I spent some time earlier this in Washington DC meeting with several members of Congress. I went with a group of other companies that do HSA administration. Our goal was to present the lawmakers with some of the data I will mention below and to take their temperature on how the think Obama’s efforts on healthcare reform my effect HSAs. The general feedback from the Republicans was that they don’t know what to do because their minority only seems to be getting larger—they encouraged us to get people with HSAs ready to right letters and make calls to their leaders in Congress if a bill comes up that could harm HSAs. They also encouraged us to meet with moderate Democrats to make sure they know the data that is emerging from the market studies on HSAs. In our meetings with some of these Democrats, I was surprised at their general lack of knowledge on the accounts and their seemingly open minds on considering them as an option—more on this in future blogs.
AHIP (American Health Insurance Plans) new HSA census study was released May 13th. They stated that there was a 31% increase in health savings account (HSA)-eligible insurance plans, totaling 8 million Americans enrolled in HSA-type insurance plans.
Another interesting study was also released at the same time the annual census was release. This study was the economic class status’ of individuals who are enrolled in HSAs, the findings show that among the over 1,000,000 accounts in the sample, 83% of HSA account holders were estimated by to be mid-to-lower income levels ($75,000/yr or below by 1999 census levels). The data also showed that most employers and employees are not only contributing to their HSAs, but that on average the account balances grew on an annual basis. This is great news, no longer can it be said that HSAs are for the “healthy and the wealthy” but I still think they are for the wise!
Additional interesting facts include in the studies include:
· There was an increase of approximately 1.9 million Americans enrolled in an HSA-type plans since January 2008. Previous AHIP census reports found that 6.1 million were enrolled in January 2008, 4.5 million were enrolled in January 2007, 3.2 million were enrolled in January 2006, and 1.0 million were enrolled in March 2005.
· 30 percent of individuals covered by an HSA plan were in the small group market, 47 percent of individuals covered by an HSA plan were in the large-group market, and the remaining 23 percent were in the individual market.
· A majority of HSA enrollees are covered by Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) products (83 percent) and Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) products (10 percent). In the individual market, almost 92 percent of enrollees in HSA plans were in PPO products, while approximately 85 percent of enrollees in large-group and 76 percent of enrollees in small-group HSA plans were in PPO plans.
· States with the highest levels of HSA/HDHP enrollment were California (854,000), Florida (524,000), Illinois (497,000), Texas (476,000), Ohio (464,000), and Minnesota (388,000).
· Households with a wide range of incomes hold HSA accounts, with almost half (49 percent) of accountholders living in neighborhoods with median incomes under $50,000 (incomes based on 2000 Census data).
· Average total deposits (including personal deposits, employer contributions, and interest) for all HSA accounts were $1,634 and average total withdrawals (including fees) were $1,063.
At HealthEquity, we see the growth of HSA use on a day to day basis, but to see numbers spread over 1M accounts is pretty exciting.
To read the AHIP Census Study visit: http://www.ahip.org/content/pressrelease.aspx?docid=26989
Friday, May 15, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Sliding Economy, Rising Consumerism
Our current economic downturn is affecting all Americans in one way or another, whether it be a small or large impact, yet research shows consumerism is up!
Consumerism within the healthcare industry has seen a rise over the last year and is quickly gaining speed. I recently read an article published in Inside Consumer Directed Care (volume 7, number 7, April 3rd 2008, pages 5-6) which highlighted two interesting findings – 1) use of prescription comparison tools have spiked considerably within the last 6 months, and 2) employee contributions to their HSA have increased, despite employer contribution decreases in the last year. These two findings are not only interesting, but show the incredible growth seen within consumer directed (or driven) healthcare.
This article references that web-based prescription pricing tools from various companies have seen an increase in daily hits of 30% in comparison to last year and site traffic has jumped approximately 144%. We at HealthEquity have also seen similar usage spikes with our own prescription pricing comparison tools. What’s amazing about this is the return of patient responsibility. It’s a patient’s responsibility to fill the prescription their doctor has prescribed. In good economic times, to pay what the cashier tells them to pay. Now the responsibility for seeking out alternative drugs and prescription coupons is gaining significant popularity. HealthEquity’s real-time prescription pricing comparison tools have shown to be one of our most popular locations within our member portal. We have laid the groundwork for our members to continue to manage their healthcare finances responsibly, in turn improving their health equity.
The second portion of this article relates to the decrease in employer contributions to their employees Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s). Despite many companies cutting back costs by lowering their contributions to HSAs, many more employees increased their personal contributions throughout all of 2008. Times are tough, but many individuals and families are seeing the intrinsic value in HSAs which not only instill patient responsibility, but also ensure they are getting the right education from their doctors on treatments and costs, and can in turn do their own research for care alternatives with lower costs with equal quality of treatments. Not to mention, HSAs provide terrific ways to contribute, save, grow and spend your dollars—all tax free!
