New Analysis: ‘Any Willing Provider’ Laws Drive up Costs, Threaten Quality Care

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 -- America's Health Insurance Plans issued the following news release:

As voters in South Dakota get set to consider a ballot measure that would institute an "any willing provider" (AWP) law and other states consider similar ideas, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) today released a new analysis that outlines how AWP laws serve to make health coverage more expensive and have a negative effect on the quality of care. The report by Paul Ginsburg, the Norman Topping Chair in Medicine and Public Policy at the University of Southern California'sSchaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, finds that an AWP law - which allows any doctor or hospital to enter into a plan network - "interferes with health plan efforts to create provider networks that deliver greater efficiency and higher quality." Upon the release of the report, Dan Durham, AHIP's Executive Vice President for Policy and Regulatory Affairs, made the following comments:

"These kinds of laws benefit a few hospitals and doctors at the expense of all patients. Consumers care about choice, quality, and affordability, and AWP undermines them all."

As Ginsberg notes, "Provider networks are a powerful tool through which health plans obtain lower prices for providers and pursue higher quality care for members." Ginsburg finds that AWP laws undermine both of those goals by eroding the health plans' ability to effectively negotiate on behalf of consumers and to select the most effective and efficient health care providers. Among the key findings of the Ginsburg report are:

* The preponderance of the evidence shows clearly that AWP laws lead to higher spending.

* Rather than protect consumer choice, AWP laws interfere with meeting consumer and employer demand for lower-priced plans.

* The recent emphasis on narrow network plans and plans sponsored by health systems could lead to greater efforts on the part of providers to pass such laws to resist these changes. But if they succeed, the costs to consumers, employers, and taxpayers could be even larger than we have seen in the past.

A link to the full analysis can be found here (http://www.ahip.org/Epub/AWP-Analysis/).

NOTE: A June poll from Public Opinion Strategies found privately-insured Americans are overwhelmingly satisfied (94 percent) with the number of physicians, hospitals, and other health care professionals in their plan's network. And a Morning Consult poll found a majority of people prefer "less expensive plans with a limited network of doctors and hospitals" to "more expensive plans with a broader network of doctors and hospitals."

[Category: Insurance]

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