Despite uncertainty surrounding health reform legislation, U.S. enrollment in consumer-driven health (CDH) plans that incorporate health savings accounts (HSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) or flexible spending accounts (FSAs) will rise to 45 million by the end of 2012, from 29 million accounts at the end of 2008. That's according to a February 2010 report by Aite Group LLC, a Boston-based business research and advisory firm.
One reason for the rising enrollment: Premiums have been increasing just 3 percent per year for account-linked health insurance plans, compared with an average of 8 percent for traditional preferred-provider organization (PPO) and health maintenance organization (HMO) insurance plans, the researchers found.
Although the CDH market has faced uncertainty over potential legislative changes to the nation's health care system, "financial institutions and health plans continue to see a steady uptake in the adoption of these accounts," says Kunal Pandya, senior analyst with Aite Group and author of the report. "Even legislation discontinuing a particular CDH account type would fail to disrupt overall growth of the CDH market. In this instance, the transition from one CDH account to another (from an FSA to an HSA, for example), would merely improve the forecast for the winning account type," he adds.
More Employers Offering CDH Plans
Joint research by AON Consulting and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS) in 2009 indicated that 83 percent of U.S. employers offered HSA or HRA plans to their employees, and 17 percent offered a CDH plan as the sole option.
Among the biggest U.S. firms, the 14th Annual National Business Group on Health/Watson Wyatt (NBGH/WW) Survey of 489 Fortune 1000 companies, conducted in January 2009 and released two months later, found that 51 percent had CDH plans as a choice or as the only offering, up 9 percentage points from the previous year. The NBGH/WW survey suggests that nearly 60 percent of large U.S. employers will offer a CDH plan in 2010.
Stephen Miller is an online editor/manager for SHRM.
Related Articles:
Studies Quantify Savings with Consumer-Driven Health Plans, SHRM Online Benefits Discipline, February 2010
Employers Take Further Steps to Rein in Health Costs, SHRM Online Benefits Discipline, February 2010
Double-Digit Health Care Cost Increases Expected to Continue, SHRM Online Benefits Discipline, February 2010
Most U.S. Employers with Consumer-Driven Plans Prefer HSAs, SHRM Online Benefits Discipline, November 2009
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