Large employers expect their healthcare benefit costs to go up by 6.5 percent in 2015, and many companies aim to contain that spending by making changes to their benefit plans, according to the results of a National Business Group on Health survey.
The survey was conducted this past June and includes responses from 136 of the largest corporations in the country. Here are four things to know about rising healthcare costs and how employers plan on containing them.
1. Most large employers plan to enact various changes to their benefit plans to address rising healthcare costs and comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to the NBGH survey. Seventy-three percent of those polled are adding or expanding tools to prompt employees to be better healthcare consumers, and 57 percent are implementing or expanding consumer-directed, or high-deductible, health plans. Additionally, 53 percent say they will add or expand wellness program incentives.
2. The number of employers looking to contain costs by giving their workers more financial responsibility in the form of high-deductible health plans is on the rise. Almost one-third (32 percent) of the large employers surveyed plan to offer a consumer-directed health plan as their only benefit plan option in 2015, up from 22 percent in 2014.
3. None of the employers polled have or intend to eliminate health benefits coverage for their employees next year. However, companies show a growing interest in providing health insurance through private exchanges. Next year, 3 percent of large employers will use private health insurance exchanges, and 35 percent said they are considering turning to private exchanges in 2016 or later.
4. Although narrow provider networks have received a lot of attention recently, only 26 percent of large employers have a narrow network in any of their health plans. Furthermore, only 13 percent offer plans that offer incentives for workers to use a narrow network within the plan, according to the survey.