Harvard University Site Team

Effects of Tailored High-deductible Health Plans on Diabetes Outcomes: Informing the Future of Health Insurance Benefit Design

High-deductible health plans that require patients to pay up to $1000-$6000 out-of-pocket per year are rapidly replacing low cost-sharing insurance plans. Employers can tailor the most rapidly-emerging type of high-deductible health plan – those linked to a Health Savings Account – by purchasing additional coverage to make key preventive medicines free to patients and by depositing generous annual contributions to their savings accounts to offset out-of-pocket costs. This study seeks to improve outcomes in diabetes by determining the impacts of these designs on the health care utilization and health outcomes of diabetes patients.