Okay, so, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that, according to the latest data from Mercer, if employers make no changes to health benefits in 2010, they’ll see cost rise by nearly 9%. The good news is that most of you have no intention of doing nothing, and in fact plan to hold cost increases to about 5.9% next year.
Your peers who spilled to Mercer say that their first line of defense against rate increases is shifting cost to employees (63%), but this tactic can present a tough challenge for employers that feel their employee cost sharing requirements are already high. For example, between 2004 and 2008, the median family deductible for in-network services in a PPO rose from $1,000 to $1,850.
Nearly a fifth of respondents (18%) are eliminating those cushy PPOs altogether in favor of consumer-directed health plans with either an HSA or HRA.
Other cost-cutting actions for 2010 include auditing plans, for example, to ensure that all covered dependents are actually eligible for coverage (39%), and adding or renegotiating performance guarantees with health plan vendors. Performance guarantees have historically focused on accuracy and timeliness of claims payment or customer service, but some employers have expanded their guarantees to address overall program performance in managing care, driving quality improvement and engaging participants in behavior change.
