Asparity Announces 2008 Results for PlanSmartChoice™

Business Wire,  June 4, 2008  

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Federal Employees Use Decision Support to Select Medical and Dental Plans

DURHAM, N.C. -- Federal agencies that provided PlanSmartChoice, Asparity Decision Solutions' online suite of health plan selection tools, during the 2008 Federal Open Season helped their Federal employees choose medical and dental plans that met their personal and financial circumstances. Asparity quantified Federal employees' consumer behavior and found the following was consistent with its experience in 2007:

* Federal employees selected from an average of 25 medical plan options.

* Federal employees evaluated access, benefits, cost, and satisfaction when selecting a health plan.

* Federal employees accurately estimated their use of medical services.

* Federal employees learned that medical plans varied considerably in how well they met their personal needs and financial circumstances.

* Federal employees enrolled in plans that best met their personal needs and financial circumstances.

* Federal employees were overwhelmingly satisfied with their PlanSmartChoice experience.

Federal employees selected from an average of 25 medical plan options.

In 2008, these options included a mix of Consumer Directed Health Plans, Health Maintenance Organizations, High Deductible Health Plans, Preferred Provider Organizations, and others, as well as dental plans. About three percent of eligible employees used PlanSmartChoice during the Open Season to rank their medical plan options, understand total health care costs, take advantage of tax savings, and easily compare plan information. PlanSmartChoice users spent an average of 17 minutes in 2008 evaluating their medical and dental options -- up from 13 minutes in 2007. "Federal employees know that choosing a medical plan is one of the most important -- and expensive -- purchases they make every year," said Colleen Murphy, Asparity's President and CEO. "Their time on PlanSmartChoice was time well spent."

Federal employees evaluated access, benefits, cost, and satisfaction when selecting a health plan.

Federal employees considered an average of 18 attributes or features of a health plan when evaluating their options. Financial issues dominated their concern. Not surprising, employee premium was most important to Federal employees. Annual deductible was very important as were the cost of prescription drugs (retail and mail order coverage for generic and brand-name prescriptions). Federal employees also considered access to out-of-network providers, coverage for routine physicals and dental care, plan satisfaction results, and the ability to self refer to specialists.

As in 2007, Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Accounts were the two least important attributes, which may mean a need to better communicate these features to the population.

Federal employees accurately estimated their use of medical services.

Federal employees once again did an excellent job of estimating their need for medical care. The services with the highest projected utilization were retail brand name drugs (5.5 prescriptions), office visits (5.3 visits), and retail generic drugs (5.3 prescriptions), which were comparable to Federal employees' projections in 2007.

Federal employees learned that medical plans varied considerably in how well they met their personal needs and financial circumstances.

By using the PlanSmartChoice preference tool and cost calculator, Federal employees learned that:

* Consumer Directed Health Plans were the least expensive for Federal employees with an average total cost of $2,863 per year before any tax savings. CDHPs were less effective in meeting employees' personal needs; they ranked first in only 4 percent of results.

* High Deductible Health Plans best met Federal employees' personal needs; they ranked first in 40 percent of results. HDHPs were not as cost effective as CDHPs, but they were less expensive than other options. On average, they had a total cost of $3,447 before tax savings.

* Preferred Provider Organizations best met Federal employees' personal needs in 38 percent of results and cost an average of $3,733 before tax savings.

* While individual results may have differed, HMOs and other plans were least effective in meeting employees' personal and financial needs based on the PlanSmartChoice results.

Federal employees enrolled in plans that best met their personal needs and financial circumstances.

Across its client base, Asparity finds that decision support users are two times more likely (than nonusers) to enroll in a CDHP or HDHP and participate in a Flexible Spending Account. To the extent that PlanSmartChoice users were more likely to enroll in these plans, Federal employees not only made choices that best met their personal needs, they also spent significantly less money on their health care than those who enrolled in other options. Actual enrollment data for Federal employees who used PlanSmartChoice is not available.

Federal employees were overwhelmingly satisfied with their PlanSmartChoice experience.