High-deductible health insurance plans create financial stress for patients, and for providers who have to figure out how to collect from those patients. The plans are supposed to encourage in behaviors like saving for future medical expenses, price shopping and prudent care-seeking. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine examines the extent to which they actually engage in those behaviors. (JAMA Int. Med. Art.) The survey was composed of 1637 adults under age 65 who were in a high-deductible plan, with the great majority have employer-sponsored coverage and about half saying they had at least one chronic condition. About 60% had a savings account of some type attached to the plan. The respondents were asked about their use of four behaviors: saving for anticipated health expenses; comparing the price or quality of services from different providers; discussing price with a provider and negotiating a lower price. 40% said they engaged in saving, 25% said they talked to a provider about price, 14% compared prices across providers, usually online, 13% compared quality across providers and 6% actually negotiated for a lower price, usually in regard to drugs or outpatient visit costs. Among those respondents who said they compared prices and/or tried to negotiate, about half ended up paying less. Unfortunately there was no comparison group in the study, so can’t tell if people with high-deductible coverage engaged in more or less of these behavior. I suspect it would be more. Although the authors felt use of the behaviors was low, depending on actual health needs, it seemed like a fairly good rate of these behaviors to me. Actually negotiating lower prices is a hard thing to expect in the context of medical care, where the patient wants a non-adversarial, very warm relationship with their provider. As people’s experience with the plan’s grow, they might become more sophisticated consumers and engage in these behaviors even more frequently.
Consumer Behaviors under High-Deductible Health Plans
No Comments
✅ Subscribe via Email
About this Blog
Healthy Skeptic Podcast
Research
MedPAC 2019 Report to Congress
June 18, 2019
Headlines
Tags
Access
ACO
Care Management
Chronic Disease
Comparative Effectiveness
Consumer Directed Health
Consumers
Devices
Disease Management
Drugs
EHRs
Elder Care
End-of-Life Care
FDA
Financings
Genomics
Government
Health Care Costs
Health Care Quality
Health Care Reform
Health Insurance
Health Insurance Exchange
HIT
HomeCare
Hospital
Hospital Readmissions
Legislation
M&A
Malpractice
Meaningful Use
Medicaid
Medical Care
Medicare
Medicare Advantage
Mobile
Pay For Performance
Pharmaceutical
Physicians
Providers
Regulation
Repealing Reform
Telehealth
Telemedicine
Wellness and Prevention
Workplace
Related Posts
Commentary
March 27, 2023
Why You Can’t Trust People Who Make Up Stuff About Vax Safety
A couple of studies offer a far better explanation for heart issues in athletes and…
Commentary
March 25, 2023
Coronamonomania Lives Forever, Part 201
Tired of March Madness? A boringly refreshing dip into some CV-19 research summaries is recommended.
Commentary
March 24, 2023
The CDC Is a Font of Methodological and Statistical Error
Several times in the last three years I and others have pointed out serious flaws…