Consumer-Driven Health Plans Have Break-Out Year, Signaling Change For Pharma, Managed Care Organizations, Physicians, Hospitals And Consumers

BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources Group, the premier provider of healthcare analysis and data globally, offers expert insight into managed care. As Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) start to reveal their offerings for the healthcare exchanges that debut in 2014, Consumer-Driven Health Plans (CDHPs) will be front and center.  CDHP enrollment has had a break-out year, after steady increases over the past decade. More than twelve percent of commercial enrollment was in consumer-driven plans as of January 2013, according to the latest census of MCOs from HealthLeaders-InterStudy, a Decision Resources Group company.

"We already know of several state exchanges where consumer-driven plans are a key part of the offering. Even though they require relatively large out-of-pocket expenses on the part of the consumer, they offer cheaper premium options, especially for those who don't qualify for subsidies from the federal government," explains Sheri Sellmeyer, Vice President of Advisory Services at HealthLeaders-InterStudy, a Decision Resources Group company. "National players—such as UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, and WellPoint—are driving CDHP enrollment, but so are regional insurers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. And of course the percent of commercial enrollment in consumer-driven plans varies on a state-by-state level. One extreme is Utah, where an important regional player and a national plan are heavily marketing CDHP, which makes up almost 21 percent of commercial enrollment."

Decision Resources Group's newest Executive Briefing, entitled "In Countdown to Exchanges, Consumer-Driven Health Plans Continue to Grow," leverages proprietary research on consumer-driven enrollment to provide a trend dissection and implication analysis of the almost 20 million people in consumer-driven plans across the United States.

"The growth of CDHPs across the country will drive patients to influence physician prescribing, as more people become motivated to "own" their healthcare. While some will seek lower cost care and generics, patients with chronic diseases may actually demonstrate additional adherence and compliance, as those medications are often built into CDHP benefit design. For pharmaceutical companies, understanding where each brand falls within the patient priority set will be vital to forecasting the impact of CDHP," adds John Jaeger, Vice President of Market Access Custom Insights at PharmaStrat, a Decision Resources Group company.

Download the Executive Briefing here.

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SOURCE Decision Resources Group