Employers in Colorado and Wyoming are increasingly offering consumer-directed health plans to manage rising costs, according to a new study.
Under the plans, employees pay health care expenses from their own savings in a special account. Employers sometimes contribute to the accounts.
Fifty-two percent of Colorado and Wyoming employers said they either offer or are considering offering a consumer-directed health plan this year, according to the survey by the Mountain States Employers Council.
“Employers are looking at ways to cut costs for health coverage, and if not cut them, at least maintain costs,” said Patty Goodwin, who conducted the council’s 2007 Health and Welfare Plans survey of 634 employers.
The most popular type of consumer-directed health plan is called a health savings account. The percentage of Colorado and Wyoming employers offering HSAs as an option in their employee benefit plans more than doubled during the past year to 15 percent.
An HSA allows an employer to contribute to an employee’s account, and it’s portable, so the employee can take it to another employer. Health care costs are paid in full from the account.
Average monthly HSA premiums among the surveyed employers were $294 for a single employee and $851 for a family, compared with $351 and $1,029 for an HMO.
But the plans carry higher risks for employees, Goodwin said. Employees who underfund their accounts or run into serious health problems before they’re properly funded can get in trouble, she said. They’re best for people with relatively few health problems who are willing to save for future costs, she said.
The surveyed employers, which include those from the public and private sectors, said their total health care costs increased 11 percent in 2007 for the third straight year. In 2002 costs increased 22 percent but have been rising at lower rates since then.
Goodwin said there’s probably some connection between the slowed growth in costs and the increased use of consumer- directed plans.
Staff writer Greg Griffin can be reached at 303-954-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com.
