Consumer-driven health plans experienced continued growth this year, but are losing market share to HMOs, according to United Benefit Advisors.
The 2010 UBA Health Plan Survey, the nation's largest health plan benchmarking survey, with 17,113 plans from 11,413 employers, showed that CDHPs grew at a rate of 18.1 percent this past year (about half that of 2009), but they no longer cover more employees (12.4 percent) than HMO plans (15.4 percent), according to Bill Stafford, UBA's vice president of member services.
The Northeast had the largest concentration of CDHPs (26.7 percent), followed by the Southeast region (22.9 percent). The average cost increase for all CDHPs at 7.3 percent was slightly lower than that of the average of all plan types, which increased 8 percent this year.
Employers often offset the higher out-of-pocket costs of CDHPs by offering employees a health reimbursement arrangement or health savings account and contributing funds. The 2010 UBA Health Plan Survey found the average employer contribution to an HRA was $1,481 (up from $1,310 in 2009) for a single employee and $2,857 for a family (up from $2,502 in 2009).
"The trend toward employee empowerment and participation continues in 2010 when it comes to healthcare," said Stafford. "Employees are taking more control over healthcare expenditures by increasing participation in CDHPs, and they are also realizing that there are financial benefits – in addition to health benefits – of participating in wellness programs."
"In spite of passage of healthcare reform legislation, healthcare costs will continue to increase. There has been little coming out of Washington to date that addresses the underlying healthcare issues that can help control costs," said Stafford.
Other key findings:
- PPO plans have nearly two-thirds of all enrolled employees (65.7 percent).
- Fee-for-service plans will no longer be reported, as the remaining plans are insufficient to develop legitimate benchmarks.
- The average employee contribution for plans with contributions for all plan types is $113 for single and $443 for family.
- More than three-fourths of all wellness plans (77.1 percent) offer a health risk assessment.
- Of all plans in the Northeast, 81.7 percent still have 100 percent co-insurance.
- 52.9 percent of all covered employees also elected to cover their dependents.