Mercer survey and employee ppo payment 2010

Employees covered by company-sponsored health insurance should expect higher costs for coverage in 2010, a survey released today found.

Pittsburgh-area employers surveyed said if they do nothing to hold down costs next year, overall costs would jump 10.8 percent, according to the National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans conducted by the Mercer division of Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.

To hold costs to a 6.9 percent increase in 2010, the 41 area employers surveyed plan to make changes to plan design or to their plan vendor.

Nearly half the respondents, 46 percent, will shift more costs to employees by doing such things as raising deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance or out-of-pocket maximums. Fifty-nine percent will increase employees' share of premiums, while 20 percent will raise employee cost-sharing in some other way, the survey found.

The Mercer survey also found that the average employee contribution for employee-only coverage is $75 a month for a PPO plan, while the average deductible for employees totaled $410.

Consumer-directed health plans, which feature a high deductible and usually include a savings account feature, were used by 15 percent of area respondents this year, with that percentage expected to climb to 17 percent in 2010, Mercer found.

Nationally, the Mercer study found employers held cost growth to 5.5 percent in 2009, the lowest increase in a decade. A slight increase, to 6 percent, is forecast for 2010.

Large employers this year increasingly relied on health management/wellness programs to hold down costs, rather than switch more cost to employees, while small employers nationally embraced high-deductible plans, Mercer found.