CDHP Members Are More Likely to Adopt Healthy Behaviors

Americans who engaged in healthy habits saw their total medical costs go down 15%, an average $358 per person in the first year, according a CIGNA study. Members in consumer driven health plans (CDHPs) are most likely to engage in these healthy habits. The company compared the healthcare claims experience of 897,000 CIGNA members in consumer driven health (CDHP) plans, PPOs, and HMOs. Customers who had healthy behaviors, such as participating in health coaching and disease management programs, substituting generic medications for brand name drugs, and avoiding unnecessary trips to the emergency room, saw their costs go down.
CDHP members are up to 19% more likely to participate in the company’s health coaching program compared to those enrolled in a traditional plan. CDHP members with a chronic illness are 21% more likely to participate in their plan’s disease management program.
CDHP members who have a pharmacy management benefit choose generic equivalent drugs 70% of the time. CDHP members use the emergency 13% less often than do those with HMOs and PPOs. CIGNA Choice Fund members saved an average of $800 when they visited an urgent care facility, their doctor’s office, or convenience clinic instead of the ER.
Use of online information and tools, through myCIGNA.com, increased by 40% when members are enrolled in a CDHP plan. CDHP plan enrollees are five times more likely to complete a health assessment compared to those enrolled in a traditional plan.
CDHP medical costs are 15% lower than traditional plans during the first year, cumulative cost savings rise to 18% in the second year, 21% in the third year, 24% in the fourth year, and 26% in the fifth year.
New CDHP members had the same or better statistical compliance with 400 evidence-based medical best practice measures than their counterparts in traditional plans. Compliance among CDHP members is 14% higher for those enrolled in CDHP plans for multiple years. Moreover, CDHP members sought preventive care 8% to 10% more often than those enrolled in a traditional plan.
The medical cost trend was substantially less for CDHP members with joint disease (21% less), diabetes (8% less), and hypertension (7% less), than for members with any of those diseases who are in traditional CIGNA health plans.
CDHP members with health reimbursement accounts paid $35 less per year out of their own pockets compared to members in traditional plans, demonstrating that savings can be achieved without cost shifting. Also, the percentage of total cost was the same for men and women.
“The evidence is clear. Given the right incentives, the right health improvement programs, useful cost and quality information, and easy-to-understand correspondence, individuals are making rational, wise and successful healthcare decisions. Perhaps because most individuals covered by CIGNA Choice Fund plans are receiving the same or better levels of care for lower cost, 83% of those surveyed report that they are satisfied or very satisfied with the service for their CDHP plans – slightly higher than the 82% satisfaction rate across all of our health plans,” said CIGNA Chief Medical Officer Jeffery Kang, M.D. For more information, visit http://www.cigna.com.