Aetna launches 'no-deductible' SimplePay Health, for self-insured employers
With this new health plan option, employees would receive one monthly bill that summarizes all of their medical and pharmacy claims for the prior 30 days, and can have the statement auto-paid or financed with a 0% line of credit.
Aetna has announced the launch of SimplePay Health, a new health plan option – with no deductibles – aimed at self-insured employers. The plan is aimed at helping employers to lower health care costs, enhance health outcomes and make health care easier to understand and simpler to pay for.
SimplePay Health provides employees with an exact cost for every covered medical and prescription, featuring a copay-only structure, which provides members with clear cost information for services prior to visits or treatments. Members use an app to search for providers, which helps them to choose the lowest cost, best outcome providers.
“At Aetna, we are committed to a simpler end-to-end member experience and access to affordable, quality, innovative health care,” said Amie Benedict, President, Diversified Commercial Solutions, Aetna. “SimplePay Health puts that all together for our plan sponsors and their members … [and] provides clear insight into cost before accessing care and provider quality information so members can make the right choice for them, while getting easy payment options and more.”
“Aetna is the only insurer wit SimplePay,” said Amie Benedict, President, Diversified Commercial Solutions, Aetna. “We have the exclusive rights to the name and are the exclusive distributor of SimplePay.”
The SimplePay copay covers the service, essentially a bundled payment, everything from admission to discharge for a hospital or medical facility visit, or all services in a specialty visit such as labs or EKGs.
No payment is due at the time of provider visit or prescription pickup. Members just receive one simple monthly bill that summarizes all of their medical and pharmacy claims for the prior 30 days.
Members “can have that monthly statement auto paid from their account of choice or choose to finance their out of pocket cost with a 0% line of credit … ,” said SimplePay Health co-founder Wally Gomaa. “This is an important benefit that allows patients to focus on their health and providers focus on practicing great quality care.”
Around 38% of employers offer self-insured plans, according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute analysis. UnitedHealthcare offers self-insured employers the Surest plan, which also has no deductible. In December. Health Care Service Corp., which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in five states, will introduce a no-deductible plan.
SimplePay Health has been able to demonstrate a 60% increase in use of top-quality providers and 12% total cost of care savings for employers and members, according to Aetna. SimplePay plans have also demonstrated “over 10% claim cost savings for employers,” said Benedict.
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“SimplePay Health showcases Aetna’s growing portfolio of offerings that are flexible based on the unique needs of our members,” said Steve Schaper, Senior Vice President, Commercial and Specialty Markets, Aetna. “From choosing a provider to remitting payment, we are working to create a seamless, high-quality health care delivery experience tailored to each member.”
Aetna has done a “soft launch” with clients “over the last several months,” said Benedict. “There is significant excitement and buy-in to what SimplePay offers … We have been incubating the offering with a limited number of clients over the last year in order to perfect the operational requirements of the product. Given our ability to do that well and the client feedback, we are excited to make it available more broadly.”