With health care costs expected to rise next year, many companies are planning to offset the added expense through higher employee premiums, a new study finds.

Employer health care costs are expected to increase 7.2 percent in 2012, down from 7.4 percent this year but more than twice the rate of inflation, according to a new report from the National Business Group on Health (NBGH). Coupled with a slowdown in economic growth and business activity, many companies plan to defray rising costs by shifting more health care expenses onto worker contributions.

“Employers are facing a multitude of challenges posed by rising health care costs, the weak economy and the financial and administrative impact of complying with the new health reform law,” NBGH President and CEO Helen Darling said in an announcement of the findings. “As a result, employers are being much more aggressive in their use of cost-sharing techniques and cost control programs, and are making certain that employees have more reasons to be cost-sensitive health care consumers.”

The NBGH is a non-profit association of 329 mostly large employers. Its new report is based on responses from 83 non-government U.S. corporations ranging in size from more than 100,000 employees to fewer than 10,000 employees.

The findings, published last week, indicate that 53 percent of employers anticipate increasing the percentage that employees contribute to health care premiums and 39 percent plan to increase in-network deductibles. Moreover, 23 percent of respondents also plan to raise out-of-network deductibles, while 22 percent will increase out-of-pocket maximums.

Although employer costs are expected to climb an average 7.2 percent next year, employees “may not see premium increases this large [...] because companies can change the design of their benefit plans to tame the hike,” the Associated Press explains.

In addition to raising employee contributions for health care benefits, many companies are adopting more consumer-based changes to their health care plans and altering their benefits programs as various aspects of the health care reform law take effect.

Seventy-three percent of employers expect to implement at least one consumer-directed health plan in 2012, up from 61 percent offering one this year, while 17 percent will implement a total replacement consumer-directed health plan next year. The most common type of consumer-directed offering is expected to be a high-deductible health plan with a health savings account

“One of the biggest benefits for those in a high-deductible health plan is the tax-free earnings of a Health Savings Account (HSA),” the Wall Street Journal‘s SmartMoney blog explains. “Employees can make pre-tax contributions to the accounts, and employers often make contributions, too. (The maximum HSA contribution in 2011 is $3,050 for a single person and $6,150 for a family.) There are no taxes on the savings if they are used on medical expenses.”

Unlike flexible spending accounts, HSA funds do not have to be spent in the calendar year and can be invested for use years later, much like a 401(k) or retirement account.

“Another way to save: take advantage of the discounts and freebies offered at the office,” SmartMoney adds. “More companies are encouraging workers to get and stay healthy by providing free or low-cost smoking cessation classes, weight loss groups and other wellness programs.”

Among the changes planned in 2012 for complying with the health care reform law, 27 percent of employers are preparing to alter annual limits for preventive and wellness services, while 14 percent expect to change annual limits for mental health and substance abuse services. Fifty-nine percent of employers are not planning any changes to annual benefit limits next year.

Twenty-three percent of firms will have at least one benefit option that maintains its grandfather status in 2012 and 19 percent will have options that lose grandfather status. More than one in four employers plan to use the least-costly health plan to employees as the default option for new hires, while one in five will use the least-costly plan to employers as the default.

Earlier: How Health Plans Will Change in 2011

Resources

Majority of Large Employers Revamping Health Benefit Programs for 2012…
National Business Group on Health, Aug. 18, 2011

Survey: Big Firms Expect More Health Care Hikes
The Associated Press, Aug. 18, 2011

Blood Pressure Alert: Health Care Costs Set to Climb
by Jilian Mincer
SmartMoney (The Wall Street Journal), Aug. 18, 2011