Health literacy, as defined by the 2004 Institute of Medicine report, Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion, is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic information and services needed to make appropriate decisions regarding their health.1 The report noted that adults with limited health literacy have less knowledge of disease management, report poorer health status, and are less likely to seek preventive care. By some accounts, low health literacy costs the U.S. health care industry $73 billion a year in misdirected or misunderstood health care services.