When diabetic employees switch from a low-deductible to a high-deductible health plan, they are more apt to postpone necessary checkups as out-of-pocket costs climb, according to a U.S. study cited by Reuters.
Here are three things to know from the study:
1. Study authors analyzed data representing nearly 34,000 diabetics who were insured under a health plan with a deductible of $500 or less, but switched to a plan with at least a $1,000 deductible because it was all their employer offered. A group of nearly 295,000 diabetics who consistently had a deductible of $500 or less was also examined for comparison.
2. Researchers found in the four years after the switch to a high-deductible health plan, patients with new symptoms of cardiovascular complication postponed treatment 1.5 months longer on average than diabetics with a low-deductible plan. Diabetics with high-deductible health plans also delayed diagnostic testing 1.9 months and medical procedures 3.1 months longer than diabetics with smaller deductibles.
3. "We found that delays or reductions in care for cardiovascular disease persisted over a relatively long follow-up and occurred even for services that are used for life-threatening conditions," lead study author Frank Wharam, MB, BCh, of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston, said, according to Reuters.