A new report shows that more user-pay has little influence on comparison shopping for medical care. Even with “skin in the game” via high-deductible health plans, Americans did not normally seek out cheaper medical services.Instead, they simply avoided shopping for medical care altogether, and in many cases, failed to get preventive care.
Canadian insurers and benefit consultants have generally taken the approach that downloading the cost of dental care onto employees, via large co-pays and deductibles, is the easiest approach to rationing and cost containment. In most cases, co-pays and deductibles are highest for expensive surgical care (e.g. crowns) and lowest for preventive care (e.g. exams and cleanings).
But what if the employee or “consumer” takes the message of rationing differently…. and like the American with skinny medical insurance, stops going to the dentist and fails to get prevention in a timely manner?
Consumers often think the worst case. They think they can afford a cleaning but can’t afford a crown at the new level of co-pay. So, they put off the cleaning.
Canadian insurers and benefit consultants need to reconsider the blunt force of co-pays and higher deductibles. There are, after all, more selective tools for changing the mix of dental services and its associated costs so that oral health is not sacrificed on the altar of cost containment.
For more information, please visit: http://partnersinprevention.ca/smarter-shopping-for-dental-care-does-it-really-happen/.
By: Ross Perry
SOURCED: Partners In Prevention – http://partnersinprevention.ca