Consumer Driven Health Plans [ CDHP ]
Do you know that skyrocketing health care costs have been draining the federal government and employers exchequers over the last couple of years? The health care costs account for 15.5 percent of U.S GDP and is the most expensive benefit paid by employers, seriously affecting their competitiveness in the global market. Health care spending is projected travel insurance top $1.9 trillion in 2005, about twice the amount being spent on education. According to the Employment Policy Foundation, employers have spent $331 billion last year for ( http://www.healthinsurancedepth.com ) health insurance, a 50 percent increase since 1998. All of these never-improving alarming statistics did result in designing the Consumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP), making the insured person an active member in controlling the costs, rather than being passive and relying on the managed benefit program. The idea was pioneered by Definity Health in Minnesota in the year 2000 and has seen a rapid adoption by the employers/employees over the years due to its inherent cure-for-all strategy.
CDHP is all about transferring the reins of health-care costs to the participating individual, thereby making him an active and informed decision maker for his/her heath-care needs. Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) are typically a combination of a high-deductible medical insurance plan coupled with an employer sponsored reimbursement account (HRA) or a health care savings (HSA) plan that consumers access to pay for eligible medical care expenses. Unutilized funds may be carried over for health care expenses for future years, encouraging the participants to use the accumulated asset in a wise manner. The plans would travel insurance include coverage for any preventive care services such as annual health-checkups, immunizations and childcare. The money from the savings plan can also be used for tax-free reimbursement of post-retirement insurance premiums. In the HRA version of the plan, the employer sets aside a pre-defined set of dollars for usage by the employee. The HRA plan is not transferable between employers. When the amount is exhausted, there is some out-of-pocket expenditure incurred by the participant. Employers are now able to control the health-care costs, and the member is encouraged to wisely utilize the money using the annual rollover feature to save for possible major future expenses.
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