Characteristics and health service utilization of women enrolled in health plans still requiring cost-sharing for intrauterine device placement in 2014

Objectives: The Affordable Care Act eliminated consumer cost-sharing for many preventive services, but some women continue to pay out of pocket for intrauterine device (IUD) placement. Our objective was to compare characteristics and health service utilization between women enrolled in commercial plans with and without cost-sharing for IUD placement. Methods: We included women aged 15–45 with continuous enrollment throughout 2014 and any contraception-related service claim or method fill in the Optum™ Clinformatics™ Data Mart. Using a patient-level analysis, we compared demographic characteristics and health service utilization (health maintenance examination, any family planning visit or IUD-related visit) between women in plans with and without cost-sharing for IUD placement. Results: Among eligible women (n=537,923), some 226,025 (42%) were enrolled in plans with cost-sharing for IUD placement. Compared with women in plans without cost-sharing, women in plans that did were significantly less likely to be White (65.0% vs. 69.7%, p