Design & Innovation Challenge: Benefit Selection for Financial Security

Commonwealth has partnered with the Center for Health Experience Design (CHXD) to launch an innovation challenge to envision a solution that will help financially vulnerable employees balance their health and financial needs at open enrollment.

One of the factors that is increasingly contributing to financial insecurity is health expenses–the average annual deductible grew 125% from 2006 to 2015, causing out-of-pocket health care costs to quickly grow. Part of those rising costs may be attributed to the increase in high deductible health plans (HDHPs). As health insurance markets continue to evolve, employers who offer health insurance are increasingly offering HDHPs.

HDHPs are attractive because they provide short-term cost savings on premiums to both the employer and employee. However, unless they are well designed, they increase the risk of out-of-pocket health expenses for employees, which can lead to medical debt, delayed medical care, missed work, and loss of productivity in the workplace. Lower-income employees, who often do not have access to financial resources such as savings and affordable credit, are particularly at risk.

Read about an example of a well-designed HDHP in our recently published case study of Atrium Health.

The purpose of this challenge is to deliver innovative solutions so that people are able to make decisions that work for their finances without jeopardizing their health. Note that the deadline to register has passed; the winner will be announced on October 25th at the Mad*Pow Financial Experience Design Conference.