Choosing Health Plans All Together (CHAT)

The CEHD has utilized the computer program Choosing Health Plans All Together (CHAT) in the development of the Galveston 3-Share Plan. CHAT is a computer game that participants play with the objective of developing an imaginary health benefits plan, similar to insurance coverage. CHAT was created by the University of Michigan and NIH. It was designed to help consumers make educated health benefits choices in a non-threatening way.

In CHAT, players are allotted a certain amount of markers with which they can “purchase” health benefits. There are a total of 15 health benefits from which to choose: Primary Care, Pharmacy, Hospitalization, Specialty Care, Tests, Mental Health, Dental Care, Vision, Complementary Care, Long Term Care, Last Chance, Infertility, Home Health, Other Medical, and Uninsured People. The benefits are offered at 3 levels of care, basic, medium and high, with explanations of what is included at each level. The player must then budget his/her markers in making health benefits selections as the number of markers each player is allotted is not enough to purchase all of the benefits, even at the basic level.

Players engage in 4 rounds of the game. Initially, a player works individually to develop a health plan for him/herself, then in groups to develop plans for their neighborhood, then for their community, and individually once again to make his/her final health benefits plan selections.

CHAT was utilized by the staff in the CEHD to learn the benefit preferences of small business owners and their employees in Galveston County in the development stages of the Galveston 3-Share Health Benefit Plan. In collaboration with UTMB's Community Health Services Program the CEHD is providing consultation services to other communities in the state of Texas who are developing multi-share health benefit plans. The services include conducting CHAT focus groups in those communities. The data obtained from the CHAT focus group in the other communities will be analyzed and compared to existing data in order to determine the differences of preferences among different populations.