INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The WellPoint Institute of Health Care Knowledge has released a study indicating WellPoint’s employer groups save money through consumer-directed health plans.

The findings are consistent with Cigna’s and Aetna’s CDHP studies.

Carl Doty, principal analyst for Forrester Research, is not surprised. “Over the last couple of years I’ve seen a few compelling examples of CDHP from a cost-containment perspective,” he said.

WellPoint CDHP members took advantage of preventive benefits because of the 100 percent coverage, communication to members of this benefit and the proactive reminders, said Jake Biscoglio, vice president of commercial product development.

Discretionary healthcare services accounted for decreases in overall cost trend, he said. CDHP tools help consumers make better-informed, cost-effective decisions, he said, citing as an example the pharmacy comparison tool, which enables consumers to choose a pharmacy based on cost of prescriptions.

Cigna’s most recent two-year study of healthcare claims experience of its CDHP Choice Funds and traditional HMOs and PPOs revealed that CDHP medical trend is less than half the trend for HMOs and PPOs, said spokesman Christopher Curran.

Use of preventive care increased and medication compliance for chronic conditions improved while costs decreased over the two-year period.

“Our experience suggests that individuals enrolled in CDH plans are clearly better engaged in their healthcare, and our online cost and quality transparency tools are playing a major role,” he said.

Aetna’s latest numbers for its HealthFund plans during 2006 revealed that for a full-replacement health reimbursement account plan, annualized medical cost trend through four years is 6.4 percent, or 2 percent lower than PPO trend over the same time.

“This equates to a savings of more than $2.1 million per 1,000 members over the four year period,” said Kathy Campbell, head of Consumer Directed Health Plans.  

Employers who offer Aetna HealthFund plans as an option experience an annualized cost trend of 7.2 percent across all Aetna products over a four-year period, or 1.2 percent lower than PPO trend over the same time period, she said.