Oct 27, 2014 | Health Navigator
The Kaiser Health News article noted “…Employers are inquiring about it and brokers and consultants are advocating for it.”
“Health spending is driven largely by patients with chronic illness such as diabetes or who undergo expensive procedures such as organ transplants. Since most big corporations are self-insured, shifting even one high-cost member out of the company plan could save the employer hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — while increasing the cost of claims absorbed by the marketplace policy by a similar amount.”
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Oct 24, 2014 | Health Navigator
The Health Affairs article reported on Consumer Directed Health Plans, noting:“Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs), which feature a high deductible and a personal health savings account, can reduce medical spending by employers and consumers.”
“Patients enrolled in CDHPs had fewer episodes of care over the same time period than patients enrolled in traditional plans. Furthermore, these patients were found to have fewer visits to specialists, fewer hospitalizations, and lower use of brand-name drugs — all of which lowered their costs.”
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Oct 23, 2014 | Health Navigator
The Wall Street Journal article noted “The federal government … announced … that it would require people who wanted to buy a particular type of insurance called ‘fixed indemnity plans’ to demonstrate first that they also had traditional health-insurance coverage.”
“Fixed indemnity plans typically pay a limited cash benefit, with no deductible, to people who are hospitalized or encounter other medical costs. But the federal government said it was concerned that people might confuse those plans with standard health-insurance plans, and that the fixed indemnity plans alone couldn’t be considered to be coverage under the law’s requirement for most people to have insurance or pay a penalty.”
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Oct 22, 2014 | Health Navigator
Just when you thought that maybe you sort of understood the cost of an Obamacare health care insurance policy, a Kaiser Health News article noted: “This could be the next shoe to drop, as people don’t realize that if they’re buying a bronze plan, they may have to pay $5,000 out of pocket before it contributes a penny…”
“Experts worry that some enrollees will be discouraged from seeing doctors if they have to pay the full charge, rather than simply a copayment.”
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Oct 21, 2014 | Health Navigator
“If patients insist on medical procedures that science shows to be ineffective or unnecessary, they’ll have to pay for all or most of the cost.”
We all “demand” tests and prescriptions from out doctors and it is often easier for them to comply than argue. Now there may be a price to pay.
The Reuters article reported on “value-based” insurance with this vignette:
“When Tanner Martin, 17, developed excruciating back pain last year, he was sure he needed an X-ray to find out what was wrong. So was his mother, who worried that the pain might indicate a serious injury that could cause permanent disability.”
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The Kaiser Health News article noted “…Employers are inquiring about it and brokers and consultants are advocating for it.”
