title: In consumer-directed health plans, a majority of patients were unaware of free or low-cost preventive care.
abstract: Consumer-directed health plans are plans with high deductibles that typically require patients to bear no out-of-pocket costs for preventive care, such as annual physicals or screening tests, in order to ease financial barriers and encourage patients to seek such care. We surveyed people in California who had a consumer-directed health plan and found that fewer than one in five understood that their plan exempted preventive office visits, medical tests, and screenings from their deductible, meaning that this care was free or had a modest copayment. Roughly one in five said that they had delayed or avoided a preventive office visit, test, or screening because of cost. Those who were confused about the exemption were significantly more likely to report avoiding preventive visits because of cost concerns. Special efforts to educate consumers about preventive care cost-sharing exemptions may be necessary as more health plans, including Medicare, adopt this model.
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, Oakland, California, USA. mary.e.reed@kp.org
authors.forename: Mary E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Ilana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Graetz
authors.forename: Vicki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Newhouse
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hsu
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D003256:Community Participation; D003669:Deductibles and Coinsurance / Q000191:economics; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000191:economics; D006285:Health Planning / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000191:economics; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics*; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics; D009819:Office Visits / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States