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Cost Cutting Survey
Benefits & Compensation
Cost Cutting Survey
Exchange ideas about health plans, retirement, work/life benefits, and employee assistance.
If tasked to reduce benefits costs by a significant percentage, where would you cut ?
1.Higher deductibles
2.Lower coverage levels
3.Pay less on prescriptions
4.Different kind of plan (HMO, self-i
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Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » Cost Cutting Survey
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Cost Cutting Survey
posted at 3/17/2009 8:14 AM EDT
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Posts: 237
First: 7/10/2007 Last: 8/31/2011 |
If tasked to reduce benefits costs by a significant percentage, where would you cut ?
1.Higher deductibles 2.Lower coverage levels 3.Pay less on prescriptions 4.Different kind of plan (HMO, self-insured) 5.Shift higher % of premium to employees 6.Eliminate specific benefits (vision, EAP, life, STD etc. ) 7.Reduce/eliminate employer match on 401K/403B plans 8.Other cost savings________________________ Are you planning on actually implementing any of the above this year? |
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Cost Cutting Survey
posted at 3/17/2009 9:00 AM EDT
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Posts: 1047
First: 4/11/2002 Last: 9/14/2011 |
There are a lot of surveys that garner this information from 1000's of respondents. If I had to choose, I would always go with increasing the deductible since it will have the least effect on your workforce since the majority of your plan participants will not incur claims subject to the deductible.
Depending on the savings generated from such a change, employers would probably then be able to purchase a deductible reimbursement plan to help fill in the difference in benefits. I'm assuming this question was posed for smaller employers. If you have at least 50 employees on your health plan, employers should be changing the way health insurance is delivered by rewarding people for leading healthy lifestyles. This will generate the most savings out of a group sponsored health plan, while encouraging employees to lead healthier lifestyles, which in turn boosts productivity. |
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Cost Cutting Survey
posted at 3/17/2009 9:31 AM EDT
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Posts: 237
First: 7/10/2007 Last: 8/31/2011 |
Robert:
Being a hot topic, I'm sure there are surveys out there on this. I checked around this and a couple other sites but hadn't run into any yet. Please point me in the right direction if you know of any. THX LDA |
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Cost Cutting Survey
posted at 3/17/2009 1:06 PM EDT
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Posts: 2442
First: 2/12/2000 Last: 9/14/2011 |
If you want to make a significant percentage change as your post asks, you would need to have major plan design.
Changing a deductible for example is likely not going to lower the company's total costs by a significant percentage unless you change from a regular plan to a High Deductible Savings account type plan. this would result in more than $1,000 per family savings per year- Something meaningful. |
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Cost Cutting Survey
posted at 3/18/2009 4:28 AM EDT
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
In the past 4 years, we have done the following:
(1) Increased deductibles (1st year was able to fund the difference...unfortunately couldn't continue that benefit) (2) Changed from 100% employer paid Health/Dental to employees paying part of the premium (3) Had a dual option Health Plan - where the employee could choose a lower deductible for a higher monthly premium (4) at 1/1/09, cut employer match from the 401k, employees required to pay 100% of the dental premium if they wanted to keep the benefit. We kept STD/LTD employer paid as we find most employees don't want to pay for that benefit, but it is an important one. I suspect there will be further cuts in 2010. |
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Cost Cutting Survey
posted at 3/18/2009 6:16 AM EDT
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Posts: 1047
First: 4/11/2002 Last: 9/14/2011 |
If you go to the Kaiser website you should be able to download the 2008 Employer Health Benefits Survey. The new Mercer survey should be coming out right about now, but that's going to run you about $1500. I also have the most recent MyWave survey that I would be more than happy to send you. Just shoot me an email: matthew.roberts@heliosconsultinggroupllc.com.
And I'm sure there are surveys from AON, Towers Perrin, Segal, etc. as well. It's going to come down to what works best for your organization. |
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Cost Cutting Survey
posted at 3/18/2009 10:56 AM EDT
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Posts: 79
First: 3/19/2008 Last: 10/15/2009 |
Here is a link to the new Hewitt survey:
http://www.hewittassociates.com/Intl/NA/en-US/KnowledgeCenter/ArticlesReports/ArticleDetail.aspx?cid=6388&tid=45 Summary of Findings from SHRM: Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of companies plan to shift more costs to employees. Almost half (49 percent) plan to reduce the number of benefit plans. A third (33 percent) plan to increase their focus on wellness programs. Almost 40 percent plan to increase the prevalence of consumer-driven health care plans. Planned Changes for 2010 Health Care Programs Increase No Impact Reduce Eliminate Benefit plan design offerings 13% 37% 49% <1% Prevalence of consumer-driven health care plans 40% 55% 3% 2% Employer health care subsidy 6% 28% 65% 0% Full-time health care benefits 2% 82% 16% 0% Incentive programs 20% 44% 30% 6% Part-time health care benefits 1% 80% 13% 6% Retiree health care benefits 0% 61% 26% 13% Wellness programs 33% 41% 24% 2% Source: Hewitt Associates |
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Cost Cutting Survey
posted at 3/18/2009 11:00 AM EDT
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Posts: 79
First: 3/19/2008 Last: 10/15/2009 |
Meant to put the link to the SHRM article: http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/benefits/Articles/Pages/HCpriorities.aspx
The article has advice for cutting costs in the short term. |
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Cost Cutting Survey
posted at 3/24/2009 6:26 AM EDT
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Posts: 2
First: 3/24/2009 Last: 7/22/2009 |
Ida:
I have a benefits calculator that will provide you cost impact of reducing/changing certain benefits. If you are interested in seeing actual cost impact for various strategies let me know how to contact you. |
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