Dive Brief:
- Some marketplace health plans in more than a dozen markets including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Miami are offering the benefit of free doctor visits this year, reports Kaiser Health News.
- The move comes in response to reports many new healthcare enrollees under the Affordable Care Act have still been avoiding healthcare due to high copays and deductibles.
- By encouraging doctor visits, insurers are banking on catching health issues before they become more expensive conditions and before patients resort to utilizing urgent care centers and ERs.
Dive Insight:
The free doctor visits exceed the free preventive services required under the ACA, and aside from ultimately reducing healthcare costs, the intent is to draw in more enrollees--many of whom may be younger and healthier.
“This is a great development… and shows how the market is trying to innovate,” Katherine Hempstead of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation told Kaiser Health News. “It’s a very exciting idea.”
She suggests consumers should find the benefit very appealing and they're more likely to accept cost sharing down the line if they get something for free first.
According to a KHN review, the plans in the trend tend to be some of the lowest cost in their markets, and some are able to offer the deal because they have their own health clinics with physicians paid by salary.