Cover: "Consumer-directed" Health Plans

"Consumer-directed" Health Plans

Implications for Health Care Quality and Cost

Published in: "Consumer-Directed" Health Plans: Implications for Health Care Quality and Cost / Melinda Beeuwkes Buntin et al. (Oakland, CA: California HealthCare Foundation, June 2005)

Posted on RAND.org on January 01, 2005

by Melinda Beeuwkes Buntin, Cheryl L. Damberg, Amelia Haviland, Nicole Lurie, Kanika Kapur, M. Susan Marquis

Confronted with double-digit health care premium increases, employers are turning to high-deductible health plans, tiered benefit designs, and information tools that shift greater financial responsibility and decision-making to employees. This report provides an overview of trends in the adoption of these consumer-directed approaches and a synthesis of what is known about their effectiveness.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation External publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.

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