Health Beneficiary Exchange: How is Social Media Involved?

 

#navigator #hbx

The recent roll out of the Health Benefit Exchange has not gone exactly as planned.

The latest on the Health Benefit Exchange snafu : HHS maintains a ‘blog” as part of their “Digital Strategy” web pages.

In a post published Sunday on the HHS "Digital Strategy" blog, the Obama administration said it has formed a team of IT experts from the public and private sectors to help resolve the technical glitches that have plagued the Affordable Care Act's federally run health insurance exchange website

Although the Navigator program envisioned by HHS to educate and assist patients in navigating health benefit exchanges, there are several problems. The Navigator program is not fully implemented and difficult to find and/or contact.

Much of the affordable care act is targetted at young people, those who are on social media platforms including Google +, Facebook, and Twitter as well as many others, Pinterest, Myspace, and a host of other sites.

It makes sense that social media can be used with better comunication than all other media. Mobile provides ubiquitous messaging with apps for all of the above social media sites.

Illinois is one of the first to harness social media to broadcast their ‘message’.

llinois Social Media Experts Seek To Help Frustrated Exchange Users

Chicago marketing agency FleishmanHillard has deployed a small team of social media experts to monitor and respond to online comments about glitches associated with the federally run health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act, the AP/Washington Post reports (AP/Washington Post, 10/18)

Since the Oct. 1 start of the open enrollment period, many consumers have experienced technical glitches on HealthCare.gov  that have hindered their attempts to enroll in coverage (iHealthBeat, 10/15).

Since the website opened for enrollment Oct. 1, consumers and health insurers have continued to report application delays and errors with HealthCare.gov that extend beyond the high visitor traffic and software issues that HHS officials initially identified as the causes of the problems

In Illinois, the federally run Get Covered Illinois website teaches state residents about their insurance options before sending them to HealthCare.gov.

According to FleishmanHillard, the agency has put on hold all paid advertisements.

Instead, social media experts now are engaging with discouraged consumers and posting new information and advice on Twitter, as well as other social media websites.

The team also is using Facebook to post updates about HealthCare.gov.

Meg Poulelis -- a social media expert working for the outreach campaign -- said, "We're making sure we're listening [to consumers] and we're supportive and we're there for them when they're having difficulties."

Dave Kerpen -- social medial strategist with New York-based Likeable Media -- said, "Given people's frustrations with the federal website, Get Covered Illinois has to be able to respond promptly with great care to their customers."

Several other avenues will be email, and networking with influential bloggers.

However, a word of caution….some social media users have ulterior motives and may offer highly biased views if they oppose the Affordable Care Act, or are out to market self-interest views.

 

Dr. Manny: America, stop turning to social media for information on Obama Care

Dr. Alvarez notes that many politically inclined ObamaCare enrollment continues, the folks in charge of informing Americans about health care are politically biased individuals who don’t necessarily care about or understand health care issues, but rather simply want to promote a progressive agenda of a socialized America.

For all the questions you can’t find answers to about Health Benefit Exchanges #hbx or #navigator may help to begin.