"UBA/Ingenix Employer Opinion Survey on Healthcare"
No Author Cited
United Benefit Advisors/Ingenix, Sept. 2005
According to this study by United Benefit Advisors and Ingenix, a health research and information company, 99 percent of employers cite health care costs and the burden they place on both companies and employees as a critical concern. Only 22 percent of employers believe that the responsibility for controlling costs lie with people receiving or providing care – patients, doctors and hospitals. They believe responsibility lies more with insurers, employers and the government. An overwhelming majority of believe that the federal government should require hospitals, physicians and insurers to publicly disclose all cost and quality information so that they can better address cost containment.
The study found that employers are committed to providing employees with health care, citing recruitment and retention issues as motivating factors. In addition, employers are generally opposed to increasing the waiting period for new hires to become eligible for health care.
Employers' attempts to manage costs have proven to be a mixed bag with some reporting that wellness programs and chronic disease management were effective and an equal number reporting that they were not. Most consider the jury still out on consumer-driven health care.
Respondents predicted that hospitals, physicians and insurers will be required to disclose more quality and cost information in the next five years. They also predicted that a "total compensation" approach, will gain in popularity. Under this kind of approach, employees would receive a single compensation amount over which they will have total control to allocate their money toward take-home pay, health benefits, retirement or savings plans, or non-health benefits in the manner they feel appropriate to their needs.
The study surveyed 794 U.S. employers, ranging from workplaces with fewer than 49 employees to large employers with more than a thousand.
