HealthcareScoop site hopes to get people talking

The HealthcareScoop.com billboards -- with their rallying cry, "Share your healthcare story today!" -- are hard to miss.

What's not as obvious is that the entity behind the new website for the public to swap stories is Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. So why would the state's biggest health insurer want to dabble in -- in their own words -- "water cooler" talk?

"People want to do it, and they're going to anyway," said MaryAnn Stump, chief innovation officer at Blue Cross. Particularly when it comes to the highly desirable 15- to 30-year-old demographic, "this is the way they communicate."

Stump says it's all part of Blue Cross' ongoing efforts to engage consumers. The idea is to later link the HealthcareScoop page to other Blue Cross information sites such as Healthcare Facts, which offers descriptions of services at hospitals and clinics.

Stump says the HealthcareScoop site has attracted 9,000 unique visitors since it went live in early November. To get the ball rolling, Blue Cross employees posted 30 to 40 of their own health care experiences, and there were a total of 136 as of Friday.

The stories are grouped according to topic. Readers rate the stories for their usefulness, using zero to four stars. Among the top-rated are "Every Guy's Worst Nightmare," about a brush with testicular cancer, and "OB/Gyn Goes Above and Beyond!"

Interestingly, in the category of "Health insurance," there's only one story -- a long, rambling tirade posted by someone called spunk1939.

The rating? No stars.

CHEN MAY YEE