This hasn’t been the best year for consumer-driven health plans (CDHP).
Although the use of CDHPs grew at a rate of 18.1% this year, that’s just a little more than half of last year’s growth rate of 33.9%.
One reason for the drop: the re-emergence of health maintenance organization (HMO) plans. For the first time, fewer employees are covered under a CDHP plan (12.4%) than an HMO (15.4%).
Those figures are from the 2010 United Benefit Advisors Health Plan Survey, which included responses from 11,413 employers offering 17,113 health plans.
The survey also revealed that preferred provider organization (PPO) plans still have the highest enrollment of any health benefit plan: Nearly two-thirds of all enrolled employees (65.7%) are in a PPO plan.
Some other findings:
- The average employer contribution to a health reimbursement arrangement — which is often used to help offset the high out-of-pocket costs of a CDHP — increased to $1,481 (up from $1,310 in 2009) for a single employee and $2,857 for a family (up from $2,502).
- The average premium increase for all plan types was 8% (up from 7.3% last year).
- The average employee-only coverage contribution grew to $113 (up from $105), and the average family contribution grew to $443 (up from $419.)