As I was preparing a presentation that I will be giving about Private Exchanges to an employer group in Charlotte and I had somewhat of an Ah Ha moment. I had been reading so much about Private Exchanges and had seen so many demos of Private Exchange technology that all the noise was kind of getting in the way of my own independent thoughts. I had to give an audience my view of Private Exchanges and I came up with several ideas one if which is my AH HA moment thought. So here it is:
“Private Exchange Technology and their Decision Support Tools may result in too many people choosing the wrong solution relative to what an employer may be trying to accomplish.”
This is one of my thoughts so let me explain. One of the big benefits of moving to a Private Exchange is that employees will get more health insurance options. Rather than the employer choosing a one size fits all approach they will give employees a menu of options and let them choose from the menu. And with those options they will provide technology to guide employees through the decision process and direct them to the solution that best meets their specific needs. The idea is that the low utilizers or healthy people will more than likely choose lower cost options while the older, higher utilizers will choose the higher cost options. This obviously assumes the lower cost options have higher deductibles, co-insurance and copays and maybe a limited provider network while higher cost plans will have lower deductibles and co-insurance and a broader network of providers. Thinking of it this way one needs to ask “Is this the employer’s goal.” It may not be. There may be unintended consequences associated with Private Exchanges.
There is a statistic by Dave Ramsey, the personal financial guru that says, “40% of employees admit that stress over money significantly impacts their work productivity”. There have been times in my life where that was true for me personally and I am sure I have employees who work for me today that would say the same for them. When it comes to employee benefits what do I want to give my employees? I would say one thing is “peace of mind.” Isn’t that what insurance is supposed to be? Try driving around in your new car without insurance and see how you change your driving habits. From my perspective an insurance policy is intended to protect a person or family from financial harm or ruin that could result from an unanticipated large expense.” The key word is “unanticipated”.
The other thing I want to do is protect them and their family from financial stress or ruin in the event of an unanticipated event. I buy them Life Insurance to help their family in the event of death. Disability to protect them from financial ruin if they are disabled. And I don’t want them to go bankrupt or become financially stressed from an unanticipated health event for themselves or a family member. Sure paying for office visits or dental is something in the insurance policies that I provide, but do I lose sleep because an employee may have to pay 50% for their kid’s braces on some 3 year payment plan. No. Or what if they have to pay $20 for an office visit. No. A couple going to the movies is more than $20.
One of the problems with Private Exchanges and or Public Exchanges is the focus on the little stuff. Look at all the chatter about ObamaCare. All we heard about was getting physicals paid and oral contraceptives paid for. Now that people are signing up for Public Exchanges we are beginning to hear about deductibles in to $4000 – $5000 range and out of pocket maximums in the $10,000 – $15,000 range. Is that what people need – free oral contraceptives and $10,000 Out-of-pocket maximums?
So now along comes Private Exchanges whose purpose is to give employees more options. These Private Exchanges come with Decision Support tools to help employees choose the right plan. They all ask employees questions like, “How many office visits do you expect in the next year”? Or “how many ER visits do you expect”? Are you kidding me? Who can predict the number of office visits or ER visits in the next 12 months? As consumers are we supposed to “time the market”. And is “timing the market” what insurance is really all about? I recently saw a study from Intermountain Healthcare that says 90% of their highest claims from one year to the next are different people. I have personal experience where last year I had some issues to address where I did exceed my deductible but this year I hardly spent anything on health care at all. Who knows what next year will bring?
That gets me to the title of this article. Will offering more health care options with decision support tools result in employees “taking their eye off the ball”? Will employees take on risks they can’t afford? We are in an economic environment where a large percent of our population are living pay check to pay check. And we all know that many of the younger people don’t have the money in their banks to fund the costs of higher deductibles and co-insurance associated with lower cost plans.
Now I hear the naysayers already, “our decision support tool will not suggest that someone to take on a risk they can’t absorb”. However I have not seen any decision support tools ask questions like “Do you have $5000 in savings to pay for the costs of your deductible?” Most start with “How many office visits do you expect in the next 12 months?”
Now I realize health insurance is too expensive for many. Helping those with little money to save some money on health insurance is a good idea. That’s not the point of this article. My main point is that a possible unintended consequence of more employee health care options is exposing employees to financial risks they simply can’t afford. Is that what employers want when they provide insurance for their employees?
JOE MARKLAND 