Don't Believe the Hype?
But Don’t Let That Stop You Promoting It ;)
A sobering case study for CDHP/HSAs. Financial services company T. Rowe Price adopted its consumer-driven health plan in 2004. You’d think they’d succeed, given the 5,000 financially savvy U.S. employees and a sophisticated benefits program already in place. Enrollment in the plan hit 8 percent the first year, not bad.
Enrollment remained flat for three years, then rose in ’08 to 9 percent - too low to produce substantial savings. What could (maybe) make a difference? More incentives and tools for consumerism. A majority of consumer-driven plans today are stagnating like T. Rowe Prices. The most common plan designs don’t contain the seeds for their success.
It’s telling that when Towers Perrin wanted to quantify cost savings from CDHPs in a recent study, it found the CDHP landscape too small to do a credible survey. PR folks at vendors or companies succeeding in CDHP’s may have a media story in that success, going against the grain of poor performance through the solutions or approach that you offer.
Tags: CDH, CDHP, Consumer+Directed+Healthcare, Health+Savings+Accounts, Healthcare+PR, HSA, Medical+PRPosted by Shawn Whalen on May 30, 2008 at 11:12 AM
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