Dive Brief:
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When it comes to employee healthcare coverage, the manufacturing industry favors high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), education backs traditional plans (PPOs, HMOs, etc.) while healthcare offers the most voluntary benefits used to help manage financial wellbeing, according to a recent survey.
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The study from Benefitfocus Inc., "State of Employee Benefits 2016 — Industry Edition," offers a look at actual, but anonymous, benefit plan data from over 400,000 consumers across 200 of the company's employer clients in those three large industries.
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Manufacturing offers a combination of HDHPs and traditional plans at a higher rate than traditional plans only (48% to 46%, respectively). By contrast, only 23% of education employers offered at least one HDHP, with those employees favoring HMOs (44%).
Dive Insight:
Shawn Jenkins, Benefitfocus CEO, said the survey findings indicate manufacturing employers, with high HDHP participation, have the opportunity to encourage employees to use pre-tax health savings accounts (HSAs) or flexible spending accounts (FSAs) as a means of covering higher out-of-pocket costs associated with HDHPs.
In the healthcare industry, those workers also face high deductibles, but because they have more "gap" voluntary benefits (critical illness, accident and/or hospital indemnity coverage), they are better prepared to handle unexpected medical costs.
Jenkins said one thing the survey makes clear is a "one-size-fits-all" approach for benefits in attracting and retaining talent has limited effectiveness today. And by incorporating more choice into plan offerings, employers are starting to realize that leveraging benefits management technology can mean more affordable, customizable strategies in providing healthcare protection beyond traditional HMO and PPO plans.