“That’s not the way we buy healthcare,” although it is the way we do many other things, like book airline flights, Sood said.
“High-deductible health plans take advantage of an irrationally designed health care system,” Dr. Joseph S. Ross of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, an associate editor of JAMA Internal Medicine, wrote in an editorial.
“In fact, information about our health care system is asymmetric in that it is better understood by physicians and less so by patients, which means patients obtaining care are not truly informed decision makers,” Ross noted.
Sood pointed out that patients may not know if their medical records will easily transfer to another provider, which would be solved if patients, instead of doctors, owned their own medical records.
“If you are enrolled in a high-deductible plan, check if your employer or health plan offers a price compare tool,” Sood said.
“The verdict is still out on high deductible plans,” he added. “They save money at the healthcare system level, but there’s not enough evidence that they enable people to make smarter or value-based decisions. That’s the promise they were sold on.”
