Kansas City, Kan. – Although most organizations saw an increase in their health insurance premium, the average premium increase is decreasing, according to the Compensation Data 2008 - Mid-South annual survey of 176 employers in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The newly released results reported the average premium increase was 4.1 percent for all plan types.
While health insurance premiums are rising, they have been increasing at a lower rate for the last five years. In 2007, the average premium increase was 9.8 percent. When comparing plans in 2008, 44.1 percent of organizations offering PPO plans saw an average increase of 3.9 percent. Those offering HMO and POS plans had average premium increases of 3.3 and 9.8 percent, respectively. HDHP plans had increases of 6.7 percent.
“More than 70 percent of the organizations offering HDHP plans had a health insurance premium increase in 2008,” said Amy Kaminski, manager of marketing programs for Compdata Surveys. “Comparatively, over 60 percent of employers had increases with HMO and POS plans.”
To contain rising costs, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi organizations utilized a variety of methods. The most highly used was wellness programs at 72.2 percent in 2008, while coordination of benefits was employed by 70.4 percent. Use of a network of healthcare professionals was prevalent, as 69.2 percent of organizations used them to contain costs.
The results showed 26 percent of companies in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi increased the employee portion of the premium in their efforts to reduce costs. This is less than the percentage seen in 2006. Currently, 30.2 and 16 percent of organizations increased deductible levels and employee co-insurance levels, respectively. On average, employers contribute 9 percent of payroll toward the cost of health benefits, which is nearly the same cost to provide all of the following benefits: dental, pension, life, disability and other non-mandated benefits.
About the Survey
Compensation Data 2008 – Mid-South contains data on 580 job titles ranging from entry-level to top executives. Information was collected on more than 263,000 employees across the region. The results provide a comprehensive summary of pay data, benefits information and pay practices with an effective date of March 1, 2008.
Compdata Surveys, www.compdatasurveys.com, has been providing accurate, reliable data at affordable prices since 1988. For further information about the compensation and benefits surveys, contact Lane Odle at (800) 300-9570 or lodle[at]compdatasurveys.com.
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