As the healthcare debate rages on in Washington, companies across the country continue to search for ways to reduce the cost of providing healthcare benefits to their employees. The newly released Benefits USA 2009/2010 showed that the cost of healthcare benefits currently comprises 10 percent of companies' payrolls.

The average company's insurance premium increased 9.6 percent this year. Services, insurance and non-profits had the three highest average increases at 10.6, 10.2 and 10.0 percent, respectively. Utilities saw the smallest climb in cost with an average premium increase of 8.3 percent.

To reduce healthcare costs companies utilized a variety of methods. Increasing the employee portion of the premium was most prevalent at 59.5 percent. This was followed by increased deductible levels and increased employee co-insurance levels at 41.5 and 23.8 percent, respectively. Twenty-three percent offered a choice of deductible levels.

"Companies have been struggling to find ways to keep the cost of healthcare benefits in line, while trying not to pass the burden of increased costs down to employees," said Amy Kaminski, manager of marketing programs for Compdata Surveys, the nation's leading compensation and benefits survey data provider. "Having measures in place to contain costs can provide long term economic benefits to companies and employees alike."

Other popular cost containment measures include a network of healthcare professionals, used by 77.6 percent of survey respondents. Utilization review was employed at a rate of 60.2 percent compared to disease management, 58.2 percent. Pre-admission testing was utilized by 32.3 percent of organizations, while a second surgical opinion was only required by 14.5 percent of organizations.

About the Survey
Benefits USA 2009/2010 analyzes national and regional data on benefits eligibility and administration policies with detailed information on benefit plans, premiums and provisions. Information was collected from almost 5,000 benefit plans covering over 7 million employees across the country.

Compdata Surveys is the nation's leading compensation and benefits survey data provider. Thousands of U.S. organizations provide data each year ensuring the reliability of our results. Compdata Surveys has been providing comprehensive data at affordable prices to organizations from coast to coast since 1988. For further information about the compensation and benefits surveys, contact Amy Kaminski at (800) 300-9570.