A recent survey by Towers Watson found that of 368 midsize and large companies, respondents generally expect healthcare costs to increase by 5.9 percent, a smaller jump than the 7.6 percent growth seen this year.
Just under half of respondents indicated they would re-evaluate long-term healthcare business strategies, perhaps in part due to uncertainty over the approaching implementation of state healthcare exchanges.
About 70 percent of employers have doubts that healthcare exchanges will represent viable employee coverage in 2014 and 2015, and just under half of respondents indicated they do not expect them to be implemented on schedule.
"With so much still unknown regarding both the short- and long-term impact of health care reform, most employers will not make wholesale changes to employer-sponsored health plans in 2012," said Towers Watson's senior health care consulting leader Ron Fontanetta.
Nearly 90 percent of employers plan to institute measures that control healthcare costs in some way. This includes steps to minimize the impact of the healthcare reform excise tax, which more than half expect to trigger by 2018. Generally, employers are investigating measures such as implementing different plan designs, altering subsidization levels, using new incentives and taking advantage of social media to cut costs.
