For the eighth year in a row, health insurance company Cigna has released results from a comparative study of its consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) members to its other members enrolled in traditional PPOs and HMOs. The actual claims data from more than 3.6 million Cigna members were used in the study, and Cigna concluded -- as it has in years past -- that members enrolled in CDHPs were more engaged in their own health and lowered their total medical expenses. Cigna currently counts about 2.6 million CDHP members.

The general objective of CDHP plans is to get members to behave more like consumers by increasing their personal financial exposure to their health care costs. Once healthcare consumers start acting more like consumers, free market forces should drive down healthcare costs.

The insurer's CHDP members were 50 percent more likely to complete a health risk assessment and 41 percent of those with a chronic condition were 41 percent more likely to take advantage of disease management programs if they were enrolled in a CDHP. That's up from Cigna's 2013 version of the survey, which found CDHP members with chronic conditions were 25 percent more likely to take advantage of those programs. 

What's more, 75 percent of Cigna CDHP members have signed up for access to their online patient portal or mobile app. CDHP members are also 82 percent more likely to use online tools to manage their health benefits and to choose highly rated and cost efficient providers. In Cigna's 2013 study CDHP members were found to be 53 percent more likely to use such tools.

The study also found that employer that switched to only offering a CDHP offering to employees had 14 percent more low-risk individuals and 28 percent fewer high-risk individuals compared to other employers who offered traditional plans. Costs for CDHP members averaged out to being about 12 percent lower than traditional plans during the first year of operation too. Last year's study found that CDHP costs were 13 percent lower. CDHP members also used the emergency room at a 5 percent lower rate than those on traditional plans.

“Constraining health care costs doesn't have to mean shifting costs from one area to another,” Cigna President Regional and Operations Matt Manders said in a statement. “Over the past eight years we at Cigna have seen that by improving health care quality and transparency and by incentivizing healthy behaviors we reduce the total cost by shifting behaviors rather than shifting costs.”

A January 2013 report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) suggested that not only are people who are enrolled in consumer-driven health plans more cost conscious, but they’re also more engaged with mobile health and digital health tools. The survey included about 450 people enrolled in CDHPs and found that of those who are already using a smartphone or tablet, this group was more likely to use health apps for nutrition information (32 percent versus 27 percent), general health information (29 percent versus 25 percent), weight management or diets (27 percent versus 23 percent), and exercise programs (25 percent versus 23 percent).