WASHINGTON, July 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today,
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
issued guidance to expand the scope of the preventive services safe
harbor for health savings account-eligible (HSA-eligible)
high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) to cover certain chronic
disease services and drugs on a pre-deductible basis.
For more information, please visit: www.smarterhc.org
The Smarter Health Care Coalition, representing patient
groups, consumers, employers, providers, health plans, life science
companies, and public-sector purchasers applauds the Treasury
Department for issuing long-sought guidance to expand the scope of
the preventive services safe harbor. We commend the Administration,
with the support of bipartisan, bicameral champions in Congress,
for continuing to pursue policies that get more health out of every
health care dollar our country spends.
Approximately 60 percent of all Americans have at least one
chronic condition and about 42 percent suffer from two or more.
Each year millions of Americans struggle to receive the appropriate
care due to high out-of-pocket costs. Studies show that chronic
conditions account for $.90 of every
dollar spent on health care and, without appropriate management,
lead to adverse effects on health outcomes and quality of life.
HSA-eligible HDHPs are currently prohibited from offering services
and medications to manage chronic conditions on a pre-deductible
basis, creating cost barriers to care for chronically ill
patients.
The Coalition has long supported and called for updated guidance
to expand the preventive service safe harbor and commends the
Secretary for swiftly issuing the guidance following the
Administration's recent Executive Order to expand the safe harbor.
The U.S. Treasury guidance aligns with our mission to advance
value-based insurance design (V-BID), and we believe this provision
will improve the utilization of high-value health care services and
have a significant impact on the chronic disease epidemic facing
our nation.
"The Secretary's guidance addresses this problem by expanding
the current preventive services safe harbor to a more contemporary
scope of prevention, allowing HSA-eligible HDHPs to provide plan
members access to health care services that manage chronic
conditions on a pre-deductible basis. Doing so will yield an
enormous benefit to patients, employers, and payers alike,
including improved health, enhanced workplace productivity, and the
avoidance of unnecessary emergency care visits and
hospitalizations," said MacPherson.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Andrew
MacPherson
Co-Director, Smarter Health Care
Coalition
202-420-8505
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SOURCE Smarter Health Care Coalition