FAIR Health Offers Free Resource to Colleges and Universities to Teach Students Health Insurance Basics

FH® Consumer Classroom Promotes Health Insurance Literacy among Young Adults

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May 18, 2021, 09:07 ET

NEW YORK, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The national, independent nonprofit FAIR Health has launched FH Consumer Classroom, a free mobile app available to colleges and universities to equip their students with the practical skills they need to make informed health insurance choices. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, FH Consumer Classroom provides easy access to the educational materials also found on FAIR Health's consumer website, fairhealthconsumer.org. The app offers FAIR Health's award-winning consumer content—together with additional resources—on a new educational platform in a concise, user-friendly format.

Despite the importance of understanding health insurance basics for participation in the healthcare system, efforts to empower young consumers by advancing health insurance literacy have been severely limited. Indeed, results from national studies on health insurance comprehension consistently demonstrate information gaps among younger enrollees.

As college students and young adults age out of their parents' health plans, they face, for the first time, a complex and confusing healthcare system. With little prior experience with health insurance, they may be unprepared to navigate the health insurance marketplace or effectively use their health plans. This lack of health insurance literacy can lead to uninformed healthcare decisions that may harm their health and finances.

FH Consumer Classroom addresses this need. The app enables users to learn about health insurance and healthcare quality through articles, videos and a glossary, and access key resources and interactive puzzles and games to support learning. Among the educational topics covered is shared decision making, the conversation between patients and healthcare providers to decide on treatments. The app also links to FAIR Health's nationally recognized FH^® Medical and Dental Cost Lookup Tools, which enable consumers to estimate the typical costs of medical and dental procedures.

Colleges and universities can use FAIR Health's free app to promote health insurance literacy on campus and advance a generation of informed healthcare users. By employing the app, students who are enrolling in new coverage—whether it is university-sponsored, through the marketplace or another source—can prepare to select, understand and use health plans.

"As pioneers of health insurance literacy, we recognize that the complex world of healthcare and health insurance is anything but intuitive," stated Robin Gelburd, President of FAIR Health. "Young consumers need concrete guidance when they face the daunting task of navigating health insurance for the first time. We are excited to offer this new consumer app to help them make informed decisions about their coverage and care."

To download FH Consumer Classroom, click here: Apple App Store or Google Play.

About FAIR Health
FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization that qualifies as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code. It is dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 33 billion claim records and is growing at a rate of over 2 billion claim records a year. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data products—including benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indices—to commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health includes among the private claims data in its database, data on Medicare Advantage enrollees. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish, which enables consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offers a rich educational platform on health insurance. An English/Spanish mobile app offers the same educational platform in a concise format and links to the cost estimation tools. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Marty Makary's book The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care—and How to Fix It and Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:
Rachel Kent
Senior Director, Marketing, Outreach and Communications
FAIR Health
646-396-0795
[email protected]

SOURCE FAIR Health