(by Nick Band)

Consumer-driven health plans (CDHP) can lead to the undesirable selection when used like an alternative to traditional plans, specialists say.

The researchers from Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Policy have examined around 500 members of both consumer-driven and traditional health plans. The results showed that if taking into account only age, gender and other demographic characteristics of enrollees, consumer-driven plans do not attract healthier individuals as compared with other plans.

Still, employees enrolling in the consumer-driven plan offerings appeared to be healthier than those who remained in the more comprehensive, higher-premium plans as such measures as prior use of health services, health care spending and pharmacy utilization were taken into account. The degree of being healthier often reaches 50%. That, of course, could drive other plans costs up, they wary.

Laura Tollen, senior policy consultant at the Institute for Health Policy said that despite the study “does not allow us to make predictions, there is a concern that offering consumer-driven plans could drive up the cost of traditional health plans”