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Companies Cope With Rising Medical Costs
Among those alternative approaches are attempting to renegotiate a better deal with providers, changing providers, or deciding to simply bite the bullet and increase their contribution, according to a 2002 benefit plan survey by C&B Consulting Group of Syosset, New York.
According to the survey, 56.4% of respondents said they went back to the bargaining table to try to cut health-care costs increases, while 50% said they swapped carriers, 51.3% said they stepped up their plan contributions and 40.3% consulted with an outside advisor.
Medical plans suffering the greatest price hike were open access Point of Service (POS) plans with 17.5% hikes, indemnity plans with 14.5% increases, and HMOs with 13.3%%
Just under eight out of 10 respondents had fully insured medical plans, 14% were self insured, and the remaining had some combination of both, according to the survey.
Companies listed a variety of strategies for coping with increases in prescription drug coverage:
- increased copays, 60.5%
- promoted mail order, 41.7%
- utilized a three-tier drug plan, 37.1%
- implemented a deductible, 18.3%
Respondents also indicated that they utilized a variety of programs to communicate benefits information to their employees:
- meetings, 86.8%
- letters, 81.4%
- e-mail, 66.9%
- payroll stuffers, 53.3%
- personalized benefit statements, 44.3%.
The survey covered 275 New York metro area companies with about 90,000 employees.