New Products That Combine an HRA With an HMO Are Gaining Traction in California

If you are an employer, here's the plan for the "health coach"...and if you are an employee, you might want to watch for this at your place of employment...the plans give employers a break on the rates if you complete a a health risk questionnaire and using a health coach...these are seen as employee incentives for the HRA portion of the plan..better patient profiling or better health care? BD

Since being launched in June, a product that pairs an HMO with a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) has been gaining sales traction in California, according to Health Net of California, Inc. The managed care company's Optimizer HMO is among a growing number of products that combine the features of an HMO or point-of-service (POS) plan with a health account. Unlike PPO-based CDH plans, Health Net says its product does not include a deductible.

"The adoption of CDH has been much slower in California than in the rest of the country. The delegated [HMO] model here still works and works well," says Mark Morgan, commercial officer at Health Net.

In addition to the employer's HRA contribution, Optimizer enrollees can receive an extra $100 HRA contribution if they complete a "health risk questionnaire" and another $100 contribution for contacting a health coach within six months of a hospitalization. Those incentives are limited to one adult member per plan year, Morgan says.