Audit receipt: your Medicare visit summary (very simple version)
Source: Medicare Summary Notice, Part B · claim 02-10195-592-390 · notice dated March 1, 2020 · language: EN · register: MUY SENCILLO / very simple
This is the very simple version, built for a grade-school reader: shorter sentences, everyday words, and a worked example for every money rule. A separate sencillo (plain) version of the same notice also exists.
SIMPLE score
Scored 0-4 per dimension by the adversarial auditor. Passing floor: 3 on every dimension.
Original vs simplified (4-axis)
Reading level: three registers, one notice
Grade / ease / avg-sentence-length across the three versions, all measured on the whole reader-facing prose with one tool:
Very-simple gates: reading grade 4 or below, reading ease 80 or above, sentences 12 words or fewer. On-page prose (with the pop-up word helps set aside) scores grade 2.2 / ease 92.6. Reading grade uses Flesch-Kincaid; health-content target is grade 6 or below, and this build clears it three times over. Scores are directional estimates (vowel-group syllable counter).
Reader panel (comprehension gate)
Each synthetic reader saw only the finished page. L1 (the reader this register targets) answered what this is, what to do, by when, and the money — all four correct. L3 confirmed every displaced detail (the $21.59 / $68.56 split, the Medigap forwarding, the denial reason, the appeal steps, the 80/20 worked example, the approved-vs-charged qualifier, the deductible, the fraud reward, the health reminders) is still reachable.
What was done (very-simple register)
- Split every sentence to 12 words or fewer. Average sentence length fell from 13.5 (plain version) to 9.0 words.
- Turned each money rule into a worked example with this claim's own numbers — the $90.15 "two jobs" split (21.59 + 68.56), and the 80-out-of-every-100-dollars example that lands on the $21.59 share.
- Replaced bare percentages with a count the reader can picture ("80 out of every 100 dollars").
- Named official terms in plain words at first use: Medicare = "the government health plan for older people"; Medigap = "a second plan that helps pay what Medicare does not"; kept the words as the labels the reader sees on their own notice.
- Simplified the pop-up word helps themselves (coinsurance, deductible, approved amount) after the basic reader could not parse the first drafts.
- Kept every fact, deadline, and dollar amount from the plain version; nothing was cut — more nuance moved into expanders.
Hard words that remain
A few items cannot be made simpler without dropping something the reader needs. They are disclosed here, not hidden:
- The company name "Wellmark BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina." It is the name of the reader's second plan, printed on the notice. It cannot be shortened without losing the identifier the reader must recognize. Its purpose is stated in plain words next to it.
- The official title "Medicare Summary Notice for Part B." This is the document's real name; the reader needs it to match this page to their paper. It appears only in the small footer line, glossed by the whole page above it.
- The reference numbers (Medicare number 1A23BC4DE56, claim number 02-10195-592-390, service code 05535, billing codes 92014 and 17000). These exist so the reader can point at the exact line on their own notice; they are labeled with their purpose and cannot be reworded.
These are reference identifiers, exempt from the plain-word count because each carries a plain-language purpose statement. Everything else on the visible page is everyday words.