What did the survey indicate on the subject of new benefit plan realities and legislation?
The survey indicated that the challenges and opportunities presented by the new landscape of health care are being addressed with uncertain or insufficient action and, in some cases, only haphazard success. Cost challenges remain, while benefits and health care remain important to both employers and employees. Beyond employers calculating pure cost, few employers have robust systems to demonstrate benefit plan effectiveness.
What about the 2010 employer subsidy for the most prevalent medical plan?
Forty-five percent say that for their most prevalent medical plan for ‘employee only’ coverage, they subsidize 75 to 84 percent, while 43 percent subsidize 75 to 84 percent for the most prevalent ‘family’ coverage. Respondents use cost-sharing subsidy differentiation between ‘employee only’ and ‘employee +’ coverage.
Which initiatives have employers implemented, or are planning to implement, to reduce costs or improve the quality of health care?
Forty-three percent plan to measure program success in 2011 or beyond, compared to 19 percent currently implemented. Forty-three percent plan to measure/require/reward employee changes in healthy behaviors in 2011 or beyond, compared to 26 percent currently implemented, and 36 percent plan to measure/require/reward dependent changes in healthy behaviors in 2011 or beyond, compared to 13 percent currently implemented.
What type of wellness incentives do employers anticipate introducing?
Combined financial and plan design incentives to promote utilization of disease management and ‘value-based’ services are reported to be introduced by 45 and 47 percent, respectively. These types of incentives can range from pure monetary incentives to reductions in employee contributions.
What are employers doing with defined benefit retirement plans?
Over one-third of respondents continue to sponsor defined benefit pension plans for all employees. Nearly 30 percent either closed or froze their defined benefit plans in the last two years, and another 20 percent are considering such changes over the next two years.
What did the survey reveal on defined contribution retirement plans?
Ninety-six percent sponsor some type of defined contribution plan. However, in response to the economic downturn, nearly one-quarter of survey respondents reduced or suspended their defined contribution plan — 15 percent completely suspended and 7 percent reduced their contributions during 2009.
How did respondents feel about an employee’s ability to achieve retirement security?
Sixty-two percent feel at least some responsibility to help employees achieve retirement security. Almost half are concerned about the business outcome of employees working past their productive years because they are unprepared for retirement.
Chet Rhoads is the vice president of business development for Aon Risk Services Central, Inc. Reach him at [email protected] or (412) 594-7596.
