Dive Brief:

• Increasing healthcare insurance deductibles within workplace group plans have been a leading strategy for employers when it comes to reducing overall benefits costs, but recent research found that they may be falling short and are not really a solution, according to the New York Times.
• The Times points out that deductibles and co-payments, which have been increasing in the past few years, ostensibly are designed to drive employees to be smarter healthcare consumers.
• The research cited by the Times article found that some cost-sharing can have positive impact, but high deductibles in particular have been oversold and are not being used properly or delivering desired results.

Dive Insight:

The Times article focuses on researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard, who published a working paper on the outcomes of a large anonymous employer moving from a "generous" health plan to a high-deductible plan. 

In conjunction, employees also received a web-based app to help them be smarter shoppers by comparing health care prices. In addition, they received health savings accounts (HSAs) identical to the deductible. Harvard economist Amitabh Chandra, one of the researchers, told the Times he was sure the study would validate high deductibles as a cost-saving tool. But that didn't turn out to be the case.

While employees in the study did reduce healthcare spending by about 12%, they didn't do it by using the new tools or other expected strategies. Instead, they cut "low-value medical services" and "medically important ones" at about the same rate. Chandra told the Times that after the results were in, he had changed his views about deductibles transforming users into smarter healthcare buyers.

The Times also notes that deductibles typically have become very expensive and most employees can't afford them. Experts in the article suggest alternatives, such as smarter insurance plans that differentiate more critical care, which would be free, from less important medical procedures, which would carry costs for the employee.