Employers eyeing gated health plans

More than half of those interviewed said their plans today included what would be described as traditional cost mitigation elements, such as shifting costs to employees.

But only one in five believe they will still be relying on such strategies in a few years. And while just 20 percent include gating insurance options today, “more than 60 percent of employers plan to gate employees to richer designs, where employees are required to complete a ‘task’ to access richer design options,” Aon Hewitt said.  

“Gating strategies are becoming an increasingly attractive incentive technique among employers as they look to improve the health of their employee populations,” said Jim Winkler, chief innovation officer of health & benefits at Aon Hewitt. “For example, employers may offer a basic high-deductible plan to their entire workforce, but make a richer PPO option available to those employees who complete a health risk questionnaire or biometric screening.”

Other findings from the study, which has not yet been released in its entirety, include:

• 72 percent of employers are, or will be, reducing subsidies for dependents.
• 68 percent of employers plan to adopt reference-based pricing — where employers set a pricing cap on benefits for certain medical services for which wide cost variation exists with no discernible differentiation in quality —up from 10 percent today.
• 42 percent of employers are considering offering high-deductible health plans as a full replacement plan, up from 15 percent today.