monty613 wrote: Good morning, thank you. I just want to get your views on two broader trends in the marketplace as it pertains to CRH. The first is the growing trend towards higher deductible plans, and the second is the growing number of insurers and possibly patients that are leaving the exchanges in various states and regions.
Richard Bear:
Thanks, Lennox. This is Richard. I’ll answer your questions. The first one is the growing trend in
deductibles. As we know, healthcare costs in the U.S. continues to rise. Most people in the U.S.
receive their insurance through their employers; employers are bearing some of the costs of those increases, but in many cases pass on the cost to their employees through higher deductible plans.
Those higher deductible plans is what actually creates seasonality in U.S. healthcare as a whole, and specifically, for us, where we typically see that the percentage of patients with commercial insurance increased between Q1 and Q2, then Q2 to Q3, and Q3 to Q4.
Interestingly enough, we didn’t see that increase between Q1 and Q2 this year, like we’ve seen in other years, and as we’ve talked to our GI partners, they’re suggesting that it’s because of the construct of these commercial plans, where deductibles are getting higher, and we expect that the second half of the year will be much stronger from a commercial payors’ standpoint than the first half of the year, and could even potentially be stronger than what we saw in the second half of 2016.
In terms of your second question, as we’ve stated previously, we have very little exposure to Affordable Care Act patients. Those plans just don’t pay well, so our GI partners don’t participate in those plans, so as people are coming off those plans or insurance companies are choosing not to participate in certain states, we don’t believe that will have an impact on our business.