Business Insurance-Posted On: Dec. 19, 2008 3:05 PM CST Joanne Wojcik OAKLAND, Calif.—The dominance of managed care in the California market led many benefits experts to doubt if consumer-driven health plans with high deductibles would gain much traction there.
But a recent survey has found that 38% of employers in the nation's most populous state now offer high-deductible health plans to their employees, up from 18% in 2007.
However, only 10% of employers offering HDHPs to their employees also offer a health savings account, while less than 1% offer a health reimbursement arrangement, according to the latest edition of the California Employer Health Benefits Survey, a joint project of the Oakland,Calif.-based California Healthcare Foundation and the National Opinion Research Center.
And even through the percentage of employers offering HDHPs in California surged, the number of employees enrolling in the plans remained unchanged from 2007 at 4%. By contrast, enrollment nationally in the plans doubled from last year to this year to 8%.
More than three-quarters of California workers were given a health maintenance organization option in 2008, according to the survey, compared with just 41% of workers nationally. As such, California workers have been consistently more likely to enroll in HMOs than covered workers nationally, who are more likely to enroll in preferred provider organization plans, the survey noted.
In California, 52% of covered workers were enrolled in HMOs in 2008, while 33% were enrolled in PPOs, 11% in point-of-service plans and 4% in HDHPs. By comparison, 20% of U.S. workers are enrolled in HMOs, while 58% are enrolled in PPOs, 12% in POS plans and 8% in HDHPs.
Among other findings of the survey:
- Employer-based health care premiums rose by an average of 8.3% in 2008, the same as 2007.
- More than half of California employers offered coverage for same-sex domestic partners, more than double the national average. Due to a change in survey wording, the 2008 results could not be compared to prior years.
- Thirty percent of covered workers in California were enrolled in a partly or completely self-insured plan in 2008, compared with 55% nationally. The gap between the state and national figures is associated with California’s high HMO enrollment since HMOs are less likely than other plans to be self-insured, the survey noted.
This year's survey, which was conducted by interview from April to July, included 796 randomly selected participants drawn from the Dun & Bradstreet list of private employers with three or more workers.
For complete results of the survey, visit www.chcf.org.
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This article discusses the increase in companies that offer CDHD health plan but the lack of increase in participation in these plans. I can tell you that in my groups that offer the CDHD plan, they have a much higher participation that the average. I believe that there are two reasons: 1) Legacy Benefits & Insurance Services designs programs that interest the employee while controlling costs for the employer and 2) we also communicate the advantages of the program to the employees at open enrollment and to new hires for employer. We believe that this extra step, which most brokers do not perform effectively, creates better understanding, higher participation, and more satisfaction by the employees.
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