Joel Ario Quoted on Tiered Pricing Plans
"IBX Brings Tiered Pricing Plans to Health Insurance Marketplaces"
MedCity News
October 7, 2013 - Manatt's Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health Solutions, was quoted by MedCity News on the price-based tiered plans being offered on health insurance exchanges.
As reported by MedCity News, two new HMO plans were introduced last week on the federal insurance exchange, and Independence Blue Cross is offering consumers a road map to cut out-of-pocket healthcare costs. Consumers who sign up for Blue Cross' HMO Proactive plans can choose hospitals, primary-care physicians, and specialists from one of IBC's three price tiers of health-care providers. IBC officials emphasized that tier one, the cheapest, is not a limited or narrow network because customers have access to the entire network; they just have to pay more if they choose a provider - a doctor or a hospital - in tier two or three.
Offering tiered networks on the exchange has the advantage of not forcing consumers into constraints, Ario said. "They will have to decide: Is the price break enough for me to trade off?" he said.
Ario had a reservation, though, about price-based tiers that fail to emphasize quality of care. "If it's driven solely by price, that might not work as well for the consumer," he said.