Companies that pay for employer-sponsored health insurance are continually seeking ways to cut health care costs and improve the care delivered to employees, their family members and retirees.
To accomplish these goals in 2020, employers will implement more virtual care, such as telemedicine, and will focus more on high-cost claims, according to a report from National Business Group on Health (NBGH). Continue reading
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One of the largest and most important parts of our health care system is the role employers play in providing health insurance coverage for workers, retirees, and family members. U.S. employers cover 55.1% of Americans who have health insurance, according to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
By providing health insurance for more than half of all Americans, employers pay for the biggest share of health coverage in the United States. Continue reading
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HHS has proposed a new rule that would make it easier for employers to help their workers cover medical expenses by using health reimbursement accounts (HRAs).
The proposal would allow employers to subsidize employees who buy their own health insurance either on or off the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Employers who cover their workers — and that’s been more stable than many expected under the ACA — could give employees up to $1,800 a year (indexed to inflation) to finance HRAs, which are tax-advantaged accounts. That would go toward out-of-pocket costs. Continue reading
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Remember all those stories about people being shifted into part-time work so their employers don’t have to provide health insurance?
According to a new Urban Institute report, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, it hasn’t happened.
If, and when, the employer mandate fully kicks in (more on that below) things could change. But the anecdotes we’ve heard about employers cutting hours because of the Affordable Care Act are just that – scattered anecdotes. (And when it does occur, it might be a result of other business conditions, not the health law). Under the ACA the definition of “full-time” work is 30 hours; anyone working 30 hours a week or more would have to be covered. The fear was that employers would cut them to, say, 28 or 29 hours, to avoid that obligation. Continue reading
A new report from Milliman, the actuarial firm, shows employers’ health care costs rose only 5.4 percent since last year. The report also showed how employers are changing their employee benefit plans to control costs.
Here are a few highlights from the 2014 Milliman Medical Index (MMI) report:
For years, employers have been seeking to control the rising cost of employee health insurance. Now they have a new way to limit health care spending: the public and private health insurance exchanges.
The exchanges allow employers to shift from defined benefit plans to defined-contribution plans. In defined benefit plans, employers enroll their workers, family members, and retirees in health plans and offer other benefits such as dental and vision care. In defined-contribution plans, employers give employees and retirees a fixed sum that employees can spend on benefits options in the exchanges.
In USA Today, Jayne O’Donnell reported the link between the number of employers shifting to the exchanges and the move to defined-contribution plans. She quoted Wendell Potter, a freelance analyst for the Center for Public Integrity and former PR executive with Cigna, saying: “This is an irreversible trend from defined-benefit to defined-contribution employer-based health coverage. It is comparable to the move several years ago from pensions to 401(k)s.” Tom Murphy at The Associated Press also covered this trend.
The move to defined-contribution plans may make it difficult for health care journalists to track employers’ health insurance spending strategies in the coming years because employers likely will be reluctant to report how much they allot to each worker and retiree. Continue reading