The total health benefit cost rose by 6.1% in 2006, the same pace as last year, to an average of $7,523 per employee, according to the National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, conducted annually by Mercer Health & Benefits. Employers predict another 6.1% increase in average cost for 2007. Average deductibles, copays, and out-of-pocket maximums, which rose rapidly from 2000 to 2005, showed only modest growth last year. With employee cost-shifting off the table for many employers, reducing this rate further, or even maintaining it, will require other cost management strategies, Mercer said. Asked to rate the importance of six cost management strategies to their organizations over the next five years, care management and consumerism were each rated important or very important by 43% of all employers (and about two-thirds of those with 500 or more employees). The percentage of all employers offering a consumer-directed health plan tripled in 2006, from 2% to 6%. Five years from now, 60% of large employers say employees will be offered one or more CDHPs, including 10% that say they will offer only CDHPs. More than a third of small employers believe they will offer CDHPs.
