Employers are continuing to cut employee benefits costs inthe wake of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.Strategies include implementing consumer-driven plans orself-insuring, as well as launching health savings accounts,enhancing wellness programs andincreasing voluntary benefit offerings.

According to Benefits Selling's 2015 Employer Survey,63 percent of respondents said they expected their employees topick up more of the tab for their own benefits in the coming year,considering that health care and benefits costs have risensince last year.

More than a third (35 percent) said costs have increasedsignificantly, while 40 percent said costs have increased some and22 percent said they have stayed about the same. Only 3 percentsaid that costs declined some and no one said they declinedsignificantly.

Employees will likely pick up more of the costs through the useor implementation of consumer-driven plans, as 69percent of the survey respondents said their company has consideredthis option.

Don Levings, senior account executive at R&R InsuranceServices Inc. in Waukesha, Wisconsin says his firm has had aconsumer-driven plan for five years, with dual choice between atraditional plan and a consumer-driven plan.

“We've always had a terrific group health plan, but afterthe passage of PPACA, we made some changes to our coverages to makesure that our benefits program complied,” Levings said.

The firm also offers its employees disability, dental and life voluntarybenefits, as well as HSAs and flexible spending plans. “Wehave banks close to work with good interest rates on the HSAs,”Levings added, “which helps them with the high deductible.”

Nearly half (49 percent) of the survey's respondents said theyoffered HSAs, and exactly half offered flexible workingbenefits.

Chris Wolpert, director of business development at GroupServices Northwest in Tacoma, Washington, says that his firm doesnot offer medical health care plans because of the cost of“age-rated” plans under PPACA — five of the company's six employeesare over 50, and two of those are over 60. One employee is on theirspouse's plan and the other may be able to get some kind of subsidyon the public exchanges.

“To make up for not offering a medical plan, we have madenon-medical benefits available,” Wolpert says. “We have increasedthe maximum benefit on dental from $1,000 to $1,500, provided ahigher death benefit on group life, and added more lines ofcoverage, including short-term and long-term disability.

These benefit plans are all 100 percent employer paid, whilevoluntary benefits such as life insurance buy-up, critical illness plans, andaccident plans are 100 percent employee paid.

In the employer survey, 21 percent of respondents saidthey've considered moving their employees onto the publicexchanges, compared to 79 percent who said they have not.

Jeff Forker, total rewards consultant at SCL Health inBroomfield, Colorado, says that his organization, a nonprofitfaith-based health care system, offers its employees a variety ofmedical plans, but the organization encourages them to opt for theSCL self-insured plan.

“We try to keep as much business in-house as we can,” Forkersays. “Our model tends to be efficient because we only pay the truecost of the service for our population. Since we're a nonprofit, weare also not trying to extract excess profit for ourorganization.”

To help reduce health care costs, many employers are consideringwellness programs to help their workers maintain healthy behaviors.In the employer survey, 63 percent of respondents said theirorganization has either implemented or planned on implementing awellness or disease management program.

Wolpert says his firm is among those considering a wellnessprogram.

“The most successful programs I've seen are being championed bya real advocate within the organization — someone really pushingthe initiative who is accountable,” he says.

Levings is the coordinator of his firm's wellness program,which includes walking programs, “Biggest Loser” contests and otherweight maintenance initiatives, to name a few. His team draws thenames of participants in these contests, and the winners receivegift cards to gas stations or department stores.

“We've had low single-digit increases on our health insurancepremiums, and a great deal of that is due to our wellness program,” he says.“We've even eliminated all vending machines and now stock a coolerwith healthy goods, such as fruits, juices, granola bars andsandwiches made with 12-grain bread. Our employees have embracedthese initiatives wholeheartedly and our program just received anaward from the Wellness Council of America.”

SCL Health is just starting to roll out a wellness program, soit's too early to determine the impact it will have on benefitcosts, Forker says. The first thing his team did was to rewardemployees who completed a health questionnaire to give the team abaseline. And employees will have other opportunities for financialincentives over the next year, such as participating in biometricstesting for body mass index, blood pressure, non-smoking andcholesterol.

“We're also anticipating that once people have information onwhatever areas they might need to focus on, such as checking outand catching health issues early and making lifestyle choices, theywill take action in those areas,” he says. “We also provide anopportunity for people to act on those choices with solutions, suchas smoking cessation, exercise and healthy eating programs.”