One of the largest issue that our clients face is providing comprehensive and affordable health care for employees and

Focused Benefits Education Can Help You Drive CDHP Enrollment

their families.  In light of recent studies, employer interest in Consumer Driven Health Plans or CDHPs has grown tremendously.  In fact, a recent study by NBGH/Towers Watson finds that 54% of companies offer a CDHP and that number is expected to grow to 61% in 2011.

One of the more widely quoted surveys that illustrate cost savings is from health insurer Aetna.  In late 2009, Aetna published the results from a six-year study of its 2.6 million members and 410,000 members of the Aetna HealthFund consumer directed plan.  One key finding from this study showed that employers who offer the Aetna HealthFund as an option experienced savings of $7 million per 10,000 members over a  five year period.

But there is an opportunity for employers to save much more than that.  Aetna also offered this nugget:

“Employers that offered CDH plans as an option but who engaged employees for adoption using strategies identified as best-in-class saved $23 million per 10,000 members over five years.”

Imagine that.  An effective employee engagement plan is worth $16 million in cost savings (per 10,000 members over five years).  For many employers, employee engagement is an after-thought despite the importance to the overall success of the CDHP initiative.  In my discussions with employers, many have a sense that they are not maximizing the cost savings opportunity provided by their CDHP, but too many have no idea how much money they are leaving on the table.

Employee engagement is more of an art than a science.  To capture the kind of savings described above, most experts agree that it requires focused and ongoing employee education.  Sure, you can offer incentives to encourage adoption and promote certain behaviors but at the end of the day, an employee will not choose a plan unless he or she understands how it works.  The typical consumer driven plan is complex and an employee doesn’t need to look at the plan very long to see that it involves taking on more financial responsibility.  After all, that’s the point of a CDHP.

And so, given the absence of time and impression of risk, most employees would just assume stick with what they know and choose the PPO/HMO option.  And that’s the state we find ourselves in with many employers unable to push employee enrollment figures past the single-digit mark.