According to the survey, titled “Health Care Changes Ahead,” 72 percent of employers plan to change their health benefit programs moderately or significantly by 2016 for their active full-time employees. Employers also plan to make changes to their health benefit programs for retirees, the survey revealed.
Many employers plan to look at private exchanges as a delivery channel for health benefits, which allows them to be a plan sponsor but outsource some management functions to an exchange operator, according to a Towers Watson news release. About three-quarters of survey respondents said they will want evidence that private exchanges will deliver greater value than their self-managed model.
“The healthcare landscape is changing rapidly thanks to health reform, continued cost escalation, the emergence of health benefit exchanges and new provider contracting and care delivery arrangements,” Randall Abbott, a senior healthcare consultant at Towers Watson, said in the release. “While employers are grappling with how to comply with healthcare reform right now, they are evaluating new healthcare designs and delivery approaches for their employee and retiree populations that will ultimately transform the look of employer-provided health plans over the next three to five years.”
Survey results are based on responses from 420 employers who collectively employ 8.7 million people.
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