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Do “Consumer-Directed” Health Plans Bend the Cost Curve Over Time?

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  • Amelia M. Haviland
  • Matthew D. Eisenberg
  • Ateev Mehrotra
  • Peter J. Huckfeldt
  • Neeraj Sood

Abstract

“Consumer-Directed” Health Plans (CDHPs) combine high deductibles with personal medical accounts and are intended to reduce health care spending through greater patient cost sharing. Prior research shows that CDHPs reduce spending in the first year. However, there is little research on the impact of CDHPs over the longer term. We add to this literature by using data from 13 million individuals in 54 large US firms to estimate the effects of a firm offering CDHPs on health care spending up to three years post offer. We use a difference-in-differences analysis and to further strengthen identification, we balance observables within firm, over time by developing weights through a machine learning algorithm. We find that spending is reduced for those in firms offering CDHPs in all three years post. The reductions are driven by spending decreases in outpatient care and pharmaceuticals, with no evidence of increases in emergency department or inpatient care.

Suggested Citation

  • Amelia M. Haviland & Matthew D. Eisenberg & Ateev Mehrotra & Peter J. Huckfeldt & Neeraj Sood, 2015. "Do “Consumer-Directed” Health Plans Bend the Cost Curve Over Time?," NBER Working Papers 21031, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21031
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Haviland Amelia M & Sood Neeraj & McDevitt Roland & Marquis M Susan, 2011. "How Do Consumer-Directed Health Plans Affect Vulnerable Populations?," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 1-25, April.
    2. Anthony T. Lo Sasso & Lorens A. Helmchen & Robert Kaestner, 2010. "The Effects of Consumer‐Directed Health Plans on Health Care Spending," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 77(1), pages 85-103, March.
    3. Bijan J. Borah & Marguerite E. Burns & Nilay D. Shah, 2011. "Assessing the impact of high deductible health plans on health‐care utilization and cost: a changes‐in‐changes approach," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(9), pages 1025-1042, September.
    4. Amy Finkelstein & Sarah Taubman & Bill Wright & Mira Bernstein & Jonathan Gruber & Joseph P. Newhouse & Heidi Allen & Katherine Baicker, 2012. "The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(3), pages 1057-1106.
    5. Manning, Willard G, et al, 1987. "Health Insurance and the Demand for Medical Care: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 251-277, June.
    6. Amitabh Chandra & Jonathan Gruber & Robin McKnight, 2010. "Patient Cost-Sharing and Hospitalization Offsets in the Elderly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(1), pages 193-213, March.
    7. Brian K Lee & Justin Lessler & Elizabeth A Stuart, 2011. "Weight Trimming and Propensity Score Weighting," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(3), pages 1-6, March.
    8. Sood Neeraj & Wagner Zachary & Huckfeldt Peter & Haviland Amelia M., 2013. "Price Shopping in Consumer-Directed Health Plans," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 35-53, March.
    9. Peter J. Huckfeldt & Amelia Haviland & Ateev Mehrotra & Zachary Wagner & Neeraj Sood, 2015. "Patient Responses to Incentives in Consumer-directed Health Plans: Evidence from Pharmaceuticals," NBER Working Papers 20927, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Thesis Thursday: Sarah Zheng
      by Chris Sampson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2018-03-15 07:00:19

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    Cited by:

    1. Zarek C. Brot-Goldberg & Amitabh Chandra & Benjamin R. Handel & Jonathan T. Kolstad, 2017. "What does a Deductible Do? The Impact of Cost-Sharing on Health Care Prices, Quantities, and Spending Dynamics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(3), pages 1261-1318.
    2. Ackley, Calvin A., 2022. "Tiered cost sharing and health care demand," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    3. Eisenberg, Matthew D. & Haviland, Amelia M. & Mehrotra, Ateev & Huckfeldt, Peter J. & Sood, Neeraj, 2017. "The long term effects of “Consumer-Directed” health plans on preventive care use," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 61-75.
    4. Jonathan Gruber & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Bill J. Wright & Eric S. Wilkinson & Kevin Volpp, 2016. "The Impact of Increased Cost-sharing on Utilization of Low Value Services: Evidence from the State of Oregon," NBER Working Papers 22875, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Rabideau, Brendan & Eisenberg, Matthew D. & Reid, Rachel & Sood, Neeraj, 2021. "Effects of employer-offered high-deductible plans on low-value spending in the privately insured population," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Stefan Pichler & Jan Ruffner, 2016. "Does it really make a difference? Health care utilization with two high deductible health care plans," KOF Working papers 16-404, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    7. Whaley, Christopher M. & Brown, Timothy T., 2018. "Firm responses to targeted consumer incentives: Evidence from reference pricing for surgical services," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 111-133.
    8. Chenyuan Liu & Justin R. Sydnor, 2018. "Dominated Options in Health-Insurance Plans," NBER Working Papers 24392, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Christopher Whaley & Timothy Brown & James Robinson, 2019. "Consumer Responses to Price Transparency Alone versus Price Transparency Combined with Reference Pricing," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 5(2), pages 227-249, Spring.
    10. Jonathan Gruber & Johanna Catherine Maclean & Bill Wright & Eric Wilkinson & Kevin G. Volpp, 2020. "The effect of increased cost‐sharing on low‐value service use," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(10), pages 1180-1201, October.
    11. Molly Frean & Mark Pauly, 2018. "Does High Cost-Sharing Slow the Long-term Growth Rate of Health Spending? Evidence from the States," NBER Working Papers 25156, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private

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