Studies from University of Lucerne Update Current Data on Health Insurance (Does personalized information improve health plan choices when…

Managed Care Weekly Digest

Studies from University of Lucerne Update Current Data on Health Insurance (Does personalized information improve health plan choices when individuals are distracted?)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Fresh data on Health Insurance are presented in a new report. According to news originating from Luzern, Switzerland, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "Choice-based health insurance systems allow individuals to select a health plan that fits their needs. However, bounded rationality and limited attention may lead to sub-optimal insurance coverage and higher-than-expected out-of-pocket payments."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Lucerne, "In this paper, we study the impact of providing personalized information on health plan choices in a laboratory experiment. We seek to more closely mimic real-life choices by randomly providing an incentivized distraction to some individuals. We find that providing personalized information significantly improves health plan choices. The positive effect is even larger and longer-lasting if individuals are distracted from their original task. In addition to providing decision support, receiving personalized information restores the awareness of the choice setting to a level comparable to the case without distraction thus reducing inertia."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Our results indicate that increasing transparency of the health insurance system and providing tailored information can help individuals to make better choices and reduce their out-of-pocket expenditures."

For more information on this research see: Does personalized information improve health plan choices when individuals are distracted? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2018;149():197-214. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Bv, PO Box 211, 1000 Ae Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization - www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-economic-behavior-and-organization/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from C. Kaufmann, Univ Lucerne, Center Hlth Policy & Econ, CH-6002 Luzern, Switzerland. Additional authors for this research include T. Muller, A. Hefti and S. Boes (see also Health Insurance).

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2018.03.013. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Keywords for this news article include: Luzern, Switzerland, Europe, Health and Medicine, Health Insurance, Managed Care, University of Lucerne.