LinkedIn
If you want to see my LinkedIn profile, click on this button:
Category Archives: Health Care Insurance
Fast facts on consumer-driven health plans
The nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute sums up what is known about CDHPs and examines trends in offer rates and enrollment. It also looks at differences in premiums between CDHPs and other types of insurance, and discusses the drivers of the premium differences:
The report is in the August 2010 EBRI Issue Brief, available online at www.ebri.org.
Among the key points:
* Offer rates: Surveys show that employers offering a CDHP increased from less than 5 percent in 2005 to between 12 percent to 15 percent by 2009.
Growth in offer rates can be seen across all firm sizes. Recently, the percentage of small firms offering a CDHP has declined, while larger firms have continued to add a CDHP as an option.
* Enrollment: Overall, 19.1 million, or 11 percent of individuals with private health insurance, were enrolled in a CDHP in 2009.
* Premiums: Generally, premiums for CDHPs were lower than premiums for non-CDHPs. Growth in premiums varies both by type of plan and over time.
* Explaining differences in premiums: A number of studies have tried to explain the differences in premiums between CDHPs and non-CDHPs. One found savings ranged from a high of 15.5 percent to a low of –4.7 percent, with average savings of 4.8 percent.
However, the study found that most of the savings was due to younger, healthier workers choosing CDHPs and concluded that once typical risk- and benefit-adjustment factors were taken into account, CDHPs saved only 1.5 percent.
There is strong evidence that, initially, CDHP enrollees will be healthier than non-CDHP enrollees, but that over time the CDHP population has a significantly higher illness burden.
* Impact of CDHPs on preventive services: The studies agree that use of preventive services did not change (upward or downward) as a result of the CDHP.
* Impact of CDHPs on medication adherence: The studies found that overall use of brand name prescription drugs fell among CDHP enrollees, and, while there was some offset from increased use of generic drugs, some enrollees stopped their use of prescription drugs. CDHP enrollees increased their use of the mail-order pharmacy option. Overall use of prescription drugs among CDHP enrollees with certain chronic conditions fell, or did not increase when enrollees met their deductible. One study found that the financial incentives of the plan are not sufficient in driving behavior, and that educational outreach also matters.
Posted in Health Care Insurance
Tagged CDHPs, EBRI Issue Brief, Employee Benefit Research Institute
Leave a comment
Health Care Reform: Preventive Services Interim Final Rules Released
On July 14, 2010, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Treasury released final interim rules implementing the preventive health services provisions under the Affordable Care Act. Read this alert to learn more about the new rules. Continue reading
Report: Costs of PPACA exceed previous estimates
Two integral provisions of the health care reform legislation, “dependent eligibility” and “affordability,” will likely result in much higher health care costs for employers than previously estimated by government officials and other industry consultants, according to a new report.
The bswift Special Report on the Impact of Health Reform on Employers analyzes the 2010 benefits premium, contribution and dependent data of 242 bswift client organizations. The sample includes mid-sized and large employers with 50 to 15,000 employees representing a variety of industries, including retail, manufacturing and professional services.
“The bswift Special Report highlights the dramatic differences in impact of PPACA among employers. For some, the impact is negligible. For many others, PPACA may increase costs substantially for 2011 and may also require a complete overhaul of the organization’s health strategies in the next three years,” says bswift CEO Rich Gallun. Continue reading
HSAs: Growing in all directions
Having recently surpassed the $1 billion mark in HSA assets, OptumHealth’s Todd Berkley shares how the consumer-directed accounts are fairing as the economy struggles to recover.
Continue reading
Health reform could foil mini-med plans
As industry practitioners continue to peel the onion on health care reform’s impact, a new layer of concern is now reverberating across the worksite market.
The survival of so-called mini-medical plans, most of which are offered on a voluntary basis and target part-time or seasonal employees, hangs in the balance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. At issue is a provision stipulating that health insurers cannot offer such coverage through state exchanges and ruling that the plans do not qualify as “essential benefits.”
Dave Evans, senior vice president of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, known as the “Big I,” says the uncertain fate of mini-med policies hinges on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ruling on whether the new health care mandates will apply to these plans.
“There has been an appetite for these products,” he observes, “and we hope that they are not taken off the menu under the guise of health care reform.”
One industry official was quoted in a recent report as saying HHS has the “regulatory latitude to completely destroy these plans, eliminating them from the marketplace, if they choose to say that the market reforms – no annual or lifetime limits – apply to mini-med plans.” Continue reading
