Kansas City, Kan.— Despite legislation recently passed to bring costs in line, providing medical insurance continues to grow increasingly expensive for healthcare employers across the county. The newly released 2010 Compensation Data Healthcare survey results show healthcare organizations had an average premium increase of 9.4 percent. More than 65 percent of survey respondents report paying more than $9,600 annually for an employee plus family plan.
Employee plus spouse plans cost employers more than $7,200, annually. Healthcare organizations pay an annual rate of more than $2,400 for employee only coverage, with employees paying more than $900 per year for the same coverage. Although employees have become responsible for paying a larger portion of their medical insurance premiums over the last few years, employers still cover more than 70 percent of the total cost.
“Employers have been feeling the financial pinch of increasing medical costs for several years now,” said Amy Kaminski, director of marketing for Compdata Surveys, the nation’s leading pay and benefits survey data provider. “The economic downturn of the last couple of years has only amplified financial concerns, causing organizations to increase their efforts to find ways to mitigate some of the costs of providing medical coverage for their employees.”
To reduce costs, healthcare organizations employed a variety of methods. Increasing the employee portion of the premium was most prevalent at 64.1 percent, with an increase in deductible levels following at 45.5 percent. The results showed that 30.2 percent of organizations increased employee co-insurance levels. Offering a choice of deductible levels was utilized by 21.7 percent of survey respondents.
Cost containment measures are also a popular option as 83.8 percent of organizations surveyed use coordination of benefits to bring costs in line. More than half of healthcare organizations employ utilization review, disease management and pharmacy benefit management to contain costs.
About the Survey
Compensation Data Healthcare 2010 contains data on over 200 industry-specific job titles and more than 250 benchmark titles ranging from entry-level to top executives. Data was collected from more than 1,200 healthcare employers across the country. The results provide a comprehensive summary of pay data, benefit information and pay practices with an effective date of January 1, 2010.
Compdata Surveys is the nation’s leading compensation and benefits survey data provider. Thousands of U.S. organizations provide data each year ensuring the reliability of our results. Compdata Surveys has been providing comprehensive data at affordable prices to organizations from coast to coast since 1988. For further information about the compensation and benefits surveys, contact Amy Kaminski at (800) 300-9570.