This report makes me hopeful that the work we have been doing in educating individuals and families on the importance of taking back control of their health and wealth is actually making a difference. We’re a long ways away from our goal, but this report is a great indicator to a bright future for HealthEquity and Americans alike.
Consumerism within the healthcare industry has seen a rise over the last year and is quickly gaining speed. I recently read an article published in Inside Consumer Directed Care (volume 7, number 7, April 3rd 2008, pages 5-6) which highlighted two interesting findings – 1) use of prescription comparison tools have spiked considerably within the last 6 months, and 2) employee contributions to their HSA have increased, despite employer contribution decreases in the last year. These two findings are not only interesting, but show the incredible growth seen within consumer directed (or driven) healthcare.
This article references that web-based prescription pricing tools from various companies have seen an increase in daily hits of 30% in comparison to last year and site traffic has jumped approximately 144%. We at HealthEquity have also seen similar usage spikes with our own prescription pricing comparison tools. What’s amazing about this is the return of patient responsibility. It’s a patient’s responsibility to fill the prescription their doctor has prescribed. In good economic times, to pay what the cashier tells them to pay. Now the responsibility for seeking out alternative drugs and prescription coupons is gaining significant popularity. HealthEquity’s real-time prescription pricing comparison tools have shown to be one of our most popular locations within our member portal. We have laid the groundwork for our members to continue to manage their healthcare finances responsibly, in turn improving their health equity.
The second portion of this article relates to the decrease in employer contributions to their employees Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s). Despite many companies cutting back costs by lowering their contributions to HSAs, many more employees increased their personal contributions throughout all of 2008. Times are tough, but many individuals and families are seeing the intrinsic value in HSAs which not only instill patient responsibility, but also ensure they are getting the right education from their doctors on treatments and costs, and can in turn do their own research for care alternatives with lower costs with equal quality of treatments. Not to mention, HSAs provide terrific ways to contribute, save, grow and spend your dollars—all tax free!
This report makes me hopeful that the work we have been doing in educating individuals and families on the importance of taking back control of their health and wealth is actually making a difference. We’re a long ways away from our goal, but this report is a great indicator to a bright future for HealthEquity and Americans alike.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Hospitals Forced To Become Bill Collectors
High deductibles mean more unpaid bills, so hospitals are reaching out earlier.
By CHEN MAY YEE, Star Tribune
When I read the above mentioned article yesterday morning from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, I thought it was an April Fools’ Day joke. Then I read the challenging personal story in the article about a family people being “shake(n) down” by hospitals about how they are plan to pay for services in advance of having services rendered, I realize that the article is serious. However, I still think it is a JOKE that hospitals and other providers of medical services are immune from normal business practices such as properly billing people and properly collecting payment from people.
From my early education and training in medical school and my surgical residency through my own surgical practice, I have been amazed at the incompetence that medical providers have in running a business. I know that much of this incompetence in rooted in the fact that few physicians have any formal business training and that for the last 50+ years our country has become increasingly addicted to a third-party payment system that has invented such non-sensical things such as co-pays, pre-existing conditions, and in- and out-of-network physicians. However, my medical colleagues also shop, fuel, eat, fly, sleep, and recreate at the same places you and I do. I am sure that most doctors have just as high, if not higher expectations about what constitutes good customer service and a well-run business than the average bird, but somehow, it is lost in their own businesses.
Why can’t people that go to doctors’ offices, labs, radiology centers, and hospitals have a similar experience when it comes to purchasing goods and services that they to when they go to pharmacies—let alone every other business we patronize? Shouldn’t it be required that in all elective care situations, including the C-section delivery as mentioned in the Star Tribune article, that people get a sense of what things will cost and the provider gets a sense of how the patient/consumer plans to pay for those services? This is not a problem with high-deductible or HSA-type plans. This is a problem with medical providers and most (not all) insurance companies that are either unable or unwilling to help people know how much to pay for goods and services when they are rendered. The vast majority (80% or more by our calculations) of people with an HSA will not hit their deductible and therefore require any payment to the medical provider by the insurance company in any given year. That means that the vast majority of medical transactions can be concluded at the point of service between the medical provider and their patient/customer at the time service is rendered.
The benefit if fixing this single problem in health care would be enormous. Huge administrative (people, paper, and postage) cost savings—all of those annoying EOBs and other bills could be reduced or eliminated. Medical providers would get most of their money much sooner. This fact, coupled with medical providers’ share of the administrative savings may lead to them to lower their prices or being able to invest in a better experience with shorter wait times and more one-on-one wait times with their patients. Patients that know the cost in advance of spending may choose less expensive, but equally efficacious options. Overall, cost will go down if medical providers, insurance companies, and the government (I think there needs to be a law requiring transparency on price and quality available for the patient at the point of care) work together to solve this problem.
This is no April Fools’ Joke—we must fix this problem ASAP!
