Physicians Practice - February 2008 - (Page 60)

HEALTHONOMICS is for the self-employed only.) The maximum allowable tax-free yearly contribution in an HSA is $2,900 for individuals and $5,800 for families. And the catastrophic plans coupled with HSAs have deductibles between $1,100 and $5,500 for singles, and $2,200 and $11,000 for families. Blue Cross and Blue Shield and United Healthcare are big playlow yearly medical costs — a young, healthy person — than families or the chronically ill. Even so, she said the theory behind them is sound. “We hear they are supposed to improve physician-patient communication on the costs and benefit of procedures, which I think has been taken out of doctors’ hands in managed-care plans,” says patients are paying for their own drugs, they’ll ask for the generic rather than a drug that costs $600 a month,” he said. “Patients [in managed care plans] don’t know what a drug costs; they’re shielded from it by a $20 copay. And often, other drugs are just as good.” This saves everybody money, except the drug companies. CHAOS COMING HSA BENEFIT “The doctor and patient can decide together whether [a given treatment] is an appropriate use of the patient’s money.” Samantha Rosman, MD ers in the high-deductible market. Currently, it’s estimated that about 7.2 million people in the U.S. have consumer-driven healthcare plans. Samantha Rosman, a pediatrician who chairs AMA’s board of trustees’ task force for health-system reform, expressed concern that HSAs may be more appropriate for people with READ MORE ABOUT IT! Visit PhysiciansPractice.com for more information on Health Savings Accounts and for tips on improving your billing and collections processes: • Learn more about HSAs and other emerging healthcare finance models by typing “The New Payment Models” in our Search Articles box. • Download our Patient Information Form and sample Collection Letters from our Tools section. • Check out www.treas.gov/offices/ public-affairs/hsa, a U.S. Treasury Department Web site loaded with HSA background, tax information, and helpful FAQs. Rosman. “The doctor and patient can decide together whether [a given treatment] is an appropriate use of the patient’s money. Doctors are looking forward to that.” HSAs fall under the umbrella term “consumer-driven healthcare,” which also includes health-reimbursement arrangements — basically HSAs funded by employers. Proponents of these options, in conjunction with a high-deductible plan, believe that they give consumers greater control over their health. In fact, a study conducted by management consulting ﬁrm McKinsey and Co. found that patients in such plans were twice as likely to ask about cost and three times as likely to choose a less expensive treatment option. In addition, chronic patients were 20 percent more likely to follow treatment regimens carefully. Consumer-driven health plans also have the potential to save the patient and the insurance company money by cutting down on the use of expensive prescription drugs, says Bill West, an OB/GYN and founder and president of First HSA, a Reading, Pa.-based company that markets and administers HSA accounts. “When Theoretically, that’s all a good thing, but while physicians make the transition from a patient population insured mainly by managed care to one with a mix of coverage types, there is some havoc to face. The AMA recently surveyed its members, asking whether the advent of consumer-driven healthcare plans was making billing and collections processes more difﬁcult and/or time-consuming. Sixty-ﬁve percent believed such plans will force them to increased collections efforts, while 61 percent believe their ofﬁce will now need to make more of an effort to verify beneﬁts and train staff to do so. The AMA, says Rosman, will soon create brochures to help physicians through the transition. Although HSAs and high-deductible plans have been causing confusion and sometimes widespread panic in doctors’ ofﬁces lately, there are, thankfully, some fairly straightforward solutions, explains Cynthia Dunn, Cocoa Beach, Fla.-based senior consultant with the Medical Group Management Association. One problem is that many insurance cards don’t say that the patient has a high-deductible plan or that an HSA is attached to it. Sometimes, even the patient doesn’t know; sometimes patients do know, but are unclear on what they are or how they work. The patient just hands you the card, on a busy day in your crowded ofﬁce, and you must spend 15 minutes on the phone with her insurance plan trying to ﬁgure out, ﬁrst of all, what type of insurance it is (high-deductible or otherwise, and after that, 80/20?), and then what is allowable (preventive services, or no?), and how much of the deductible the patient has met. WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 60 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | FEBRUARY 2008 http://PhysiciansPractice.com http://www.treas.gov/offices/ http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - February 2008

Physicians Practice - February 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Your Future is in Your Hands Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: Creating an A+ Practice Noteworthy Cover Story: Conquering Time: 5 Keys to a More Efficient Practice In Balance: A Family Affair Technology: Making EMRs Work in the Exam Room In Practice: "I've Got Some Bad News" The Tech Doctor - The EMR: Savior or Poseur? Ask the Experts NEW! Healthonomics: How to Handle Health Savings Accounts The Administrator's Desk: Finishing School for New Managers Human Resources: Is Your Partner Impaired The Great Practice Makeover: Too Well-Liked for His Own Good? Coding Idealab: 'Why I Blog' Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - February 2008

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