Employers will keep coverage, despite PPACA, survey finds

And their commitment to keep providing health care coverage comes despite the fact that they believe reform is increasing their costs.

Most employers (88 percent) already have seen cost increase because of provisions like the requirement that young adults can remain covered on their parents’ plans until they turn 26.

Health reform’s requirement that companies with at least 50 employees provide affordable health benefits is the primary reason most companies expect their spending on health insurance to rise in 2014. They also believe that additional rules coming next year will further their spending.

As far as the cost impact, 47 percent estimate their 2013 cost increases — directly due to PPACA — to be less than 5 percent, while 41 percent estimate it to be more than 5 percent.

Nearly one in five employers has already increased participants’ share of plan premiums and an additional quarter of respondents plan to increase the portion that employees pay for their premiums over the next year, the survey found.

Of those employers already planning to make changes, 24 percent are increasing their emphasis on high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts, while an additional 14 percent are assessing the feasibility of adding one.

Then there’s the encouragement of healthy behaviors in employees, with 19 percent of employers developing or expanding organized wellness programs within the last year. Another 14 percent of employers adopted or expanded the use of financial incentives to encourage healthier lifestyles within the past year, with another 25 percent planning to do so in the next year.

“We are seeing trends that indicate more changes may be on the horizon,” Julie Stich, research director for the IFEBP, said in a statement.

Some of those big upcoming changes include more organizations losing grandfathered status, and others redesigning their plans to avoid the 2018 excise tax on so-called Cadillac plans.