Patients Often Don’t Realize Preventive Care Is Free, Study Says

Jay Hancock — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:07:10 +0000

Researchers that members of high-deductible health plans, a , seem to get less preventive care than people who pay lower out-of-pocket costs. But evidence for why was scanty. After all, under the 2010 Affordable Care Act many preventive screenings and treatments are covered with no out-of-pocket cost at all, even for high-deductible insurance.

Now policy pros at Kaiser Permanente, the giant health plan, have . (Kaiser Health News is not affiliated with the insurer). Perhaps not surprisingly, their research shows that many consumers with high-deductible coverage think the deductible — which can run to thousands of dollars — applies to all doctor visits.

A survey of hundreds of Californians enrolled in health savings accounts, one type of high deductible plan, showed that fewer than one member in five understood that preventive care was free or almost free. A fifth of those surveyed said they had avoided preventive examination or treatment because of cost.

“It’s a reminder that patients usually have a pretty limited understanding of the details of their health insurance plan,” Mary Reed, a Kaiser Permanente scientist and the study’s lead author, said in an interview. “Even when plans are designed well or thoughtfully, if patients don’t understand they probably won’t behave accordingly.”

The lesson doesn’t apply just to high-deductible plans, she said. The need for member education is rising as all plans “continue to get relatively more complicated,” she added.

Nineteen percent of American workers are enrolled in a high-deductible plan, up from 4 percent in 2006, the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) High-deductible insurance comes with substantially lower premiums than other coverage, partly because patients bear more of the cost when they get sick. But advocates see it as a way to prompt consumers to think more carefully about the kind, amount and expense of health services they seek.

�鶹Ů�� Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at �鶹Ů��—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about .

This article/news/patients-often-dont-realize-preventive-care-is-free-study-says/">article; first appeared on �鶹Ů��" rel="nofollow">">�鶹Ů�� Health News and is republished here under a

/?republication-pixel=true&post=4757&ga4=G-J74WWTKFM0" style="width:1px;height:1px;">

Patients Often Don't Realize Preventive Care Is Free, Study Says - �鶹Ů�� Health News

Patients Often Don’t Realize Preventive Care Is Free, Study Says