As DataPath looks forward to 2006, we plan to create new solutions in response to market demands. Of no surprise to anyone, the major trend impacting the market dynamics will continue to be Consumer Driven Health Plans (CDHPs) and their delivery, just as it has been for the last two years.

We have completed the second year of CDHPs and HSAs, and the market is looking ahead for the latest release of HSA system platforms with bundled services. These services will probably be brought by new service providers because mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and other partnering arrangements are changing who is doing what to whom for whom. Your service provider of yesterday may very well be your newest competitor tomorrow.

Integration of Services. Technology advances in the CDHP space centers around INTEGRATION! Integration of the HSA maintained by the Custodian with the HRA activity and FSA activity maintained by the Employer with the HDHP EOB maintained by the Health TPA with the Rx Transaction maintained by the PBM—all coordinated through a function called “Deductible Management”. To expand CDHP plan design options even further, an integrated Debit Card, and possibly, a Credit Card can be added.

Incorporation of Health Risk Assessments and other Disease Management Services. Very much in demand for 2006 is the ability to connect the consumer with Health Risk Assessments and other Disease Management Services. Web tools for comparison-shopping are still begging for good data to be served up. This need will go lagging behind other items until the medical providers start posting their rates.

Think of how a consumer would be empowered if he could compare his medical out-of-pocket expenses under one employer-provided benefit plan with another plan. The consumer would be able to perform “what if” scenarios using their actual historical claims data. Massive amounts of data could be accessed in a few fundamentally straightforward views to allow the consumer to look at last year’s expenses to predict next year’s expenses. If the consumer expects that next year’s expenses will vary significantly from the expenses of the previous year, he would be able to modify the projection to take into consideration the expected differences!

Expansion of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Add to this backdrop, the government’s notions to expanding HSAs. For instance, HR 4511 (Flex Health Savings Accounts Act of 2005) was introduced December 13, 2005. This bill includes provisions for coordinating HSAs with HRAs and FSAs. Other legislation may well be coming up.

If this passes, it should be a dream come true for the Plan Service Providers (PSPs) if they have access to all the accounts, the EOBs, the prescription transactions, and the Debit Card. The HDHP Carriers, if not already in this rapidly expanding game, will have to rethink the wisdom of staying on the sidelines

The stakes are growing! As you can see, the stakes are rapidly rising for everyone involved in the delivery of health care benefits, especially for single-line service providers. Stakeholders are struggling to define their present strengths and weaknesses and to compare them to their estimates of what the future competitive environment will demand.

Make your place in today’s market and prepare for the future by adding more services. Remember, in 2006, integration will be your key to success!