Benefit Guidance
A guidance system that helped members understand their own benefits — so they could choose facilities that cost them less without having to already know how their plan worked.
Members had benefits that could save them hundreds of dollars. They just didn't know how to use them.
Healthcare plans are complex. Members with Designated Diagnostic Provider benefits could save significantly on lab work and imaging — but only if they chose the right type of facility. Most didn't know the difference between a DDP, a preferred facility, a freestanding facility, and a general hospital. So they chose by proximity or familiarity, paid more than they had to, and never knew why. Benefit Guidance was built to surface the right information at the right moment — not buried in a plan document, but inline, in context, exactly when a member was searching for a facility and needed to make a choice that would affect their bill.
What I owned
- End-to-end UX from concept to launch
- DDP benefits screen design and information hierarchy
- Facility type education — inline guidance patterns
- Before/After redesign of the Preferred Facilities modal into the DDP Benefits screen
- Usability testing on benefit comprehension
- Cross-team alignment with plan benefit and data engineering teams
"The original experience tried to educate members about all their facility benefit tiers at once — Preferred Lab Network, Freestanding Facility, Designated Diagnostic Provider — in a single modal with three sections of explanatory text. Members read none of it. The insight was that benefit education only works when it's specific to the decision in front of you. We stopped trying to explain the whole benefit structure and started answering one question: for this search, at this moment, which facility will cost you the least — and here's exactly why."
Three decisions that defined the experience
Replace the wall of text with a cost comparison table
The original Preferred Facilities modal explained three facility types in dense paragraph form. Testing showed members skipped it entirely. We replaced the explanation with a direct cost comparison — Basic blood test: DDP $30 vs Non-DDP $75. CT scan: DDP $200 vs Non-DDP $500. Members didn't need to understand the benefit tier system. They needed to see what the difference would cost them. Numbers did what paragraphs couldn't.
Surface the guidance at the facility search results level, not after selection
Early designs placed the DDP benefit information on the facility detail page — after the member had already chosen a facility to learn more about. By then it was too late to influence the decision. We moved the guidance to the search results level — a banner that filtered and flagged DDP facilities inline, before the member committed to any one option. Guidance at the point of choice, not the point of confirmation.
Show only DDPs — give members a filtered view, not just information
Informing members that DDP facilities existed wasn't enough — members still had to visually identify them in a long results list. We added a 'Show only DDPs' CTA that filtered the entire results view. One tap removed every non-preferred option. Members no longer had to compare — they only saw what would save them money. Action was faster than comprehension.
What shipped and what it changed
Benefit Guidance shipped as a redesigned DDP benefits screen and inline guidance system within UnitedHealthcare's Find Care mobile app. Members searching for imaging facilities and diagnostic labs were guided toward lower-cost in-network options at the moment of search — not after they'd already chosen. The before/after impact was visible immediately: members who saw the DDP cost comparison were significantly more likely to filter for and select a preferred facility. Understanding their benefit changed their behavior.
If we had another quarter
I would have pushed for personalized benefit guidance — surfacing DDP information only for members whose plan actually included that benefit, with their specific cost numbers pre-populated. We designed for the general case. The real opportunity is making it feel like it was built for you specifically. Your plan. Your cost. Your nearest DDP. I'd also have explored proactive guidance — a notification or nudge before a member searches, triggered by upcoming appointments or recent referrals. Reactive guidance is good. Guidance that anticipates the need is better.