Understanding the “Black Box” of Employer Decisions about Health Insurance Benefits: The Case of Depression Products

Risks

Kathryn Rost¹  Airia Papadopoulos¹  Su Wang¹ 

[1] Department of Mental Health Law and Policy, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., University of South Florida, Tampa FL 33612, USA; E-Mails:

关键词: : health benefits;    insurance;    depression;    employers;    return on investment;    productivity;    absenteeism;    collaborative care;   

DOI  :  10.3390/risks1010034

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In a randomized trial of two interventions on employer health benefit decision-making, 156 employers in the evidence-based (EB) condition attended a two hour presentation reviewing scientific evidence demonstrating depression products that increase high quality treatment of depression in the workforce provide the employer a return on investment. One-hundred sixty-nine employers participating in the usual care (UC) condition attended a similar length presentation reviewing scientific evidence supporting healthcare effectiveness data and information set (HEDIS) monitoring. This study described the decision-making process in 264 (81.2%) employers completing 12 month follow-up. The EB intervention did not increase the proportion of employers who discussed depression products with others in the company (29.2% versus 32.1%, p > 0.10), but it did significantly influence the content of the discussions that occurred. Discussion in EB companies promoted the capacity of a depression product to realize a return on investment (18.4% versus 4.7%, p = 0.05) and to improve productivity (47.4% versus 25.6%, p = 0.06) more often than discussions in UC companies. Almost half of EB and UC employers reported that return on investment has a large impact on health benefit decision-making. These results demonstrate the difficulty of influencing employer decisions about health benefits using group presentations.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.