"Consumer-Driven Health Care: Promise and Performance"

I am always struck by the difference between the salesmanship of health plans offering consumer-driven health products and the reality of the data.James Robinson and Paul Ginsburg have an article in the January 27th edition of Health Affairs with an objective review of the consumer-driven movement of recent years.Here is the central point of the article:The performance of consumer-driven health

Is the Bush Administration in Favor of Provider Transparency and Accountability or Aren't They?

Brian Klepper has shared an open letter he and Michael Millenson have written to HHS Secretary Leavitt regarding the issue of provider information transparency and the Department of HHS's apparent contradiction with its own policies.An Open Response To HHS Secretary Michael Leavittby Brian Klepper and Michael MillensonA few months ago, the two of us – both long-time advocates for transparency and

Why Consumers’ Checkbook v CMS is a Sideshow--Bush Administration Refuses to Release Provider Data

Brian Klepper joins us again today with another one of his welcome posts. This time he points out the hypocrisy in CMS, which has been calling for market transparency, refusing to provide provider data to a consumer group.Why Consumers’ Checkbook v CMS is a Sideshowby Brian KlepperThere are people who call for market solutions as the answer to every societal problem, but who then work to restrict

New Study Shows Lower Costs in Consumer-Driven Plans--But the Findings Won't Settle the Debate Over Just How Effective C-D Plans Are

HealthPartners, a highly regarded not-for-profit Minnesota health plan, has issued an important report on its consumer-driven care book of business. It includes Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs).Their findings include:After adjusting for "illness burden," HealthPartners found that heath care costs were 4.4% lower for members in a consumer-driven plan compared

An Important and Disciplined Review of the Health Care Marketplace--The Latest Site Visit Report From 12 Markets

Good health care market intelligence is hard to come by. Information tends to come in the form of detailed and narrow, often backward looking, surveys that give us little texture for what key players are thinking. Or, at the other extreme, market information is often based on a relatively few almost random anecdotal impressions by "experts" as they do their work in the market.The highly respected

New York AG Objects to Insurer's Method for Ranking Doctors by Cost and Quality--Just What We Need in Health Metrics--Lawyers

At the core of any market-based ability to control costs--pay-for-performance or consumer-driven care--is the notion that patients and payers have information available to them on a health care provider's cost and quality results.Too often the health plan rhetoric--or marketing brochures--have got out ahead of anyone's real ability to measure cost and quality both accurately and in a way that is

The Market Has a Place in Health Care But It Also Has Its Limits

Every leading health care proposal today includes a place for the market. Some believe government should run it all and then there are those who believe the real solution lies in just letting an unfettered market get it all done.Health care is not like buying a set of tires. We lose our market-driven objectivity pretty quickly when we are faced with scary medical decisions for ourselves or for

Wall Street Journal Sends Shockwaves Through the Health Insurance Markets With the Headline "Health Savings Plans Start to Falter"

It's the kind of headline I would have expected to see in the New York Times instead of the Wall Street Journal but there it was in Tuesday's edition.Vanessa Fuhrmans' article seems to have unleashed some pent-up frustration in the health benefits market on the subject of health savings accounts (HSAs) specifically and consumer-driven care generally. It is as if it represents a turning point for

Humana Caps Annual Increases on Consumer-Driven Plans--Too Bad it Isn't a Real Guarantee

Humana says it will cap annual increases on self-insured consumer-driven plans for three years.Two problems:Humana is capping the costs of its "SmartResults" self-insured plans and only putting 40% of their fees at risk. If they were really putting their money where their mouth is they would be capping the cost of fully insured plans--and if they are so confident on their self-insured product,

More Than 10 Million Are Now Using Consumer-Driven Health Care Accounts--We Will Soon Have Enough Data to Know How Well HSAs and HRAs Work

Consumer Driven Market Report (CDMR) has issued a report on the success of consumer-driven care in the marketplace.CDMR reports that over 6 million people are participating in health plans that have a health savings account (HSA) as part of their plan—that is an increase of 2.85 million in the last year.Similar health reimbursement accounts (HRAs) now total 4.1 million and are growing at a rate

Don't Forget Consumer Choice in Reforming the Health Care System!

Bill Boyles is the publisher of Consumer Driven Market Report and Health Market Survey. He is one of the most effective spokesmen for the consumer driven movement and the effectiveness of the market in managing the cost and quality of care.Today, he reminds us that those offering the new reform proposals shouldn't forget consumer choice:The Uninsured Need Consumer Choice FirstThe only humane way