Dive Brief:
- A new study by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has concluded that about two-thirds of hospital networks on the exchanges are narrow or ultra-narrow.
- To examine the issue of hospital network size in health exchange plans, McKinsey looked at 20 urban areas representing about 25% of the uninsured; health plan networks with 15 or more big hospitals were classed as broad networks, those with 7 to 14 of the big area hospitals considered narrow, and those with six or fewer of the top 20 biggest hospitals in the region were considered ultra-narrow.
- The lowest-priced health plans sold through the exchanges use very small networks of hospitals, McKinsey found.
Dive Insight:
The narrower networks being offered by health exchange plans are inevitable blowback in a situation where health insurers are expected to offer lower prices. Now it remains to be seen whether consumers accept the narrower networks or opt out of health exchange plans entirely. Bottom line, it does seem likely that consumers who choose health exchange plans simply won't get the level of choice they're used to getting. The question then becomes whether they're getting anything worth paying for all, when you combine the narrow networks with the high deductibles and high co-pays.