Health Insurance Exchanges Put Defined Benefits to the Test

A new whitepaper, the second in a series by analysts from Booz & Company, takes a look at the evolution of healthcare exchanges and the implications for healthcare industry stakeholders. This one focuses on how defined contributions may influence HIE development.

Ashish Kaura, a partner in the North American health practice at Booz & Company and a co-author of the white paper, says there's a "strong defined-contribution bias" in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in terms of the "kinds of functionality exchanges could provide" to enable side-by-side product comparisons and advice on plan selection.

The whitepaper looks at defined contributions in single-carrier and multi-carrier private exchanges. Minoo Javanmardian, PhD, a partner in the North American health practice at Booz & Company and a co-author of the whitepaper, explains that for multi-carrier exchanges, a private exchange operator like ADP would act as a broker to sign up multiple payers to provide a range of product options in the exchange.

The operator would also serve as an intermediary between employers and insurers. In the single-carrier model the health plan offers its products directly to employers, who play more of a role in product design.

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