Giving exchange consumers concise information on the medical benefits and overall ratings of a health plan makes them more likely to select a higher-quality product, according to a new Health Affairs report.
Exchange websites that do not call attention to the quality of medical care in a plan are more likely to see consumers selecting the low-cost alternative, according to Health Affairs.
Also, a summary on quality was better than having detailed cost analysis, as those who viewed the latter were twice as likely to select the lowest-cost plan, said authors Jessica Greene, Judith H. Hibbard and Rebecca M. Sacks.
[Also: Private exchange enrollment tied to employer-sponsored plans jumps]
The placement of quality information was also important, they said, especially when placed next to cost information.
"The proximity seemed to help consumers consider quality along with cost and to make choices that were more influenced by quality than was the case when quality was not presented adjacent to cost," they said.
The key outcome was for the selection of a high-value, moderately-priced health plan.
The study corresponds to new rules starting in 2017 that all state and federal health insurance exchanges present quality data on health plans in addition to cost information.
Health Affairs used an online sample of 1,025 adults to view the same comparative information on health plans, displayed in different ways.
It found that consumers were much more likely to select a high-value plan when cost information was summarized instead of detailed, when quality stars were displayed near cost information, when consumers understood that quality stars signified the quality of medical care, and when high-value plans were highlighted with a check mark or blue ribbon.
The study also found that making informed health plan choices can be challenging for consumers.
Making comparisons between plans requires consumers to calculate the cost effectiveness of a plan's copayments, coinsurance, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums and to understand the terminology.
Forty-two percent of enrollees surveyed from one plan reported the information on health plans was "hard to understand," and 54 percent said that they either had help choosing a plan or wished that had been the case, according to the study.
Like Healthcare Finance on Facebook
Consumers were found to give higher consideration to the cost of premiums than to expected out-of-pocket spending, which could end up costing them more, the authors said.
The participants in the online study matched the socioeconomic status of insurance exchange enrollees, so that 40 percent of the respondents had no more than a high school diploma, the study said.
Also, 23 percent of respondents reported being in fair or poor health, compared to 13 percent in a nationally representative sample.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse