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March 24, 2011
Are Patients With Health Savings Accounts More Savvy?
The nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute recently released their survey that investigated a link between cost-conscious behaviors and those who make use of health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements. The results show that people with these plans are more likely to budget, compare prices and ask for generic drugs.
However, investigators also noted that people with HSA plans didn’t appear any more likely to talk to doctors about cost, request less expensive drugs or check quality ratings on doctors or hospitals. Nor was any relationship seen between health savings account balances and cost-conscious behavior.
The report's author and director of the institute’s health research and education program, Paul Fronstin, noted that, “It is expected that individuals who are given more control over funds allocated for health care services will become more cost-conscious, especially once they become more educated about the actual price of health services. However, no evidence was found to support this with respect to some of the measures used in this study of cost-conscious behavior.”
This online survey of a nationally-representative sample involved 4,508 adults between the ages of 21 and 64, who have private health insurance. The results also indicated that the number of people with health savings accounts grew to 5.7 million in 2010. That was an increase of 1.2 million since 2006. You can see whether an HSA or health reimbursement arrangement is right for you with the resources on our website.
Posted by Wiley Long at March 24, 2011 11:38 AM