Does Meeting the Deductible Drive Low-Value Health Care Services?

A study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) reveals that members who met their plan deductible were 83% more likely to use low-value medical services. They may be paying less attention to the value of health care services that their providers are prescribing. Researchers looked at a range of health care services including cancer screenings. For example, members who met their deductible had more cancer screenings that did not meet the age recommendations. 
 
Possible Solutions
Plan designs that discourage specific low-value services may be a solution. For example, Oregon’s public employees’ plan imposes consumer surcharges for certain commonly overused services. This policy led to a 13% decline in these overused services. Also, some carriers no longer cover population-based vitamin D screening.
 
There is also a need for provider initiatives to reduce low-value care. Measuring low-value-care delivery in new payment models, creating learning collaboratives for providers, and doing performance feedback may help.