Cammack Health Releases Tenth Annual Benefits Survey of Hospitals

Industry: Healthcare

The Tenth Annual Cammack Health Benefits Survey of Hospitals in the Northeast shows that the effects of the 2018 Cadillac Tax are already being felt.

New York, NY (PRUnderground) August 11th, 2015

The Tenth Annual Cammack Health Benefits Survey of Hospitals in the Northeast shows that the effects of the 2018 Cadillac Tax are already being felt, with average deductibles skewing higher as hospitals take on more risk in exchange for lower fixed costs. With more than half of respondents vulnerable to the tax in 2018 (assuming a 6% trend and no plan changes), hospitals are taking steps to lower the value of their plans.

Mary Clark, Partner at Cammack Health LLC, has this to say: “In the next few year, so-called ‘high plans’ are in danger of elimination – ‘low’ may become the new ‘high.’ It’s likely that FSAs will also not survive the Cadillac Tax – at least, not in their current form.”

Hospitals are using a variety of methods to control costs:

  • 13% of respondents levy a spousal surcharge, charging extra for spouses offered other coverage through their employers. 7% of respondents deny coverage to spouses who are offered coverage through their employers.
  • 48% of respondents are aggressively steering employees to their internal pharmacies. 46% have created a separate tier for specialty drugs, and 25% have moved to 100% copays for non-formulary drugs.
  • Hospitals have responded swiftly to the ACA, upgrading systems and processes. 95% of respondents are tracking the number of hours worked by employees, and 65% of respondents expect to avoid all penalties from the ACA employer mandate. Narrow networks are becoming more common. Increasingly, hospitals are offering a fourth tier in their plan design: domestic, a select group of hospitals, and traditional in- and out-of network tiers. More and more, employers are turning to salary-banding as a way to ensure that plan costs for lower-paid employees satisfy ACA requirements.

While adoption of wellness incentives seems to have lost momentum in the face of recent EEOC challenges, more health organizations are turning to health management programs such as ACOs and patient-centered medical homes (PHCMs). A small but growing number are using incentives to steer employees towards such programs.

Participation in the Cammack Health Benefits Survey of Hospitals increased by 25% in 2015, expanding for the first time into Massachusetts and Rhode Island, in addition to New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

The survey itself is only available to participants. Health systems in the survey region can request to participate in the 2016 survey at cammackhealth.com/survey; highlights from the 2015 survey are also available for download.

About Cammack Health LLC

With the shift from pay-for-service to pay-for-performance reimbursement, healthcare organizations must fundamentally transform how they deliver care. Success requires real behavioral change—on the part of health system leaders, caregivers, and healthcare consumers. It’s a complex challenge. Where do you start?

Cammack Health has been working with hospitals and health systems to improve their performance and efficiency since long before the term “accountable care” was coined. Our in-depth understanding of the complex dynamics of healthcare delivery, utilization, and reimbursement enables us to provide practical solutions that make a real difference.

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