Dive Brief:

• Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) continue to grow in popularity, but they are also offering less savings now compared to a year ago, according to the 2016 Health Plan Survey from United Benefits Advisors.
• The study found that 26.4% of all employees are now enrolled in a CDHP, an increase from 21.7% last year, but costs have risen 2%. The plans still offer 3.5% in savings compared to other plans, but last year they offered 5.6% in savings.
• As seen in other studies, CDHPs are still gathering steam. UBA found that 25.7% of plans offered by employers are CDHPs, "a 14.2% increase in the last five years."

Dive Insight:

As employers adopt CDHPs to save money, so too are employees drawn to them thanks to their low premiums. However, concern has grown over whether employees are prepared for the increased cost responsibility of higher deductibles — especially since other studies have shown that some employees do not even know what a deductible is.

Such concerns are pushing employers to adopt better benefits tools and more proactive communication strategies to get in front of the confusion immediately. Others have turned to answers such as add-on insurance to further protect employees in the case of a catastrophic health event. But with more add-ons come more cost...and if costs of CDHPs continue to grow, their value may need to be re-evaluated over time.