Researchers have found evidence that increasing consumers' out-of-pocket health care costs may really mobilize them to make providers more budget-conscious.

Paul Fronstin, an analyst at the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), and Anne Elmlinger, an analyst at Greenwald & Associates, have published figures supporting the power of "skin in the game" in a report based on data from an Internet survey of about 2,000 U.S. adults with commercial health coverage.

Consumers who had high major medical deductibles were much likely to say they had engaged in cost-control strategies such as talking to doctors about prescription drug costs and about treatment options and costs than patients with low deductibles were.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Allison Bell

Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.