Scenario
You work as a Clinical Nurse Specialist at a large hospital. You receive a phone call from your grandmother, who has received a bill from her healthcare provider after a recent stay at your hospital. She is having difficulty understanding the bill, and you agree to meet her to help her interpret the bill. To your surprise, you also find the bill difficult to decipher. You even called the hospital hoping for clarification, but that didn’t really help.
While you and your grandmother were eventually able to figure out how much she owed and when it was due, you are still bothered by this experience. With your knowledge of visual perception—as well as your understanding of how culture, emotion, and cognition play a vital role in our interpretation of our visual experiences—you decide to contact the Billing Supervisor about it. You realize the importance of the feedback you want to provide, so instead of simply hoping to remember everything to say in an impromptu meeting, you decide to write down your thoughts in a detailed email with recommendations on how they can create a bill that even your grandmother could understand.
Instructions
o First, search the web for an example of a confusing bill. You can search terms such as “confusing hospital bill,” “confusing clinic bill,” or “confusing medical bill.” It doesn’t need to be a real bill, i.e., it can be a template. But, it must be a bill that you think needs improvement in how it’s laid out.
o Then, draft an email using Microsoft Word. The email is directed to the healthcare provider on ways they might improve their bill using the following specific concepts:
1. Visual Organization
2. Connectivity
3. Aesthetics
o It might be difficult to find a bill that needs improvement for all three of the bulleted items. For example, you might find a bill that has good visual organization and connectivity, but the aesthetics could be improved. Or, you might find a bill that has good aesthetics, but the visual organization and connectivity need improving. Whatever bill you use for this assignment, make sure you explain in detail why it’s good or bad according to the bulleted items.
o The final email must be 1-2 pages in length.
Please keep in mind that this Deliverable is NOT about the costs of healthcare or health insurance policies on an individual or nationwide level. It’s solely about the cultural perception, emotional response, and visual cognition related to the text formatting and layout of the medical bill.
