Consumer-directed coverage promoted by policy group
American Medical News
November 5, 2001
by Amy Snow Landa
Wye River Group on Healthcare, a "broad-based policy group that represents employers and other health care stakeholders is encouraging companies to adopt a 'consumer-directed' approach to funding their employee health benefits -- a move that has been welcomed by the AMA."
"The group -- whose sponsors range from Wal-Mart to the American Hospital Assn. -- has developed a 60-page 'employer's guide' that advises companies on how they can offer their workers 'consumer-directed health care benefits,' more commonly known as defined contribution plans."
"The Wye River Group has begun promoting its ideas on consumer-directed health care benefits to the White House and to Congress."
"A number of tax and regulatory changes would not require congressional action but could be made through executive order, according to Jon Comola, an Austin, Texas-based health care consultant who chairs the Wye River Group."
Mark McClellan, MD, a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers:
"I think the Wye River Group proposals fit in very well with our overall direction."
<http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_01/gvsa1105.htm>http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_01/gvsa1105.htm
For the Wye River Group's "Employer's Guide to Patient-Directed Healthcare Benefits": <http://www.wrgh.org/>http://www.wrgh.org/ and click "Recent Projects"
Comment: The "Employer's Guide" produced by the Wye River Group describes "Patient-Directed Healthcare Benefits," especially through "Personal Health Accounts" and/or "Flexible Spending Accounts." These are variations of the Medical Savings Account theme which enable employers to pass inflationary health care costs on to their employees. It is no wonder that the Wye River Group is supported predominantly by business interests.
Insurance companies, not to be outdone, are now creating plans that also incorporate the Medical Savings Account theme within the structure of their plans.
Providers, in no position to negotiate, will be forced to accept the dictates of the "insurance-industrial complex."
And patients? If they need care, their accounts will be depleted and many will exhaust their personal funds before catastrophic coverage begins. At that point the patient is free to direct his or her own health care benefits.
But this will solve health care problems for employers by controlling their costs and for insurers by reducing their risks. Did we forget anyone?