This fall, when you eyeball your health insurance options for next year there may be a new twist to how you choose.
You may be able to save on premiums and out-of-pocket costs by agreeing to use doctors and hospitals your plan says give the best value for the money.
These so-called "high-performance" networks aren't yet commonplace, but their use is on the rise, say experts.
They come in a few different flavors:
Either way, "There can be substantial cost savings to employees if they use providers in the preferred network," says Sara Taylor, health and welfare solutions leader at benefit consultants Aon Hewitt.
How health plans determine who gets a high-performance designation is a source of ongoing debate. Doctors, in particular, have been critical of health plans' measurement formulas for leaning too heavily on cost factors and not enough on quality.
"Some of the larger plans have some data, but I don't know if they have enough scale to really be doing this well," says Gary Claxton, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research and education organization. (KHN is a program of the foundation.)
If your company gives you access to a health plan with a high-performance network or tiered provider option, it's a good place to start as you evaluate your choices for next year.
But it shouldn't be your only consideration, says Taylor. Even though a doctor may have preferred status, "If you're not comfortable with that doctor and can't have a conversation with that doctor, that's probably not a good doctor for you," Taylor says.
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