High-deductible health plans paired with health savings accountscan save employers a bundle on premiums, according to a study bythe nonpartisan Employee Benefits Research Institute.

EBRI analyzed detailed claims data over a five-year period froma large Midwestern employer that adopted a high-deductible healthplan with a health savings account for all employees in place ofits traditional health care offering.

The result? Total health care spending for the employer fell by25 percent the first year, or $527 per person in the aggregate.

“Results show that spending was reduced significantly in theinaugural years of the HSA plan in medical, pharmacy and totalclaims categories,” Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI's healtheducation and research program, said in a statement. “Results alsoshow the cost savings continued over the succeeding threeyears—albeit at a slower pace.”

With the exception of spending on inpatient hospital stays, eachcategory of health spending experienced statistically significantreductions in the first year of the HSA plan.

Spending on laboratory services and prescription drugs had thelargest statistically significant declines (36 percent and 32percent, respectively).

And reductions in pharmacy and laboratory spending sustainedover the four years after the HSA was adopted.

CDHPs—and their associated HSAs—have been gaining traction overthe last decade.

In 2012, 22 percent of smaller employers, 36 percent of largeremployers, and 59 percent of jumbo employers offered some form of aCDHP, and nearly one in five workers were enrolled in one,according to EBRI.