Stay Smart Stay Healthy: Humana's adventures in YouTube for the short of attention span

Humana purports to cut through all the jargon and traditional media with a new series of faux naif video clips on YouTube accessible through the managed care giant's Stay Smart Stay Healthy web site, which tells us:

Why read your subscriber agreement or a summary when you can watch a "new media" video?

The videos are undeniably clever and engaging, and they do contain some valid information.  (I'm making this blanket generalization after watching only the latest addition to the series — the tenth video, on Medicare.)  However, at least this most recent video includes the managed care organization point of view slipped in — not-so-subtly — among the "facts."  Specifically, the clip explains Medicare Advantage as managed care for Medicare beneficiaries that reduces cost and improves quality.  Of course, Medicare Advantage is also a program that provides an essentially guaranteed profit margin to (mostly) for-profit managed care organizations.

The installment on "Why Is Health Care So Expensive?" was similarly deconstructed by Michael Miller at his Health Policy and Communications Blog, one of the other bloggers apparently getting the Humana email updates on this series.

It will be interesting to see whether this series of videos will spawn replies or parodies, as often happens on YouTube.  Once "old economy" companies engage with "new media," they no longer control the discourse.

David Harlow
The Harlow Group LLC
Health Care Law and Consulting