Dive Brief:
- HealthPocket, a free website that compares health insurance plans, has released a study that compares premiums among traditional health insurance plans to premiums of provider-owned health plans in the Affordable Care Act market.
- It looked for the lowest premiums among both types of plans in twelve counties across the U.S. that contained both types.
- The company reports that, "Contrary to expectations, the cheapest provider-owned health plans were more expensive on average than the cheapest plans not owned by providers."
Dive Insight:
The findings suggest that even though provider-owned plans aim to reduce healthcare spending by eliminating the conflict of interest of the third party fee-for-service model, they are not achieving lower premiums.
The study found that premiums for the cheapest provider-owned silver plans were 12% more expensive overall than those of the cheapest silver plans that were not owned by providers. Among bronze and gold plans, provider-owned plans were 13% more expensive than those not owned by providers.
A statement from HealthPocket says the study is neither an endorsement for the fee-for-service model nor a rejection of the provider-owned model.
"Rather, the research raises questions about the theory that eliminating the fee-for-service model would produce dramatic reductions in healthcare costs and, as a consequence, health insurance premiums," wrote Kev Coleman, Head of Research & Data at HealthPocket.