Today's average health insurancedeductible is $3,000, and the figure is only expected to go up. Foryou, that means the additional burden of having to yet again relaypremium and deductible inflation news to your clients.

Aren't you tired of that routine?

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again butexpecting a different result, the annual ritual of increaseddeductibles is its own form of relentless derangement. Let's facethe music: Deductibles don't work. They haven't; they won't. Theyblunt the cost of care, obscure the health care market forconsumers, fail to save your clients money, and don't promotehealth.

But here's what does work: increased consumer control andagency. Those are the primary levers that balance and shape othermarkets, and new employer-sponsored solutions are finally bringingtheir powerful levers to health insurance. Consumer control inhealth care allows people to make better treatment choices andimproves everyone's bottom line.

Related: 10 states paying the most for employer-sponsoredhealth care premiums

Wouldn't it be a refreshing change to stand in front of yourclients and tell them you have a solution that can lower theirmedical benefit costs and provide an extensive network?

So, what does that solution look like? How does it work?

Price certainty

If everyday commodities were priced the way health care is, ourmorning latte from our favorite coffee shop might cost between $5and $500, and we wouldn't know the actual price until the“explanation of coffee benefit” showed in the mail weeks or monthsafter we drank it. Thanks to coinsurance and deductibles, that'sthe insanity of health insurance pricing for consumers. People findout what they owe weeks after they consume care.

If you want a real win — for your clients and their employees —you should consider on-demand health insurance that makes costsclear in advance of treatment selection. Consumers who are aware oftheir exact cost across treatment options choose the most cost-effective option 40 percent more often thanpeople on deductible plans do. People try physical therapy and lessinvasive options before, or instead of, costly surgeries. The samecost-effective selection occurs for treatment setting, too. Peopleselect outpatient clinics or ambulatory surgical centers up to 92percent of the time over inpatient hospitals. People who areenrolled in on-demand health insurance select lower cost pharmacies44 percent more often than members in traditional plans. Thesebehavioral changes are helping employers curb health care costs asmuch as 10 percent to 20 percent. 

Smart pricing

Deductibles were introduced into plan design to create sharedmember burden. The hope was that people would select and consumehealth care more carefully when they had to cover 100 percent oftheir treatment costs out of the gate. But two impacts prevent thatfrom being plausible for consumers. One, people remained in thedark about the cost of their treatment options in advance oftreatment selection. Two, plans continued to increase thedeductible amounts when they failed to achieve their intendedresult.

On-demand health insurance adds incentive and clarity. With it,people avoid the mounting deductible wall completely. They canadjust their coverage if their needs change and they have instantaccess to cost information across treatment options. Even better,“smart” pricing or copays give people clear economic signals theyneed during treatment and/or provider selection. Providers whopractice more efficiently with lower costs and fewer complicationsare rewarded with lower copays. That gives people the opportunityto pay less for providers and treatments that are more likely toget them or keep them well.

That's the connection that's missing within deductible plans.On-demand health insurance makes the relationship between cost andquality central, not lost or hidden behind industry tools andconsumer confusion. 

Encourage care access

Employees shouldn't be afraid to use their health insurance.It's supposed to be a benefit, not a punishment. Employer-sponsoredhealth plans are part of each employee's compensation. The employeeshould view it as such — as a valuable benefit, there to make iteasier for people to obtain the care they need, when they needit.

I know what you're thinking: A health insurance plan thatencourages members to get care? How do I sell that to my clients?It's not as radical as you think.

When employees put off the care they need, employers pay theprice — an estimated $530 billion due to illness-relatedproductivity loss in 2018. A whopping 44 percent of Americans avoidthe doctor when they are sick or injured because of cost alone.High-deductible plans are linked to delayed diagnosis andtreatments; that becomes especially poignant when it comes tocancer prevention and treatment. Deductibles may promise costcontainment, but their downstream impact is the exact opposite —people aren't getting the care they need, and many that do end upin financial trouble.

When employees are encouraged to obtain the health care theyneed and have the tools necessary to make informed treatment andprovider selection decisions, everyone wins. It's notover-utilization that drives up cost; it's the wrong utilization.Prescription drug utilization is a good example. When people needmedication, they should be encouraged, through plan design andexperience, to obtain it in the right form and from the rightsource. With on-demand health insurance, that happens. Under ourplan, 41 percent use their pharmacy benefit, compared to 29 percentunder traditional plans. That means more people are getting thedrugs they need and they're doing it at an average cost of $37.74per member per month compared to the industry average of$69.83.

It's time to reevaluate the options you are presenting to yourclients. Real change in employer health benefits costs requires aninnovative plan design that focuses on empowering the consumer tomake good treatment choices, not the same old plan wrapped in adifferent bow. It's time to think outside the box and embraceon-demand. 

Tony Miller is the founder and CEO of Bind On-Demand HealthInsurance.