UBA: 3 ways PPACA is already hitting employers

Benefits advisors who serve small and midsize U.S. employers are still waiting for many of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) effect shoes to drop, but some of the shoes have landed.

Analysts at United Benefit Advisors (UBA), a group that serves 2,000 independent benefits advisors, has explored the actual and possible effects of PPACA in a summary of results from a recent survey of 9,950 employers with 16,467 health plans.

The employers all had connections with UBA before they started the survey. Many of the employers in the sample have fewer than 100 employees.

UBA analysts found, for example, that premiums for participating plans increased just 5.6 percent in 2014 — to about $9,500 per employee for all plan types. The 2014 increase was only slightly higher than the 2013 average increase — 5.5 percent.

Out-of-pocket maximums for 2014 increased to about $1,900, just 6 percent higher than the average deductible in 2013.

See also: UBA: Health Account Plan Savings Not So Great.

But some things have changed. To learn what they are, read on.

1. Calendars have changed

Because of concerns, the number of participating employers with plan years starting Dec. 1, rather than Jan. 1, seems to have quintupled, UBA analysts say. More than one-quarter of the participating employers now have a Dec. 1 plan renewal date.

Employers made that change to avoid immediately having to comply with all of the PPACA rules that were supposed to take effect Jan. 1.