The company has compared results over a five-year period for 266,000 consumer directed health (CDH) plan enrollees using Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) with 147,000 preferred provider organizations (PPO) enrollees. After adjusting for demographics, health status, etc., here are the results:
Pharmacy costs were 18% to 23% lower in the CDH plans and medical costs were 4% to 8% lower.
Overall costs were 7% to 9% lower in the CDH plans, with the savings growing through time (employers saved 10% and 12% in 2006 and 2007, respectively).
Jamie Robinson and Paul Ginsburg have paired up in Health Affairs to take another shot at consumer driven health care. This is one of the most peculiar articles I’ve read on the subject. You can tell which author wrote which part of the piece. Ginsburg (Center for Health System Change) has long been a skeptic who is willing to look at the evidence. Jamie Robinson (UC Berkeley), on the other hand, has been consistently foaming-at-the-mouth hostile. About a year and a half ago he gave a speech to the Consumer Driven Summit where he declared the death of consumer driven health care (CDHC) in favor of what he termed “managed consumerism.” He had a list of about ten particulars, but as we wrote at the time, he was wrong on every single one. He just hadn’t bothered to look at the evidence. Continue reading Health Affairs Slams CDHC→
Roger Ferguson, president and CEO of TIAA-CREF and a member of the Transition Economic Advisory Board assembled by President-elect Barack Obama, includes the following in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal:
Encourage health-related savings. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a couple that retires today will need from $200,000 to $635,000 to pay out-of-pocket health-care costs (above Medicare). Few private-sector employers offer workers an account to save for such costs. Last year's agreement among the Big Three automakers and the United Auto Workers to establish tax-free trusts for worker health is an approach gaining favor among academic institutions. Now Congress needs to enable people with these accounts to leave any unused balance to heirs.This will encourage people to hold on to their savings until the last years of their lives, when health-care money is most needed.
The following describes the cost comparison experience of a patient trying to find an affordable MRI option:
Most of us comparison shop when we need a new appliance, computer or car. But for the first time, I've tumbled into the new experience of comparison shopping to find the best deal on the cost of my medical care. I have been utterly shocked by what I've discovered so far.
The annual survey of the Centers for Disease Control finds that 20.3% of all people under age 65 have a high deductible health plan (HDHP) – more than the number covered by public programs (19.4%). The HDHP is defined as having a deductible of at least $1,100 for an individual or $2,200 for a family. Over one-fourth of this number also had a dedicated account (HRA or HSA).
