Employers surveyed on health-care plans

Workers afraid of layoffs didn't rush to doctors' offices this year to use their health-insurance benefits as some had predicted, according to a survey of employer-sponsored health plans.

"It just didn't happen. People might have been more concerned about getting to work every day," said Kenneth Jeffries of the Richmond office of Mercer, an international human resources and benefits management, consulting, outsourcing and investment services company.

This week Mercer released results of its 2009 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, which also looks ahead at what employees are in store for in 2010.

The survey was completed by 2,900 employers -- including 110 based in Virginia -- in late summer. Public and private companies with at least 10 employees were included.

Nationally, the average spent by employers per worker on health benefits rose 5.5 percent in 2009, the lowest annual increase in a decade, according to the survey. The average spent per employee on health benefits was $8,945.

"We expected trends to be much higher than that because of the recession," said Jeffries, of Mercer's health and benefits consulting business.

Employers are holding down costs in a number of ways.

"We have seen an uptick in the number of employers moving to high-deductible health plans," he said. "Secondly, there are a greater number of employers serious about disease management and wellness and trying to change behaviors."

Some findings from the Virginia employers surveyed include:

• The average health-benefits cost per employee in 2009 was $8,881, 7 percent more than in 2008.

• Employers plan to hold 2010 cost increases down to 5.7 percent by changing plans or vendors.

• To manage costs, 37 percent of employers plan to raise deductibles, 33 percent say they will increase the employee share of the premium, and 19 percent will increase cost-sharing in other ways.

The survey report notes a "sharp increase" in disease-management and wellness programs. Firms with well-established, aggressive disease-management programs are seeing savings of about 2 percent in their employee health costs, Jeffries said.

"So many employees dip their toe into the wellness arena and it then loses momentum," he said.

The survey asked firms that don't offer health insurance about possible national mandates. Of the businesses responding, 44 percent said they would offer coverage if all individuals were required to obtain coverage. Also, 57 percent said they would offer a plan if they received tax credits that would keep annual costs to about $2,000 per employee.

Contact Tammie Smith at (804) 649-6572 or .