Clear disclosure will win customer loyalty and improve compliance all round

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/9470981/Simple-loan-disclosures-recommended

The debate continues: how much should banks tell customers about their loan arrangements? And how best to do it clearly? Stuff today discusses the idea of a standardised document across all financial institutions to allow customers to shop around and easily compare terms and conditions.

Our financial decisions and experiences have a lot in common with our health decisions and experiences. In both areas, we have to take in a lot of information, understand it and use it to make a decision we may have to live with for many years.

In New Zealand, the Code of Health and Disability Consumers' Rights (1996) protects consumers in their health decisions and experiences with health providers.

Right 6 (1) says 'You have the right to all the information you need to make an informed choice or give your informed consent'.

So banks could learn from the health and disability sector and give people all the information they need to make an informed choice. Information written in plain language in a well-designed document will encourage customer loyalty, and make it easier for customers to understand their financial obligations.

For your health's sake, double-check the instructions

On Stuff today, Medical School researcher, Sonya Morgan, says that GPs need strategies to minimise the risk of communication problems. Some of our writing strategies work well for verbal consultations too. Such as thinking of the reader/listener by choosing words they'll be familiar with. 'Chunk and check' is a useful strategy in writing and speaking - giving information in small chunks, and giving the reader/listener time to take it in before giving new information.

The doctor-patient relationship is a shared responsibility. Patients need strategies to keep themselves safe too. Health providers are always busy, and waiting rooms can be intimidating, busy places.

Patients can double-check the instructions by using their own words to tell the doctor what they're going to do. And asking questions and writing down what they need to do will decrease everybody's risk.

Healthcare consumers in the US have a new plain language friend--section 2715

Section 2715 is a new rule about clarity in health insurance documents. The new rule will make it easier for 150 million Americans to understand the information and choose a healthcare plan.

The US Government released the new rule on 9 February 2012 under section 2715 of the Public Health Service Act, and the Affordable Care Act, as part of reforming the health system.

The new rule says that all insurance companies must provide a ‘short, easy-to-understand Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC)’ and a ‘Uniform Glossary’, a glossary of terms commonly used in health insurance policies and plans.

Using plain language is only part of making documents easy to read. Other key words in the new rule are ‘concise’, ‘simple’, ‘consistent information’, and ‘consumer testing’.

The Government developed the SBC and glossary after working with insurance and health people. Then testing the SBC and glossary in two rounds of consumer testing provided an opportunity to gather data on the readability of the documents.  All parties, the Government and insurance companies, will be able to measure the difference they make to healthcare processes and services. In Write’s experience, clear documents can save millions of dollars.

Follow this link to read what the insurance documents will be like after 23 September. http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2011/08/labels08172011a.html

In New Zealand, several insurance companies were early adopters of plain language and document clarity, and many continue to work with us to ensure that their documents are easy to read. Have a look at our WriteMark website to see who has achieved recognition for their clear documents.  http://www.writemark.co.nz/Who+has+the+WriteMark.html