New York, NY (October 1, 2007) Few New England healthcare organizations made any significant revisions to their employee health benefits programs from last year, according to the third annual survey of the New England healthcare industry by Olney Associates and Cammack LaRhette Consulting.
According to Mark Manin, President of Cammack LaRhette, “With so many world class hospitals and healthcare organizations participating in the survey, it is interesting to note that with few exceptions their approach to health benefits was somewhat traditional.” He goes on to comment, “For example, healthcare organizations appear to be cautious in adopting new trends such as consumer-driven healthcare plans as well as implementing program initiatives to achieve cost savings, such as prescription drug carve outs. Rather, they seem to be betting on wellness programs to achieve cost savings in the future.”
Meanwhile, one noteworthy change showed up in the lessening of vesting provisions and shortening of eligibility rules in their defined contribution plans. Half of the responding organizations have migrated to a one-year eligibility rule, up 7% over the prior year.
One of the key benchmarks of the 2007 survey concerned Paid Time Off programs. Considering most healthcare organizations are, “...very concerned with the burgeoning liability associated with PTO days,” says Manin, “less than one third of the survey respondents are putting real restrictions on the number of PTO days that an employee can accrue and rollover from year to year.”
Additional results show a preference among employees for health maintenance organizations (HMO) over preferred provider organizations (PPO) or point of service (POS) plans; a continuing decline in employer sponsored defined benefit pension plans; and, an uptick in the use of matching employer contributions in defined contribution plans.
About the Survey
The 2007 survey details issues that span key core and non-core employee benefits. It was created to enable healthcare organizations to identify trends in employee benefit plans and to see whether their healthcare organization measured up against the competition and the region as a whole.
About the Survey Sponsors
Focusing exclusively on hospital benefits, the survey and was sponsored in part by the Connecticut Hospital Association, the Hospital Association of Rhode Island and the Massachusetts Healthcare Human Resources Association.
Olney Associates is a Boston Based human resources consulting and survey organization specializing in executive, management and staff compensation in the healthcare industry. They are also the largest producer of compensation and benefit surveys in the Northeast.
Cammack LaRhette Consulting (www.clcinc.com) is a full-services employee benefits and human resources consulting firm, offering large and mid-sized businesses and organizations value-added consulting services, focusing on Retirement Plans, Health & Welfare Plans, Human Resources and HR Technology Services. Cammack LaRhette is located in New York, NY, Wellesley, MA, Saratoga Springs, NY, South Portland, ME, and Princeton, NJ.
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