Newly required standardized insurance forms aim to improve comparison shopping

Obama administration officials are expected this week to unveil simple, standardized information forms health insurers and employers will be required to use beginning next year (Source: “New Standardized Forms Expected To Make Insurance Purchasing Easier,” Kaiser Health News, Aug. 17, 2011).

The forms are intended to describe benefits and costs in the same easy-to-understand terms so that consumers can comparison shop for the best coverage. The materials will include a four-page benefits summary, a list of commonly used terms, and two pages of coverage fact labels – modeled after the nutrition labels on prepared foods – that show how much a plan pays for the average national cost of some common medical conditions.