Health Savings Account-Eligible High Deductible Health Plans: Updating the Definition of Prevention

Note from  Brian: Here's an interesting article for health plan benefits managers, released last May by Mark Fendrick et al. at the University of Michigan's Center for Value-Based Insurance Design. It models the potential benefits that might accrue if HSA-eligible High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) were allowed to use an expended definition of preventive services. Given the popularity of HDHPs, especially among large, self-funded health plans, the findings, while speculative, are compelling. The authors assert that:

Utilizing the well-accepted and medically common definition of prevention that encompasses both primary and secondary preventive services could enhance HDHP attractiveness to potential purchasers and accelerate benefit design innovation. Expanding the definition of prevention to include evidence-based services that prevent chronic disease progression and related complications could enhance the ability of HDHPs to improve clinical outcomes while preserving the well-documented capacity to engage consumers and contain costs.

See here for the article's full detail.