Healthy People 2020 defines health literacy as "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions."

A 2016 survey showed that only 12 percent of adults have proficient health literacy. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), people with inadequate health literacy:

• Make less use of preventive services
• Have a higher chance of taking medications incorrectly
• Show poorer control of chronic conditions
• Experience more emergency room visits and hospitalizations
• Have more difficulty filling out paperwork and understanding health benefits

How does this affect your workplace? When employees use unnecessary medical services or don’t manage chronic conditions, costs go up for everyone and contribute to more time off work, reduced productivity, and increased medical costs.

Improving health literacy is an important step toward empowering employees and containing health care costs. Learn how you can advocate for health literacy at your workplace.

Here are additional ways employers can help:

• Provide detailed explanations of benefits. Provide resources that explain in detail what copays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket limits are, and explain how people can get billed for unexpected costs.
• Use multiple formats. People absorb information in different ways, so try offering printed resources, emails, and videos.
• Make it easy-to-understand. Medical information can be complicated and full of unfamiliar terminology. Make sure your information uses plain language.
• Include translations if necessary.
• Explain the preventive health services available to employees.
• Give employees helpful tools:
  • This health care glossary lists health insurance terms.
  • A medical self-care book can be a helpful non-digital resource for learning about common conditions and home treatment. Consider providing one for free or at a reduced price to all employees.
• Reach out during an employee’s health crisis to provide help, advice, and assurance.
• Ask your health insurance partner for help with your health literacy efforts. Most insurance companies have trained professionals on staff that can run onsite training sessions, answer questions, and empower your employees.

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Click here to read this month's E-tips for your employees: "When it comes to health care, be your own advocate."

To share these E-tips with employees, you can:  

• Email the E-tips document to your staff as an attachment. 1) Click the link to download and save the E-tips to your computer. 2) Add your organization's logo in the bottom left corner. 3) Then send it as an email attachment to staff. 
• Print the document once you've added your organization's logo and post it in a common area in your workplace.
• Copy and paste the text into your organization's newsletter.

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