ALEX Medicare

This document serves as documentation of the stylistic conventions and preferences for the ALEX Medicare experience. The content takes cues from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) standards and www.Medicare.gov.

What is ALEX Medicare?

ALEX Medicare is an authoritative, trustworthy, plainspoken guide through the world of Medicare. This product is designed to share enrollment information, coverage details, cost explanations, benefit comparisons, and more.

ALEX Medicare is sympathetic, polite, and helpful. Compared to ALEX Benefits Counselor, the tone of ALEX Medicare emphasizes enthusiasm and reassurance over humor.

For example, some people may fear that if they miss a deadline they could face permanent penalties (true) or that if they make the wrong choice they could permanently lose access to Medicare coverage (false). ALEX Medicare aims to help users understand their eligibility and options.

Point-of-view 

While ALEX Medicare is not self-referential, it can still be helpful to use language that includes the user on the experience. 

The host of ALEX Medicare can freely use “I, we, or let’s,” because the human voice of the host implies an individual human persona, and trying to avoid that language results in artificial speech patterns. “We” refers to “the host and the user,” not “the host and Jellyvision” or “the host and the plan provider.”

Examples:

• “We’ll explain your coverage, and the benefits we’re offering.” (Nope.)
• “We can look at your options, or just jump to choosing a plan.” (Fine.)

Unlike the voice of the ALEX BC host who will often inject personal opinions or musings into the experience (“Keep it light, ALEX.”), the host of Medicare generally avoids personal commentary. 

While there may be moments that call for a more personal response, these responses should primarily focus on the user: “You came prepared. Nice.”

Since the goal of the host is always to provide help and guidance, self-reference should generally be “we / let’s,” and “I” should only be used only when explaining how the host is providing help or utility to the user, with occasional exceptions for personality or levity.

Examples: 

• “I suggest we look at this plan first.” (Fine.)
• “I was designed by Jellyvision, and I use numbers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (Nope, no direct connection to helping the user.)
• [User indicates they already know about Medicare Advantage] “I’m impressed. Then let’s move on.” (Edge case, probably okay if it adds a short moment of personality.)

Punctuation

For consistency, all answer choice options should have punctuation if at least one of them is a complete sentence.

Note: The Eligibility Form is an outlier to this. There are no periods, even in full-sentence button choices because the dynamic nature of the form meant that some users would see periods in only one or two questions within the page.

Bullets in the on-screen text should only have terminal punctuation if they are complete sentences.

Numbers

Preference for numerals: The CMS website uses numerals to represent numbers in copy (for example: 3 months or 7 different plans) for all numbers rather than writing them out (as three and seven). We do the same to make important dates, dollar amounts, ages, and ordinals more readily visible. Because of this, try to avoid beginning a sentence with a number.

Note: Written dates should be written without suffixes (-th, -rd).

To help style the time of day, phone numbers, and dates, follow these examples from approved scripts:

You can also call Jellyvision Member Services at 1-800-307-4830 (TTY: 771), Monday through Friday (8 a.m. – 9 p.m. ET)

You can sign up from October 15 – December 7

By phone: +1 800-772-1213 (TTY: +1 800-325-0778)

(8 a.m. – 7 p.m., Monday – Friday)

Capitalization

Social Security: Social Security is the name of a program in the United States, and when used in this context, it should always be capitalized. The only time you wouldn’t capitalize it is if you were speaking of a generic social security program, such as, “Are you collecting benefits from another country’s social security program?”

Medicare: Medicare is the name of a program and should always be capitalized.

Part A/B/C/D: Always capitalize “Part” when referring to a specific part of Medicare: “Part A,” “Part B,” “Part C,” or “Part D.”

When Medicare Parts A and B are referred to together, it should be “Medicare Parts A & B.”

Use lowercase when speaking about the parts in general: “Medicare Part A is the most important part of Medicare, although the other parts are also important.”

Note: Be careful saying that Part A is “free” if a user doesn’t have to pay a Part A premium. We can refer to it as Part A coverage at no cost or Part A with no additional cost. For internal documentation/file names, feel free to use $0 Part A, but avoid communicating in script/in the experience that it’s “free.”

