High-Deductible Plan Consumer Understanding

Acclaris, a vendor of administrative services for HSAs, HRAs and similar health plan-linked accounts, released a survey of 650 professionals working with such accounts.  (Acclaris Survey)   Almost all respondents said they offer one or more of these plans and that they were important to their business and they intended to grow them.  TPAs and other vendors of services related to these account-based plans have begun making them available to smaller employers, so more and more consumers are exposed to them.  The biggest frustration respondents expressed in regard tot he plans was the difficulty in educating consumers on how they work.  As a larger percentage of Americans are covered by high-deductible plans, and only 11% actually meet that deductible, their primary interaction may be with the account administrator.  For example, for HSAs, the average member had almost 12 transactions a year with an average amount of $1572.  Other concerns include data integration and regulatory compliance.  For those employers and plans using outside vendors, the most important factors in selection are service quality, security and compliance capabilities.  Another obvious need is full integration with the actual health plan administration and the ability to present unified data and analysis.