Great friend, colleague, and highly respected industry consultant Joe Paduda writes today in his widely read Manage Care Matters column about the possible cost and claim shifting implications of uninsured and underinsured workers. In it he makes specific reference to HDHP’s.  Among the points Joe makes about ‘High’ deductible health plans are the following:

“44% of working-age adults were covered by high-deductible plans – but more than half of them don’t have health savings accounts needed to fund those high deductibles.”

“ ‘High’ deductible health plans aren’t much different than no insurance at all if the patient can’t afford the deductible – and over half can’t. So, more incentive to cost- and claim-shift.”

I have great respect for Joe and his point of view. He’s as smart as they come, his points are always thoughtful, well-supported by research, and totally authentic (well maybe except for April 1 every year).

However, when it comes to high deductible plans I’d like to remind Joe and others — let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. There are some innovative and practical uses of HDHP’s to lower costs and deliver better coverage that are most times overlooked by the national stats, commentators and think tanks.

As famed radio commentator the late Paul Harvey used to always say “And now for the rest of the story”.

The “rest of the story” is this: HDHP plans can be and are often used, at least in our little slice of the healthcare world, by savvy and practical employers to lower costs while still providing strong benefits. There’s a core of strong employers out there — many that we are very grateful to count as clients — that are utilizing high deductible plans in combination with reimbursement plans like our own SharedFunding  to reduce costs AND provide better coverage to their employees.

Comments like these from a recent conversation among a group of CEO’s speaking to a fellow CEO about SharedFunding are not unusual:

“Helped us tremendously with health costs.”

“We have had zero increases in premiums in the last 4 years.”

“We hired them last year (our year 1) to replicate the comprehensive plan most of our employees had……….. They did it – even using same insurer.”

“Here’s the key – they contract a very high deductible plan (like $11,000 for a family), and then manage all claims & reimbursements. All the paperwork flows through them. Our employees have much lower deductibles and copays they have to meet….”

Just sayin’.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.