Survey: Employers Have High Confidence They Can Control Health Care Costs With Proper Tools

– Nearly 75 percent have or want to have a wellness program with a health
risk assessment; fewer than 25 percent want taxpayer-funded universal

health care – United Benefit Advisors, LLC (UBA), one of the nation’s leading employee benefits advisory
organizations, today announced key findings from its 2008 UBA Employer
Opinion Survey, which delineates employers’ specific health care

strategies, health benefits philosophy and opinion, health plan management,

and Consumer Driven Health Care.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080422/CLTU012LOGO )

The release of the 2008 UBA Employer Opinion Survey contains
representative responses from employers by both region and employer size
Of the 1,664 employers polled, 72.5% have or want to have a wellness
program that utilizes a health risk assessment; and 59.2% have or desire to
implement a chronic disease management program. The survey also found that
employers with 200 or more employees were 54% more likely to describe
themselves as “leading edge” or “fairly quick” to adopt wellness programs.
Firms with more than 1,000 employees produced results that indicated they
were two-and-a-half times as likely to describe themselves as “leading
edge” or “fairly quick” concerning disease management program adoption.

“The tide has clearly turned in that the majority of employers believe
in the long-term value and positive impact that comprehensive wellness and
disease management programs provide,” said William Stafford, Vice
President, Member Services for UBA. “Keeping the healthy employees healthy
while stabilizing and/or improving the health of employees with chronic
conditions will dramatically improve everyone’s health and quality of
life.”

Other clear trends emerged related to employers’ perspective on what
the government’s role should be in improving the health care landscape.
Just 26% of employers want the government to develop a taxpayer-funded
universal health care system. Without regard to employee size or geographic
region, more than 75% of employers surveyed felt the government should
require hospitals and doctors to:

— Publicly disclose pricing
— Require insurers to publicly disclose actual discounted prices paid to
providers
— Mandate health care provider quality reporting
“This survey illustrates that employers have a high level of confidence
in their ability to control health care costs and that their employees can
make informed choices if given the additional tools necessary to do so,”
Stafford said. “In the current environment, the absence of readily
available price and quality data coupled with an expectation of both
employers and employees to make sound health care decisions is like asking
someone to navigate turbulent waters while blindfolded and without the
ability to steer.”

Notable results in other categories include:

— 60% of employers felt health plans/insurers and the government are
ultimately responsible for controlling the cost of health care
— Just 1% felt the government should have a say in deciding which doctor
or hospital patients should use or how to manage chronic conditions
— 8.4% of employers felt doctors and hospitals should be responsible for
controlling costs

Asked to project ahead five years:

— 86.8% of employers surveyed believed more health care costs will shift
to their employees – down 5% from the 2006 survey
— 51.0% felt that Consumer Driven Health Plans would be the dominant plan
type – down from 52.9% in 2006
— 47.4% felt both they and their employees will have the price and
quality data necessary to make good health care spending decisions
— More than 98% were confident they would provide health care benefits to
their employees one year from now

“Overall, the survey results show that employers take their role as the
primary source for health care coverage in America quite seriously,”
Stafford said. “Employers have made it quite clear that they cannot take
sole responsibility for health care costs; they need to partner with
employees, physicians, hospitals and the government to find a solution to
the health care crisis we are all experiencing.”

ABOUT THE 2008 UBA EMPLOYER OPINION SURVEY

The 2008 UBA Employer Opinion Survey and the 2007 UBA Employer Survey
(which addressed personal health management/wellness, employee
communications and scope of benefits) serve as companion pieces to the 2007
UBA Health Plan Survey. Released this past August, the 2007 UBA Health Plan
Survey is the largest health plan benchmarking survey in the nation.
Results from the 2008 UBA Health Plan Survey will be released in August
2008.

ABOUT UNITED BENEFIT ADVISORS

United Benefit Advisors, one of the nation’s largest employee benefit
advisory organizations, has more than 1,900 experienced benefits
professionals in more than 165 offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. An
alliance of 140 of the nation’s premier independent benefit advisory firms,
UBA members are better positioned to help employers and their employees
respond more efficiently and effectively to the challenges of an
ever-changing employee benefit marketplace. Visit UBA online at
http://www.benefits.com to locate your local UBA Member Firm.

CHRIS RYAN
COLES MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
(317) 571-0051
[email protected]


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