Health Savings Account Blog

United Healthcare membership is growing at a rapid pace across employers of all sizes as well as in the individual market. Consumers in plans connected to HSAs increased 75 percent from June 2005, with more than 750,000 new individuals participating in the past year. About 60 percent of the CDH membership selected the plan even when their employers also offered more traditional, non-CDH options, further illustrating that consumers are driving this rapid growth through strong interest in account-based plans.

"Consumers are becoming much more comfortable with account-based plan designs," said Mike Tarino, CEO of Definity Health, the United Healthcare business that manages consumer-driven plans and activation strategies. "More than 13,000 employers have already turned to us to incorporate a consumer-driven plan design into their benefits strategy, and our CDH membership among large, national employers alone recently topped 1 million."

Activation Programs Are Key

Tarino attributes the continued strong interest and enrollment in consumer-driven plans in large part to the activation programs pioneered by Definity Health, which include personalized health messaging, monthly health statements and health coaching. These strategies are tailored to each individual consumer, preparing them to take informed action, making it easier to navigate the health care system, enhancing their ability to focus on healthy lifestyles, and maximizing the value they receive for their health care dollars.

United Healthcare is also extending these activation programs to enrollees in non-CDH plans, creating a more consumer-centric approach among participants in all types of health benefit programs. Already, approximately 1 million consumers in non-CDH plans are receiving a deeper and more personal level of support on their health care decisions through these efforts, effectively enabling behavior change and creating a simpler experience for any health care consumer, regardless of plan design.

Definity's activation programs are producing tangible changes in the health care behaviors of consumers. For example, the personalized messaging program, which delivers personally relevant health messages through multiple formats, has found that consumers who read their personalized messages show:

- 240 percent higher rates of mammography
- 31 percent increase in the use of pill-splitting
- 100 percent increase in the use of mail order pharmacy services

These and other early results indicate that unique and integrated programs that help people get to the appropriate care provider and pursue the optimum intervention positively impact their health care outcomes, as well as related costs.

"More and more individuals and employers are realizing that they can influence positive changes in consumer health through innovative approaches like these," Tarino said. "Engaging and activating consumers can drive significantly higher levels of awareness about affordability, accessibility and quality, and we believe strongly that those benefits should not be limited just to individuals in HRA and HSA plans."

United Healthcare companies currently serve 710,000 members enrolled in HSAs as well as 1,045,000 HRA enrollees. Approximately one-third of the large and mid-size employers served by United Healthcare offer one of the company's consumer-driven health plans, a strong indication that a consumer approach to health care is quickly becoming the mainstream.

Learn more about Health Savings Account and compare United Healthcare plans at http://www.health--savings--accounts.com