sorts of problems that health literacy can help solve, Simons said.
Teri Pipe, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, said the school will be making changes so students can learn skills needed to deal with the uncertainty and change in the health care field following events like the passage of the Affordable Care Act. One example is undergraduates learning about care coordination — helping patients transition from a hospital to their home, doctor’s office or long-term care center.
“Probably the most urgent thing that we’d be teaching about is getting people enrolled in their health insurance plans,” Pipe said. “So, teaching students how to teach patients how to get the information they need in order to make an informed choice of what health insurance they want.”
Megan Senftleben, a nursing junior enrolled at ASU and Maricopa Community College through a concurrent enrollment program, said the speech inspired her to work toward better health literacy as a health care provider.
“I do feel motivated as far as increasing patient education efforts, as far as talking to patients and making sure they’re on the same page,” Senftleben said.
Health literacy can positively impact Phoenix groups including Hispanics and students, said Adriana Perez, an assistant professor and Southwest Borderlands Scholar at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation.
She said by communicating in the patient’s primary language as is addressed in health literacy efforts under the Affordable Care Act, health care providers can avoid language barriers and bolster health rates.
“If we see that transformation in our health care system, then I feel like we will be closing the gap on health disparities when it comes to population,” Perez said.
Health literacy could also make a difference to young people who will have the security of being insured while living independently and going to school.
“When I moved here, I didn’t have a job and I didn’t have health insurance, and I got sick,” Perez said. “(Affordable health care) was not available to me when I came, and I feel like I suffered a lot.”
Contact the reporter at molly.bilker@asu.edu
