Case Study: Helping Patients Understand Financial Resources

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Many patients feel overwhelmed by information about medication costs, insurance coverage, and financial assistance programs. Although support services exist, they’re often underused because patients don’t understand what these resources are or how they can help.

Our Challenge

Understanding treatment costs can be complicated.

Understanding how much something can cost—especially a medical treatment—can be complex, sometimes involving unknown steps with insurance, a library of new words to learn, and many conversations with different healthcare teams. Additionally, there are services available to help, but many patients do not know how to find them or understand what these services offer. We set out change how we talk about these services, and the value patients may receive.

applyING THE upl

We held a Co-creation session with patients, social workers, advocacy groups, and call center agents.

We wanted to make sure we had conversations with the right people to understand the gaps in our current communications. We worked with patients, office managers, social workers, advocacy groups, and call center agents that work with patients daily to support financial questions.

We wanted to know the type of questions patients asked about financials, which language was hard to understand, and where they needed more information.

The tools we leveraged in this example include:

The Rules for applying Use Plain Language, Format for Understanding, and Enable Patient Learning The Style Guide for accessibility, color choices, and formatting The Graphic Library to support explanations with clear illustrations Thought Starters: Explaining Health-Related Finances, which offers best practices specific to this subject

Our Output

We focused on clarifying what each financial resource does—and when to use it.

We centered our approach on helping patients understand what each financial resource is for, when it may apply, and how to access it. We also made the content more inclusive so patients in different financial situations could see themselves reflected and find guidance that matched their needs.

Enable Patient Learning

We highlighted what each resource can provide and called out the types of information patients need to gather, helping them understand the value of using it.

Format for Understanding

We created a simple, step-by-step guide so patients could clearly follow the process that applies to them and understand what to expect.

Use Plain Language

We defined key financial terms—such as insurance benefits review and co-pay assistance—that patients told us were difficult to understand.

Demonstrate Empathy

We included a set of sample scenarios so patients in different situations could identify which description felt most like theirs and follow the track best suited to them.