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The Role of Employers (and Employees) in the Health Spending Conversation

"The state of both public and private policy in this area, suggests two immediate areas for employers and other system leaders to focus on in terms of understanding and reducing health costs. The first is consumerism.... A second area of focus is better understanding, and then communicating, value."

Research Suggests Urgent Care Centers Reduce Health Care Costs

"Across the six states studied, researchers found that the existence of an urgent care center in a zip code reduced the number of [emergency department] visits by about 17 percent.... [T]he authors estimate that urgent care centers save about $3.3 billion annually.... [T]his number does not consider other ways in which urgent care centers might offset those savings by, for example, encouraging new health care use or acting as a substitute for lower-cost primary care clinics."

Employers in Colorado Band Together to Directly Negotiate Rates and Lower Costs for Health Care Consumers

"The Center for Improving Value in Health Care ... highlights how Colorado is trying change the way employers purchase, and consumers shop for health care."

How Much Is Too Much: Out-of-Pocket Spending Among Medicare Beneficiaries

"[T]he average person covered under traditional Medicare paid $5,460 out of their own pocket for health care in 2016... [H]alf of all traditional Medicare beneficiaries spent at least 12 percent of their income on health care in 2016, with the financial burden falling disproportionately on lower-income, older, and sicker beneficiaries[.]"

High Drug Prices and Promising Policy Proposals: What the Evidence Says

"High drug prices have been associated with market trends, patent protections, and lack of competition. While there are solutions that can be instated at the federal level, states are taking it upon themselves to pass certain policies to diminish the burden on consumers. Even with protective measures already in place, prices have been increasing at an exponential rate over the past decade, the main issue being the market."

Insurance Market Stability: The High-Deductible Problem

"A number of solutions have been proposed to make inclusive risk pools healthier, including increasing the subsidies for young people or increasing the spread of the age-related rate banding. In addition to these approaches, there is a solution that would not require additional legislation or appropriations: fix 'the deductible problem' that erodes the value of insurance and drives healthier people of all ages away from purchasing insurance that they believe they are unlikely to use."

More Families with Employer-Sponsored Insurance Are Needing Public Assistance

"[In] families where parents were covered by [employer-sponsored insurance], the percentage of kids who were not covered by that insurance increased from 22.5% in 2008 to 25.0% in 2013. The percentage of such children who were covered by Medicaid or CHIP also increased from 12.1% to 15.2%. In other words, in families where parents were covered by job-offered private insurance, more and more of their kids were being covered by public insurance."

The U.S. Paid Sick Leave Landscape

"[H]igher lower income individuals are more likely to delay care, whether insured or uninsured.... Uninsured respondents are also more likely to delay care.... For any income and for either insurance status, respondents without paid sick leave are more likely to delay care. This is consistent with the idea that the higher cost of care -- and not getting paid is a cost -- is a barrier to care.... 61% of workers have paid sick leave. White and Asian non-Hispanic workers are more likely than average to have such a benefit. Other races are less likely."

Paying for Value: Progress and Obstacles (PDF)

"For the most part, ... programs that combine quality measures and incentives for cost control and prudent resource use -- paying for value -- have not been in operation long enough to measure their effectiveness. Experimentation is increasing through approaches such as shared savings and bundled payment, but many questions remain about how best to define and measure value."

Health Plan Features: Implications of Narrow Networks and the Trade-Off between Price and Choice (PDF)

"Research on the impact of narrow networks is limited, but early studies suggest that several factors affect whether narrow network strategies will succeed. These factors include the way networks are constructed, the characteristics of the broader market in which narrow network plans operate, and whether consumers have the knowledge and tools to make informed choices about coverage. Additional research is needed to help policymakers better understand how to define and develop enforceable standards to measure the adequacy of narrow networks. Research can also help identify the quality considerations to be incorporated into the network design process, the development of network adequacy standards, and the type of guidance that can help consumers understand plan differences when making choices among products."