More Americans are avoiding healthcare due to cost uncertainty
While many avoid care due to costs, there has been an uptick in the percentage of patients who have access to health plan transparency tools.
Photo: Marko Geber/Getty Images
Almost half the respondents to a new survey, 44%, say they have avoided getting healthcare services because they were unsure of the costs. The findings, published in HeathSparq's 2022 Annual Consumer Sentiment Benchmark, show a steep increase from just one year ago, when 25% of patients reported skipping care.
The impact of healthcare costs was a key theme of the findings. Two-thirds of respondents, for example, reported being unaware of new government regulations requiring that health insurance plans must offer price transparency to their members. Despite this low awareness, 81% expressed support for the rule.
Among those with a high-deductible health plan, 51% avoided care due to unknown costs.
The survey framed the numbers as a call to action for health plans, which can eliminate some of the uncertainty by offering consumers price transparency tools, the report said.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
The survey found an increasing number of consumers reporting access to such transparency tools. In the study, transparency tools were broadly defined as online tools from insurance companies in which members can search for in-network providers, get cost estimates for procedures, learn about treatment options, or receive guidance on insurance-covered options.
With 70% of respondents indicating the availability of these tools at their health plan, the rate is at its highest point in the survey's four-year history.
Two-thirds of consumers who report having access to transparency tools have used them in the past year, the research showed. And the majority who have used such tools feel they help with understanding coverage (91%), making informed decisions (89%) and managing costs (81%).
More than 6 in 10, meanwhile, wish their health plan offered more in-depth provider profile details, and 71% would like to schedule appointments through their health plan website.
Health plan transparency tools most commonly offered the ability to find in-network providers (72%). Fifty-five percent offered telehealth, and 53% offered the ability to select a primary care provider online. Other uses included help navigating benefits and healthcare options (50%), cost estimates for healthcare services (50%), the status of the deductible (49%), review of doctors and facilities (46%), and online appointment scheduling (41%).
However, just 25% of health plan tools offer financial incentives or rewards for choosing cost-effective care.
THE LARGER TREND
A July 2020 survey found another reason people may be avoiding medical care: The burden of finding, accessing and paying for healthcare.
More than two-thirds of consumers in the 2020 Change Healthcare – Harris Poll Consumer Experience Index, a national survey of 1,945 consumers conducted by the Harris Poll and commissioned by Change Healthcare, said every step of the healthcare process is a chore. Most said they don't know how much a treatment or visit costs until months later, and nearly all said they want shopping for healthcare to be as easy as shopping for other common services, and they want it to be a fully connected digital experience.
Researchers asked consumers to rate the ease or difficulty required to find, access and pay for care across 29 tasks, using an index of 1 to 200, with 200 being the "hardest" effort, 1 being "effortless" and anything above 100 being "difficult."
The result: Not one healthcare activity was described by consumers as effortless. Rather, consumers ranked the difficulty of dealing with the healthcare system as high as 149, and the average across all tasks at 117.
Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com
