Financial executives are worried about the rising cost of health care and many are implementing measures that will shift more of the burden of increasing costs to workers.

A new survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants found that 91 percent of financial executives polled had concerns about rising health care costs, and 81 percent reported employee health care costs at their companies had increased anywhere from 5 percent to 20 percent during the past year.

John F. Morrow, AICPA vice president of business, industry and government, said that rising health care costs have long been an issue for companies both large and small, but companies were reluctant to reduce the level of benefits to workers.

“In an effort to contain soaring health care costs, most organizations are trying a variety of strategies, including offering high-deductible consumer-driven plans, changing providers or reducing company contributions,” Morrow says. These measures shift some costs to employees, but in most cases maintain the level of benefits.

Morrow adds it was a positive sign that only 7 percent of the survey respondents indicated that they were reducing benefits to their employees, even in the face of surging health care costs.

Filed by Matthew Scott of Financial Week, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.