1. In Consumer-Directed Health Plans, A Majority Of Patients Were Unaware Of Free Or Low-Cost Preventive Care.
- Author
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Reed, Mary E., Graetz, Ilana, Fung, Vicki, Newhouse, Joseph P., and Hsu, John
- Subjects
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PREVENTIVE health services , *MANAGED care programs , *SURVEYS , *COGNITION disorders , *CONFIDENCE intervals , *CLINICAL pathology , *EPIDEMIOLOGY , *HEALTH services accessibility , *INSURANCE , *HEALTH insurance , *MEDICAL screening , *MEDICINE information services , *QUESTIONNAIRES , *RESEARCH funding , *STATISTICAL sampling , *CONSUMER information services , *DATA analysis , *MULTIPLE regression analysis , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *TREATMENT delay (Medicine) , *ECONOMICS - Abstract
Consumer-directed health plans are plans with high deductibles that typically require patients to bear no out-of-pocket costs for preventive care, such as annual physicals or screening tests, in order to ease financial barriers and encourage patients to seek such care. We surveyed people in California who had a consumer-directed health plan and found that fewer than one in five understood that their plan exempted preventive office visits, medical tests, and screenings from their deductible, meaning that this care was free or had a modest copayment. Roughly one in five said that they had delayed or avoided a preventive office visit, test, or screening because of cost. Those who were confused about the exemption were significantly more likely to report avoiding preventive visits because of cost concerns. Special efforts to educate consumers about preventive care cost-sharing exemptions may be necessary as more health plans, including Medicare, adopt this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
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