Optima Health is hoping to make consumers more cost conscious as a means of reducing costs for them and employers.

The Virginia Beach, Va.-based health insurer’s new Educational Initiative is designed to help people make “appropriate decisions about the healthcare services they use,” primarily within consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs), according to a statement on the new initiative.

“Our goal is to educate and engage the public to become better healthcare consumers. This, in turn, will help them to see the real costs associated with healthcare and become savvier with their own healthcare dollars,” said John DeGruttola, Optima’s senior vice president of marketing and sales, in prepared remarks.

Moving outside of employer

Optima Health has more than 380,000 members throughout Virginia, enrolled in commercial products like CDHPs, employee-owned and employer-sponsored plans, individual and family health plans, employee assistance plans and plans serving Medicare and Medicaid enrollees.

The need for more information is heightened as many people are purchasing individual and family health insurance for the first time outside of an employer, or because they don’t understand the differences between traditional plans and new CDHPs, Optima officials said.

As part of the initiative, the company will distribute articles on health topics, penned by DeGruttola, a 20-year insurance industry veteran, to media outlets, chambers of commerce, and other groups in the areas it serves. Topics may include the value of health coaches, getting fit and taking advantage of an employer’s wellness program.

Articles also are posted on the Optima Web site and are available to insurance agents, who company officials said can benefit by having these articles to educate and engage potential customers about healthcare and health insurance.

This story originally appeared in the March 2009 print edition of Insurance & Financial Advisor.