By CHEN MAY YEE, Star Tribune
When I read the above mentioned article yesterday morning from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, I thought it was an April Fools’ Day joke. Then I read the challenging personal story in the article about a family people being “shake(n) down” by hospitals about how they are plan to pay for services in advance of having services rendered, I realize that the article is serious. However, I still think it is a JOKE that hospitals and other providers of medical services are immune from normal business practices such as properly billing people and properly collecting payment from people.
From my early education and training in medical school and my surgical residency through my own surgical practice, I have been amazed at the incompetence that medical providers have in running a business. I know that much of this incompetence in rooted in the fact that few physicians have any formal business training and that for the last 50+ years our country has become increasingly addicted to a third-party payment system that has invented such non-sensical things such as co-pays, pre-existing conditions, and in- and out-of-network physicians. However, my medical colleagues also shop, fuel, eat, fly, sleep, and recreate at the same places you and I do. I am sure that most doctors have just as high, if not higher expectations about what constitutes good customer service and a well-run business than the average bird, but somehow, it is lost in their own businesses.
Why can’t people that go to doctors’ offices, labs, radiology centers, and hospitals have a similar experience when it comes to purchasing goods and services that they to when they go to pharmacies—let alone every other business we patronize? Shouldn’t it be required that in all elective care situations, including the C-section delivery as mentioned in the Star Tribune article, that people get a sense of what things will cost and the provider gets a sense of how the patient/consumer plans to pay for those services? This is not a problem with high-deductible or HSA-type plans. This is a problem with medical providers and most (not all) insurance companies that are either unable or unwilling to help people know how much to pay for goods and services when they are rendered. The vast majority (80% or more by our calculations) of people with an HSA will not hit their deductible and therefore require any payment to the medical provider by the insurance company in any given year. That means that the vast majority of medical transactions can be concluded at the point of service between the medical provider and their patient/customer at the time service is rendered.
The benefit if fixing this single problem in health care would be enormous. Huge administrative (people, paper, and postage) cost savings—all of those annoying EOBs and other bills could be reduced or eliminated. Medical providers would get most of their money much sooner. This fact, coupled with medical providers’ share of the administrative savings may lead to them to lower their prices or being able to invest in a better experience with shorter wait times and more one-on-one wait times with their patients. Patients that know the cost in advance of spending may choose less expensive, but equally efficacious options. Overall, cost will go down if medical providers, insurance companies, and the government (I think there needs to be a law requiring transparency on price and quality available for the patient at the point of care) work together to solve this problem.
This is no April Fools’ Joke—we must fix this problem ASAP!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
In Need of a 'Standing Army' for Healthcare Options
President Obama continues to talk about not only saving the economy, but also about reforming healthcare. In his live press conference last night, he linked these two important policy goals together by stating that reforming healthcare will help save the economy by eliminating much of the unnecessary cost. I spent some time in Washington DC a couple weeks ago at a Healthcare Policy Forum. Among everyone at the Forum there is no consensus on what will be done by the Obama administration to reform healthcare. There is consensus that the President and the democratically controlled Congress are committed to make significant progress in the next few months on creating new laws that are focused on healthcare. The belief is that Congress hopes to have bills ready in the House and Senate by the August vacation break that will be considered and voted on in the fall. Something will undoubtedly begin to occur with healthcare reform by the end of the year.
As CEO of HealthEquity, it is no secret that I am a big believer in HSAs and consumer directed healthcare. I became convinced of this more and more as I practiced medicine. People need to be financially committed to the healthcare decisions they make. HSAs are the best combination of financial responsibility and good healthcare insurance options that we have available in this country. We need to be ready to respond if the President, or Congress, begins considering laws that can hurt or curtail the ability of people to have and contribute to HSAs.
To that end, I am doing what I can to support a new website that is committed to developing a “standing army” of people with HSAs that are willing to hold President Obama and their local legislators at their word when they said that for those of us who are happy with our healthcare, “we can keep the healthcare choices we have.” The website is www.hsaalliance.org. I have registered on the site and we will be putting a link off of the HealthEquity website to support the effort. Please check it out and register. We need as many people as possible to register and be ready to fight any threat to HSAs.
As CEO of HealthEquity, it is no secret that I am a big believer in HSAs and consumer directed healthcare. I became convinced of this more and more as I practiced medicine. People need to be financially committed to the healthcare decisions they make. HSAs are the best combination of financial responsibility and good healthcare insurance options that we have available in this country. We need to be ready to respond if the President, or Congress, begins considering laws that can hurt or curtail the ability of people to have and contribute to HSAs.
To that end, I am doing what I can to support a new website that is committed to developing a “standing army” of people with HSAs that are willing to hold President Obama and their local legislators at their word when they said that for those of us who are happy with our healthcare, “we can keep the healthcare choices we have.” The website is www.hsaalliance.org. I have registered on the site and we will be putting a link off of the HealthEquity website to support the effort. Please check it out and register. We need as many people as possible to register and be ready to fight any threat to HSAs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