Medigap: Always capitalize Medigap. When describing a “Medigap policy,” the word “policy” is lowercase. Capitalize “Plan” when describing a specific Medigap plan, such as “Medigap Plan C.”

Use lowercase when speaking of Medigap plans in general: “You’ll need to choose a Medigap plan from the available Medigap plans.”

Qualifying life event (QLE): Per healthcare.gov, a “qualifying life event” is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized, except when “Qualifying” is the first word in a sentence.

Catastrophic coverage: Per medicare.gov, catastrophic coverage is not a proper name and should not be capitalized.

Medicare Advantage plan/Original Medicare plan: In this experience, we do not capitalize “plan” when it directly follows Medicare Advantage or Original Medicare.

Content cards: Titles of content cards should be capitalized in title case.

Compliance considerations

Absolute statements: CMS regulations advise against using absolute statements. So when mentioning rules or procedures, it’s helpful to use qualifiers like “typically” or “usually.” 

For example: If you or your current spouse (as recognized by the Social Security Administration) have worked for 10 or more years in the US (and paid taxes during that time), you usually won’t have to pay a monthly premium for Medicare Part A.

Similarly, when discussing coverage, instead of saying that a plan “can cover” XYZ, it’s better to state that the plan “may help cover” XYZ. Likewise, when mentioning things like “late penalties,” it’s better to say “possible late penalties” or “applicable late penalties.”

Penalty types: Always better to specify details. “Late enrollment penalty” is always better than just “penalty.”

“This year”: When mentioning penalty fees or enrollment periods, it can be helpful to specify that the penalty fees or enrollment periods are for “this year.” The upfront disclaimer on ALEX Medicare should cover any broad concerns around using current dates/dollar figures; however, it can still be helpful to call it out for the users.

Coverage: Clarify what coverage you’re discussing. “Part B covers 80% of medical services for the rest of the year” is better than “Part B covers 80% for the rest of the year.”

Covered services: In cases when you want to be as accurate as possible about the coverage of a specific plan, the term “covered services” or “covered medical services” can be helpful, at the risk of being less plainspoken or clear. 

Since virtually any plan will cover some medical services (primary doctors, urgent care, x-rays), but not others (elective surgeries), blanket phrases like “the plan will cover 80% of your medical costs” may seem to promise more coverage than the plan actually offers. “The plan will pay for 80% of your covered medical services” is more accurate, but may require more clarification to avoid seeming confusing or evasive.

The United States: Again, be as specific as possible. Use “Original Medicare works with most healthcare providers in the United States,” rather than, “Original Medicare works with most healthcare providers in the country.”

User considerations

User cases: ALEX Medicare prioritizes a people-first approach. Saying that the “User has told us they have a disability” is more inclusive than simply saying “User with disability.”

With this in mind, be especially mindful in labeling pages, files, and URLs.

For example: In specifying content for users who have told us they have a disability and qualify for early Medicare eligibility, “Users with Early Eligibility” is a more inclusive title.

Personal information: ALEX Medicare aims to be respectful and approaches personal topics with empathy and discretion. We aim to avoid question formats that treat potentially sensitive topics casually, or that could imply a negative assumption about the user’s identity or situation based on their answer.

In general, when addressing potentially sensitive topics, it’s best to link the question directly with the service ALEX Medicare is trying to provide, to avoid the sense that the experience is simply demanding to know sensitive personal information for its own purposes.

Questions about financials: Context is everything. ALEX Medicare tries to be as specific as possible.

For example: A question like, “Do you expect to spend a lot on health care?” can be tricky. “A lot” can mean many different things. This question would be better phrased as “Do you expect to spend a significant amount of your income on health care?”

Other off-the-table words and phrases to be aware of

Functional considerations

Answer choices: Based on usability tests, ensure that answer choices for each question-type page are self-contained, easy to interpret and understand. This way, choices may be selected without requiring a user to go back to previous information or reconsider the question.

Answer choices are also ordered with the most likely answer appearing first and are mutually exclusive (unless more than one option can be selected)

Text and values that can change annually

• Dates
• Deadlines
• Premiums
• Deductibles
• Copays
• Out-of-pocket limits