Just 5 percent of employers next year plan to pursue employee coverage through a private health insurance exchange.
That's one of the biggest findings in the latest Verisight and McGladrey Compensation, Retirement and Benefits Trends Survey, and, if it pans out, just not the sort of news operators of these exchanges would hope to hear.
On another closely watched question, the survey found that just 4 percent of employers plan to discontinue coverage entirely and provide a subsidy for employees to obtain coverage in a state or federal exchange.
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According to the survey, most employers have decided to continue offering group insurance to full-time employees for the next 12 months.
"While some companies have announced their decision to discontinue employer-sponsored health coverage for part-time employees – directing them to the public health exchanges for coverage — more than eight in 10 survey respondents expect to continue coverage for full-time employees during the next plan year," said Verisight Executive Vice President Martha Sadler.
"With the delay in the employer mandate, many employers naturally have pushed the 'play or pay decision' process down the road," said Bill O'Malley, a director with the Washington, D.C., national tax office of McGladrey, a tax consultant.
That said, the survey confirmed, once more, that employers are taking steps to control their costs.
According to the survey, employers are raising employees' portion of premium payments (35 percent); raising employees' co-payments or co-insurance rates (23 percent); raising employees' deductibles (22 percent); and implementing wellness programs (22 percent).
Other actions employers plan to take to cut costs in 2014 include reducing: overtime, 10 percent; staff, 9 percent; and health and welfare benefits, 15 percent.
The survey found that wage increases for high performers across all employee levels averaged 4.8 percent. One-quarter of respondents said their executives did not receive pay raises in 2013.
Other key findings from the survey included:
- While more than two-thirds (70 percent) of respondents said that they missed some or all of their sales targets over the past 12 months, only 16 percent made or planned changes to their sales compensation plans over the past 12 months.
- Ninety-five percent of firms surveyed have a defined contribution plan, such as an IRA or 401(k), and report that three in four (76 percent) of employees made salary deferrals into their plan while 77 percent of employers offered matching contributions, up from 68 percent and 74 percent respectively.
Conducted online, the survey polled more than 1,000 organizations drawn from a national sample. The majority of respondents (65 percent) were companies with 51 to 1,000 full-time employees.
Verisight is a retirement plan services and consulting firm McGladrey provides assurance, tax and consulting services.
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