Simplified Medicare Application Process to Make Medicare Accessible to More Seniors

Background

Medicaid was signed into law in 1965 in the United States designed to provide health coverage for citizens.

There are close to 16 million disabled and elderly beneficiaries.

Its major roadblock is its complex eligibility determination process, causing a slow rate of enrollment.   

A leading consultant company in the healthcare sector, wanted to build a web application for their field agents to help senior citizens successfully apply for assisted medical care.

The goal was to help more and more senior citizens reap the deserved benefits of assisted medical care and close the gap separating aided healthcare funding and the needy.

Challenges

• Assigning cases as per the availability and workload of the field agent.
• Potential for error in documentation while entering data from paper forms to excel sheets.
• Delay in the procurement of documents prolongs the processing cycle.
• Excessive dependency on individual field agent.

Problem Statement

Build an interactive and responsive web application that simplifies the Medicaid application process and ensures high acceptance rates.

UX Strategy

At Koru, our design process is focused on improving the usability, accessibility, and delight provided in product interaction. Keeping the user in the center of the creative process leads us to create designs that are clutter-free, easy, intuitive, scalable, engaging, and provide a fabulous experience to the users.

Process

Research

• Conducted user and stakeholder interviews to discover the top 5 tasks that each identified user type would perform using the application.
• Uncovered challenges, limitations, instructional gaps, dependencies, and motivations that the users have.
• Listed the top 5 problems faced by the agents currently.

Synthesis

Developed process maps, workflows, and user journeys to come up with a list of top findings.

1. Key Findings

• Complex and extensive application form
• Slow-moving workflow of the paper-based form
• Higher rates of rejection owing to inconsistent information provided
• Complex queue management system
• Completion of the form and documentation requires multiple visits

The Design Brief – Key Focus Areas

For Field Agent

• Sourcing correct information and documentation
• Reducing time taken to complete application
• Simplifying workload management

For Applicant

• Pleasant, non-intimidating interactions
• Simplifying the application
• Helping him directly contribute to the process

Ideation

A viable direction was to split the system in two – one app for the field agent and another for the applicant.

With each applicant contributing to the application process, the agent can pack more within a single appointment while meeting with multiple applicants. The applicant isn’t intimidated by the simplified application, thus giving responses that are more accurate, and saving the agent’s time and efforts as well.

We brainstormed and picked specific areas for enhancements considering the top challenges and focus areas in mind to develop the proposed features for the Field Agent and Applicant.

Usability Testing

For Field Agents

We tested our concepts and fine-tuned those that resonated better with the users. 

• Field agents responded well to working with complex workflows and having a feature-rich interface.
• The agents found it easy to understand and navigate around the app.

For Applicants

The workflow was simplified as compared to the Field Agents’ version, and the focus was on the Applicants’ needs and limitations while interacting with technology.

• Applicants found it difficult to simultaneously focus on multiple things.
• Cognition areas like vision, motor skills, and tech-savviness had a huge influence on their ability to work with the solution.

Design

Transforming the wireframes and prototypes to actual images with themes, components, and styles applied to them.

Highlights

Conversational Copy Warm and personal language was used to create a pleasant interaction experience.

Distinct Spacing To assist people with motor skill issues in easy navigation.

Minimal Features Guided walkthrough of controls and features for the user to discover, making it less overwhelming for seniors.

Contrast Warmer, yellow-based tones with a distinct contrast to make sure the screens are easy on the eyes.

Agents’s App

Highlights

Kanban vs List View Lets the users manage their cases with a listing style they prefer. Data Sync Indicator To notify the latest data sync, with a feature to do it manually anytime.

Quick Preview of Case Status Users can view the status of each case with a single glance for better workflow management.

Access to Documentation Direct access to attached documents for each case provides a better understanding of the case’s progress.