This document explores how expanding access to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) would affect health system performance along nine performance dimensions.
Advocates of high-deductible health plans, which shift more of the cost of care to individuals, believe that consumers will more carefully assess the balance of health care benefits versus costs, ultimately improving efficiency and quality of care.
The intent of parity regulation is to equalize private insurance coverage for mental and physical illness (an equity concern) and to eliminate wasteful forms of competition due to adverse selection (an efficiency concern). In 2001, a presidential directive requiring comprehensive parity was implemented in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program. In this study, the authors examine how health plans responded to the parity directive.
Many seniors quit taking drugs for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure when they exceed their drug plan's yearly spending limits.
This research brief assesses the effects of the government-required Federal Employees Health Benefits Program's provision of behavioral health benefits equal to its general health benefits on insurers and consumers' use of services and spending.
Government subsidies that cut health insurance premium prices in half for people without insurance would reduce the number of uninsured Americans by just 3 percent.
Many seniors quit taking drugs for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure when they exceed their drug plan's yearly spending limits. Even when drug benefits resume at the start of a new health plan year, a significant number do not resume their prescription medications.
How does cost sharing affect drug use? A RAND Corporation team linked pharmacy claims data with health plan benefit designs from 30 employers and 52 health plans.
This report is an overview of the current state of knowledge on the effectiveness of these benefit-design approaches and tools: high deductibles, personal spending accounts, and tiered-benefits designs.
Americans continue expressing high levels of support for health insurance coverage of family planning services in the U.S., but support for U.S. funding of family planning and abortion services in developing countries is declining.
Health Affairs asked RAND to apply current theory and knowledge to identify how selection bias might occur as Medicare-eligible DoD beneficiaries enrolled in Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).
