Consumer Driven Health Plans/ HSA

Despite some pushback from critics, acceptance of consumer-directed health plans is growing in corporate circles. According to a new study by Watson Wyatt Worldwide and the National Business Group on Health, which surveyed 573 large U.S. companies, employer roll-outs of CDHPs climbed 5 percent last year, from 33 percent to 38 percent. Interestingly, only some of these employers (26 percent) offer or plan to offer a health savings account, a cornerstone of the model behind the CDHP. This …

A new study performed by Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care suggests that consumers with high-deductible health plans visit hospital emergency departments less often than patients with traditional health plan designs. The study, which compared 60,000 members of a traditional Massachusetts plan with 8,700 members of a high-deductible plan, found that there was only a slight difference between the groups for first-time emergency room visits. Members of the …

HCA has decided to roll with the transparency trend. Over the next few months the hospital chain will begin making prices for its services publicly available, starting with hospitals in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, Texas. HCA expects to start disclosing prices in Tennessee over the next few months, and should roll out the program to all of its 165 U.S. hospitals by this summer. Prospective patients will be able to check out prices for common procedures by following a link on the …

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has officially come out against high-deductible health plans. In their policy statement, published this week in the journal Pediatrics, the group contended high-deductible consumer-driven health plans are often bad for children. Given the financial burden filling the health savings account, low- and moderate-income families and families whose children have special medical needs may very well delay or even avoid seeking needed care, the AAP …

A study conducted by Medco Health Solutions found that when patients were able to access drug pricing information using an online comparison tool, they were 58 percent more likely to switch to a more cost-effective prescription drug or a lower-cost pharmacy. The survey was drawn from a study of 55,000 people using a tool that helped them choose lower-cost drugs for the prescriptions they were already taking. Medco, of course, is pushing its own Savings Advisor tool, but the study does …

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association has decided to enter the national healthcare banking business, angling for the dollars flowing into health savings account portion of their members' CDHPs. Blue Healthcare Bank, which has just gotten a federal savings bank charter, will be owned by 33 Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies. Between 12 and 15 of the Blues should begin offering HSAs by the end of this year, according to Blue Healthcare Bank CEO Robert Gross. The bank already offers …

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has revealed a $12 billion plan designed to fix the state's "broken healthcare system" by addressing the hidden costs that result in billions of dollars in higher premiums and taxes. The plan requires that the state's 6.5 million uninsured residents purchase health insurance. Observers say Schwarzenegger's plan is even more daring than the high-profile effort undertaken by Massachusetts. While both states will require that residents purchase …

While a tiny 1 percent of U.S. workers are enrolled in CDHPs, lots of people are suggesting that they have an extremely rosy future, notably the health insurance industry, the employers who see big cost savings, and the banks slavering over the profits from the be made a billion-dollar inflow of health savings account funding. Still, those without financial skin in the game, such as The …

In recent weeks, various studies citing stats on CDHPs have hit the press, some favorable and others criticizing the plans' impact on patients. But few have had the impact of the CDHP study just released by the Employee Benefits Research Institute and the Commonwealth Fund. The EBRI/CF study, which seems to have touched a nerve, found that many of the consumers insured by CDHPs …

Employers like expense-shaving consumer-driven health plans, according to a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute Research and the Commonwealth Fund. But consumers? Not so much. The survey reached 3,158 privately insured adults aged 21 to 64, and used that data to project U.S. trends. The two groups found that only 1 percent of privately-insured Americans--about 1.3 million individuals--are enrolled in CDHPs, which often have a $1,000 initial deductible for individuals and a …