Insurance Article Review Example

The websites reviewed have several things in common. Chief amongst them is how visually boring they are. For the most part they are all basically directories with simple click interfaces. Rather than utilizing the latest available web technology they seem to be stuck in an old mind-set when dial-up connections were the norm, and people were still accepting of information presented as they were in informational pamphlets handed out in the doctors office. Today however, we use the internet to give us a deeper depth to our content and these websites fail to do that. In effect they are all glorified pamphlets or yellow pages.
America's Health Insurance Plans has a website at http://www.ahip.org/. The website is visually unappealing and has requisite links to follow their blog, follow them on twitter, or to view events related to insurance. Despite the lack of creativity though, there is a lot of useful information on the website including information about recent healthcare legislation, management of chronic conditions, and online courses.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Health Insurance is located at http://www.bcbs.com/. This site is definitely designed for the consumer with a color splash page base on flash with an immediate input for zip code in order to start shopping for health insurance. There is a noticeable paucity of information located on this website though. Aside from figuring out the cost of insurance and finding a doctor, there is little else. On the bottom there are links to a few articles mostly related corporate details such as the appointment of the new CEO. There are also links to coupons and articles encouraging safe practices like wearing a bike helmet.
Employee Benefit Research Institute has the most “old-time” feeling website while at the same time it seems to have a lot of information available to its members. It is found on http://www.ebri.org/. The website is designed for members, professionals, the media, and really anyone else who would visit the website. While being visually boring, it is very clear – and perhaps this was what the company was striving for when they made their site. Links to everything related to their company are within grasp and any information one could imagine is found on links on the left hand side of the page.
Health Grades is a website designed to evaluate doctors and health care professionals and is found on http://www.healthgrades.com/. It is probably the most fun of the webpages visited if only because one can look up every doctor they've ever visited and see review of them – it’s a little voyeuristic, but fun! Aside from the voyeuristic element though, it is a glorified yellow pages designed solely for looking up and finding doctors. It does its job well though!
Finally, the International Foundation of Employee Benefits is a great website comparing benefit plans from many different organizations. Its website can be found on http://www.ifebp.org/. The flash page is colorful and informative. There are many links all over the website for a wealth of information, including upcoming events, industry news, shopping for insurance, really anything. It is by far the most informative website of the sites reviewed – this is not particularly surprising though given their mission is to be “a leading objective source of relevant employee benefit education and information.” However, the major drawback for this website is that the layout is not clear and in order to find the information (which they have plenty of,) one will need to spend a lot of time surfing and searching in order to hit what they’re looking for.
The insurance commissioner in Washington state is Mike Kreidler. His phone number is (360) 725 7000 and he has a website located at http://www.insurance.wa.gov/. The job of the insurance company is mostly to mediate complaints and fraud, however on the website there is information about how to find insurance, information about current issues and reforms, and really any other issue even tangentially related to insurance such as climate change and legislative action.