Robin Wright King on Consumer Understanding of HDHPs

Many consumers don’t understand high-deductible health plans and how all the components involved operate within that plan, said Robin Wright King, MBA, director of CDH Product Management at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The plan's goal is to offer tools for members to better understand their plans and make informed decisions for themselves and for their families.

Transcript (modified)

How much do consumers really understand about high-deductible health plans?

What we’re learning from our members, and again we’re starting this research as it relates to our CDH journey mapping initiative, but what we’ve discovered so far is that members really don’t understand how the components of these plans work together.

So you’ve got your health plan, you’ve got deductibles, you’ve got copays, you’ve got the pharmacy piece of your account, perhaps you’ve got pharmacy deductibles—and we offer our members tools to help them find the appropriate doctor, the appropriate facility, and to make the best decisions around their health plan. But often members see these pieces as separate, and they don’t quite know how to pull it all together and use this information in a way that helps them to make better decisions for themselves and their families.

So our response is to take these tools and resources, integrate them more fully into the health plan, and educate members on how to use these tools and resources so, again, they can make better and more informed decisions for themselves and their families.