Consumers

Mar 25 2015

Despite good information availability, an NBER paper finds that consumers don't pay adequate attention to Part D plan features and pricing and this costs them each $536 and Medicare $550 million over three years. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink, or maybe the horse doesn't know how to find the water or maybe they aren't sure how to drink or maybe its too many drugs, or something like that.

http://www.nber.org/papers/w21028?utm_campaign=ntw&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntw

Mar 03 2015

Drug Use in High-Deductible Health Plans

By Kevin Roche Commentary One Comment

A paper at the National Bureau of Economic Research explores how patients in high-deductible health plans changed behavior in regard to drug use.

Feb 12 2015

Drug-skipping

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

A brief from the Centers for Disease Control examines reasons that adults may not have used medications as prescribed, which largely relate to costs.

Feb 11 2015

Employee Cost-Sharing

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

The Health Care Cost Institute takes its own look at consumer cost-sharing and price variation.

Feb 06 2015

Out-of-Pocket Spending

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

Out-of-pocket spending for health care has increased most rapidly for people with employment-related health insurance, according to a study in Health Affairs.

Feb 03 2015

Telehealth Attitudes Survey

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

A survey from American Well reflects Americans attitudes toward telehealth.

Dec 02 2014

GAO on Price and Quality Websites

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

The Government Accounting Office reports on the adequacy of health care cost and qualityual transparency tools.

Nov 18 2014

Americans Familiarity With Health Insurance Concepts

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

A survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation indicates that many Americans struggle to understand some basic health insurance concepts.

Nov 14 2014

Self-Care for Hypertension

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that self-care by patients with high blood pressure can have good outcomes.

Nov 10 2014

Medicare ACOs and Patient Experience of Care

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine looks at how Medicare beneficiaries assigned to ACOs view their care.

Nov 06 2014

HCCI Report on Out-of-Pocket Spending

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

A companion report to the annual Health Care Cost Insitute analysis of commercial health spending examines out-of-pocket spending for 2013, finding more woe for most consumers.

Nov 05 2014

A study from ChangeHealthcare validates the obvious, when consumers have higher cost-sharing, they are more likely to do price shopping.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/change-healthcare-research-as-out-of-pocket-costs-go-up-individuals-more-likely-to-shop-for-healthcare-281315801.html

Nov 05 2014

Price Comparing and Health Spending

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that consumers who look at comparative price information have lower health spending.

Oct 24 2014

Workers Perceptions of the Health System

By Kevin Roche Commentary No Comments

An Employee Benefits Research Institute survey finds that workers generally have a poor view of the health system, but are more satisfied with their own health plan.

Oct 16 2014