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22 Aug Rising Health Care Costs: Driving Factor Causing Changes to Employer Health Plans, SHRM Survey Finds

Posted at 14:00h in ClearPath blog, Employee Benefits, Health Care Plans, HSA, Study/Research by
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Get the latest trends in healthcare benefits in the survey conducted by SHRM.

Original Post from SHRM.org on July 13, 2016

Rising health care costs remain a primary driver for how other benefit costs are allocated, as employers continue evaluating the impact of the Affordable Care Act.
According to a new survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), preferred provider organization (PPO) plans (offered by 84 percent of U.S. employers) continue to be the most common type of health care coverage. However, consumer-directed health care plans such as health savings accounts (HSAs) increased from 2012 and 2015, as did employer contributions to HSAs compared with 2012 (both by 7 percent).

 

Other health care findings:
  • Ninety-six percent of organizations offered some type of health care plan to their employees.
  • Mail order prescriptions have gone down by 6 percent over the past five years.
  • Eighty-five percent of organizations offer mental health coverage, compared to 91 percent just last year.
  • Organizations were evenly split as to whether they offered coverage to spouses who had access to health care coverage through another employer, or if there was a spousal surcharge for health care coverage.
  • Several new health-related items added to the survey this year: health care services such as diagnosis, treatment or prescriptions provided by photo or video (23 percent), high deductible health plan not linked to an HSA or a health reimbursement account (HRA) (17 percent), genetic testing coverage for diseases such as cancer (12 percent) and a smoking surcharge for health care plans (20 percent).

 

View the full survey online.

 

Read the full press release on this survey here.

 

Source:
Unknown (2016, July 13). Rising health care costs: Driving factor causing changes to employer health plans, SHRM survey finds [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/about-shrm/press-room/press-releases/pages/health-care-costs-rising.aspx

 

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