Mixed results for consumer-directed health plans

More information is needed about this type of coverage before it can be judged, a study says.

By Doug Trapp, AMNews staff. Nov. 13, 2006.

Washington -- Consumer-directed health care users decline both needed and unneeded health care and might be modestly healthier than the average population.

That's according to a Health Affairs article by RAND, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based think tank, published online Oct. 24. The article analyzed previous reports and studies on consumer-directed care.

The researchers also concluded that there isn't enough reliable information to reach a verdict on the value of health savings accounts, high-deductible health plans, health reimbursement accounts and other types of consumer-directed care.

But a consensus seems to be building around the need for more quality and price information on health care services, according to one of the article's co-authors, RAND health economist Melinda Beeuwkes Buntin, PhD.

Consumers will need this information if health savings accounts and related plans are going to be effective. Part of this would be achieved through the use of comprehensive electronic health records.

"There's tremendous potential for information technology right now. But in these early studies, I don't think it was realized," Dr. Buntin said.

The millions of people using health savings accounts still represented only 3% of the commercial insurance market earlier this year, but that's up from the 1% reported in early 2005.

American Medical Association policy supports health savings accounts and liberalizing the rules for HSAs and flexible spending accounts.