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Phrases Made Easy: “Consumer Directed Healthcare”

This is another post in our series called “Phrases Made Easy.” The purpose of this series is to help our clients and potential clients understand insurance jargon that has a tendency to be complicated.

Consumer directed healthcare is an important concept that sounds difficult… but it really is very simple! We’ve selected this phrase for a few reasons:

  1. It’s a concept that gives the consumer power to make their own health benefits decisions.
  2. It is an important concept in the post-healthcare reform environment.
  3. It is a phrase you will see a lot in our content at Policy Advantage Insurance Services (in fact, it was already in another one of our series’ called Benefits Chalk Talk: Consumer Directed Healthcare).

Easy

Here it is… this is the Policy Advantage Insurance Services definition of consumer directed healthcare:

Consumer directed healthcare is the idea that patients will behave as medical consumers. Patients will be the ones deciding how their healthcare dollars will be spent. Not doctors, employers, insurance companies, or the government.

That’s it… that’s all it is. You (the consumer) make your own decisions about your own health benefits.

As a consumer, you’ll need to know about all of the different “tools” that are available to you. You’ll also need to know whether-or-not you’re getting help from an employer, the government… or if you’re doing it on your own (there are also combinations of the three).

That’s where Policy Advantage Insurance Services comes in. We share valuable, up-to-date, relevant information that helps businesses and individuals finance (pay for) healthcare. In other words, we help you put all the pieces together. These are the kinds of questions we can help you with:

  1. What kind of health insurance plan should I be looking at?
  2. What do I need to know about healthcare reform, and what kinds of new options are available?
  3. How can my employer or the government help me?
  4. Are there any tax incentives when it comes to health insurance/benefits?
  5. Where does dental insurance and supplemental health insurance fit in?
  6. What is a health savings account, and a health reimbursement arrangement?
  7. …plus others.

There you have it… consumer directed healthcare, made easy. Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information to be valuable. Check back at our blog to get further information about funding healthcare. Also, please share with your friends, clients, colleagues, and family. Here are a few of our other information outlets:

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Benefits Chalk Talk: Consumer Directed Healthcare

This is our first post in our series called “Benefits Chalk Talk.” Much like an after-practice or halftime chalk session in athletics, our goal is to help empower our clients to put all the many different benefits tools in play.  And, much like you face different opponents in a sports contest (and strategies change over time)… our chalk sessions will provide relevant, up-to-date information that will help give you the advantage.

Today’s topic is “Consumer Directed Healthcare.” We selected this as our first concept for a number of different reasons:

  1. Consumer Directed Healthcare’s foundation rests upon individual choices, planning strategies, and knowledge.
  2. Consumer Directed Healthcare will be a concept of emphasis in the post-healthcare reform (Obamacare) environment.
  3. Consumer Directed Healthcare emphasizes the direct involvement of the consumer, encouraging people (and employers) to make sound, informed purchasing decisions (the idea is to make the whole system more efficient).

HealthBenefitsChalkTalk1So this leads us to our question: What exactly is consumer directed healthcare?

Well… consumer directed healthcare has many different definitions. Sometimes it’s even referred to as consumer driven healthcare.

This is the definition we use at Policy Advantage Insurance Services:

Consumer directed healthcare is the idea that patients will behave as medical consumers. Patients will be the ones deciding how their healthcare dollars will be spent. Not doctors, employers, insurance companies, or the government.

Some definitions claim that consumer directed healthcare must be utilized with a high deductible health insurance plan (HDHP). We reject this definition, because we think that all tools and programs must be considered when someone is directing their own program (whether-or-not their strategy includes the use of a high deductible health insurance plan).

There are many things that go into consumer directing:

  • Am I an individual or employer?
  • What is my personal situation (family, hobbies, lifestyle, etc)?
  • Should I utilize private or public options (or a combination of the two)?
  • What type of heath insurance plan should I put in place?
  • What are HSAs and HRAs?
  • What do I need to know about dental, vision, and ancillary programs?
  • What kinds of tax incentives are available to me?
  • Plus others…

We’ll answer these kinds of questions in future blog posts. “Benefits Chalk Talk” will identify the different areas of healthcare benefits planning, and then inform the consumer on how to put them into play.

Thanks for stopping by, we hope you found our information valuable. Please feel free to follow us at our other outlets:

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