Employers Cut Health Costs With Incentives for Patients, Doctors
- Study suggests bundling payments can save on costly surgeries
- Program lets patients see top doctors with no cost-sharing
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Employers can cut their health-care expenses by paying top medical providers a flat rate for a bundle of related services while offering incentives to the patients who use them, a study suggests.
The study, published Monday in the journal Health Affairs, found that employers using a flat-rate approach run by Carrum Health saved about 11% overall on procedures including joint replacements, spinal fusions and bariatric surgeries. The average prices when people used Carrum providers were between 6% to 41% lower compared with other providers.