Sunday, December 25, 2011
McClatchy Newspapers
KANSAS CITY, Mo.
High-deductible and consumer-driven health plans got slightly larger footprints on the employee health-benefits scene in 2011, but traditional health-insurance plans continued to be the dominant form of coverage.
Seventy-eight percent of individuals covered by private health-insurance plans were enrolled this year in traditional health plans that had individual deductibles of less than $1,000 and family deductibles of less than $2,000.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute said that employment-based health benefits remained the most common form of health insurance in the United States, with 59 percent of the under-65 population having that coverage.
In its seventh annual “Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey,” the research organization found a 2 percentage point growth this year in the share of people covered by higher deductible plans.
Sixteen percent of individuals this year were enrolled in high-deductible plans — up from 14 percent in 2010 and 7 percent in 2006.
The survey also found a 2 percentage point growth this year in those covered by consumer-driven plans, which also have higher deductibles.
Consumer-driven plans are characterized by employer and/or employee contributions into tax-preferred accounts, over which the employees have more responsibility to manage how they use the money for health care.
Seven percent of individuals this year had consumer-directed accounts — up from 5 percent in 2010 and 1 percent in 2006.
Those plans include either health savings accounts or health reimbursement arrangements.
The small but steady growth in alternatives to traditional health plans are employers’ responses to rising health-insurance costs, which have outpaced the overall inflation.
The survey found that individuals in these consumer-directed plans “were more likely than those with traditional coverage to exhibit a number of cost- conscious behaviors.”
For example, the survey noted, consumer-directed plan enrollees were more likely to check whether their plan would cover specific care and do cost comparisons before receiving it.
They also were more likely to ask for generic instead of brand-name drugs, to discuss costs and prescriptions with their doctors, and to have developed a budget to manage health-care expenses.
Individuals enrolled in consumer-directed plans also were more likely to participate in health-risk assessment programs, largely because of price incentives granted if they participated.
The survey found no difference among employees — in any type of plan — when asked about their participation in wellness programs that had health promotions such as walking or weight-loss campaigns.
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