Other details of its findings include:

Employer commitment to providing medical benefits to employees remains very high with 97 percent of respondents indicating they were very likely to offer coverage in 2016, up from 77 percent in last year's survey.
Employers reported less interest in public exchanges as options for key workforce segments with 67 percent say they are not considering such an approach for part-time employees and 84 percent not considering for their full-time active employees.
98 percent of respondents said that the cost of plan options was "somewhat" or "very" important (up 5 points from last year) when it came to making a decision to switch plan designs. The level of fees was only 1 point behind at 97 percent (up 3 points from last year).
Saving money and consumer choice were the top two reasons cited by employers who have already implemented an exchange.
Hurdles to moving to a private exchange included employee readiness (84 percent), stability of carrier relationships (84 percent), loss of flexibility in plan design (78 percent) and loss of control or stewardship (72 percent).
When asked to consider the importance of key elements of private exchanges for active employees, employers identified delivery and reporting capabilities such as implementation assistance (93 percent), spending account program administration (89 percent), member advocacy (85 percent) and enrollment and eligibility maintenance (85 percent) and employer specific reporting (91 percent) as somewhat or very important.
85 percent said reducing the administrative burden on internal resources proved to be a compelling reason to consider a private exchange.
There were sizeable increases in the importance employers place on the shopping experience: 85 percent said tools that aid in plan selection were "very important" (vs. 70 percent in 2013) and 35 percent rated mobile device compatibility as "very important" (vs. 26 percent in 2013).

Instant Insights /

Employers ‘take step back’ on private exchanges

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