When most experts think of group healthcare plans, Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans largely come to mind—though higher cost, they dominate the market in terms of plan distribution and employee enrollment. But Consumer-Directed Health Plans (CDHPs) have made surprising gains. Despite slight cost increases, CDHP costs are still below average and prevalence and enrollment in these plans continues to grow in most regions—a main reason why it was one of the top 7 survey trends recently announced.
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Topics:
health plan benchmarking,
CDHPs,
UBA Health Plan Survey,
group benefit plans,
consumer-directed health plan
I really need to stop spending so much time reading the news. I subscribe to several news aggregators, plus a number of content sources: blogs, industry experts and other publications. I pore through news about politics, world affairs, and information related to HR, benefits, and technology – the field I work in. I sometimes do this (I must admit) while stuck at a stoplight or in line at the store. In all fairness, I do this to keep up on current events and trends impacting my field and my clients’ interests. But I need to stop doing it so much because it can be a huge time waster.
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Topics:
ACA,
CDHPs,
compliance with health care reform,
Obamacare,
UBA Health Plan Survey,
health care cost,
health care consumerism
Our 2016 Health Plan Survey results are in and as our preliminary findings indicated, while employer costs remained steady, employees continue to take on more cost for coverage. With PPO deductibles rising 50 percent, UBA finds that consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) continue to increase in popularity even though they are offering less savings than a year ago. Our newly released 2016 Health Plan Survey Executive Summary finds 26.4 percent of all U.S. employees are now enrolled in CDHP plans, an increase of 21.7 percent from last year and nearly 70 percent from five years ago.
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Topics:
health plan benchmarking,
CDHPs,
UBA Health Plan Survey,
health plan costs,
consumer-directed health plan
We’ve already discussed Health Savings Account (HSA) activity at length, looking first at the correlation between generous HSA contributions and increased enrollment in consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs). Second, we looked at how HSAs have performed in recent years across different industries. Now, we’ll look closer at HSA activity across different regions of the country, based on the results of the 2014 UBA Health Plan Survey.
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Topics:
health plan benchmarking,
CDHPs,
health savings accounts,
HSA,
consumer-driven health plan,
HSA funding,
Kaminsky & Associates,
LHD Benefit Advisors,
UBA Health Plan Survey,
Mark Sherman,
Brian M. Goff,
Andrea Kinkade
Employer health savings account (HSA) funding strategies have changed in recent years in response to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and its impact on employer-sponsored health insurance plans. Employers are contributing less, on average, to HSAs and the increase in popularity of cost-saving consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs) has also had a major impact on how employers use these accounts.
In 2014, employees saw a 10 percent decrease in their average single HSA employer contribution from the previous year, from $574 in 2013 to $515 in 2014, according to new data released from the 2014 UBA Health Plan Survey, the largest health benefits survey in the nation. Average family contributions also decreased 7 percent during the same period, from $958 to $890.
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Topics:
health plan benchmarking,
CDHPs,
PPACA Affordable Care Act,
health savings account,
HSA,
consumer-driven health plan,
2014 Health Plan Survey,
HSA funding
Many employers benchmark their health plans against other employers with the same carrier or using nationally available data. But the benchmarking best practice is to compare your plan with others based on plan type, region, employee size, and industry. Without this more granular data, you could be missing key data on exactly how your plan stacks up against your competitors’ plans—and opportunities to more effectively negotiate rates and communicate the value of your benefits to your employees.
Consider a design firm in Georgia that offers a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP). Their premium cost for single coverage is $409 per month.
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Topics:
health plan benchmarking,
CDHPs,
Executive Summary,
consumer-driven health plan
Holly Parsons
The Wilson Agency, A UBA Partner Firm
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Topics:
health plan survey,
employee benefits,
hr consulting,
CDHPs