Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Employers in the Dark on Consumer Directed Care

I read an interesting article today. "Health Plans not doing enough to educate employers on " Consumer Directed Care" Insurance agents and brokers say the employers would likely choose these alternative plans if insurers would provide more tools for comparison. This makes me chuckle. Large insurers( we won't name names, but you all know who they are) have most companies and/or families in the US paying for the typical full coverage plan ( generally 10 to 12 grand a year). Remember that this is the plan that covers for in network doctors. These are the offices that struggle due to tightened reimbursement where you will find an hour wait to see a mid level provider as a nurse practicioner. Now when you have this kind of revenue across the board, why would insurance companies " provide tools for employers" to start paying them 4 grand a year for a family of four for the high deductible plan? That's right they would be out of their minds to promote high deductible plans because they will loose mounds of cash and put it into the pockets of out of network physicians and concierge medicine practices and Personal Pediatrics affiliates. These families will prefer to have personalized service outside of the conventional full coverage system and pay an out of network Personal Pediatrics affiliate house call doctor a fair yearly retainer fee and out of network office visits. The cool secret to this is that a family can have personalized medicine in one of its many forms for the same price as the full coverage plan if they adopt a high deductible plan. As the rates of the full coverage plan increase at 10 to 15 percent yearly, employers will hemmorhage out of these plans into the more economical high deductible plan, and place 4 or5 grand in an employees MSA, which they can use for a personalized internist or a Personal Pediatrics affiliate physician. The full coverage plan is dying and so is the outdated pediatric office system. Families will not stand for this poor service and long waits and poor communication with their pediatrician. Families that prefer to communicate with modern tools like email and direct cell phone access will shift their insurance plans accordingly. Personal Pediatrics the Pediatrician of the Past and Future... Today.

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