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Remember, the best employees are or will become Intelligent, Connected, Health Consumers. They’ll appreciate it if you empower them to make a difference in their own coverage. Give them access to innovative services like Castlight Health. Castlight is a “health care transparency solution” which can tell you, for example, that the same colonoscopy you’ll get in Chicago can cost hundreds of dollars less at a quality hospital a few miles away. Explain to your employees that the money they save can end up in their pocket—and be willing to shar

Medicare patients, however, are at a disadvantage because there is no cap for out-of-pocket expenses. They "are paying copayments or coinsurance forever," Dr. Newcomer explained.

"What we are already seeing is that patients who are on Medicare are coming to hospital settings; they are not being treated at their doctor's office or their infusion center because the doctors can't afford to do it," said Dr. Swain. The doctors would actually lose money on this, so the patients are coming to a higher-priced facility — a hospital — to get their infusion, she explained. "I think it is really going to have an effect, not on the patients but on the economy in general," she added.

The decline in Medicaid budgets has added challenges to medication access for recipients of this program.

Consumers also value account features that simplify the health care funding experience, the survey found. More than 65% ranked debit cards and multi-channel (web/mobile) account access as “extremely valuable,” while 60% said they “highly value” self-service features such as the ability to submit claims via mobile devices. Seventy-five percent of consumers said they value integration of benefit accounts and insurance claim data to streamline the process of reviewing and paying