Dive Brief:
- Family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose 4% to an average of $22,221 annually this year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's Employer Health Benefits survey out Thursday. On average, workers are paying $5,969 annually for their health coverage, with employers picking up the rest.
- The average single deductible for workers who have one stands at $1,669, in line with the past two years, though up significantly since 2011. And 85% of covered workers now have a deductible, up from 74% a decade ago.
- Among employers surveyed, many said they've boosted workplace health benefits in light of the pandemic by adding more mental health and virtual care offerings.
Dive Insight:
The pandemic spurred widespread job losses that threw many off their employer-sponsored health coverage, but those plans still cover about 155 million Americans, according to KFF.
In 2021, average family premiums rose roughly in line with the annual change in wages and inflation. But since 2011, those premiums have increased 47% — much more than wages (31%) or inflation (19%).
At the same time, the pandemic spurred massive shifts in healthcare consumption over the past year as many patients delayed care or put off annual exams while hesitant to return to medical settings.
About half of employers with at least 200 workers reported healthcare utilization among their plan enrollees had been in line with expectations for the most recent quarter, but 32% said it had been below expectations, and 18% said it has been above them.
The pandemic also spurred a rise in mental health conditions that employers are hoping to tackle with boosted offerings. Some 39% of employers with at least 50 workers said they've changed their mental health and substance abuse benefits since the pandemic started, and 12% said their employees are increasingly using those services.
Most of those employers reported adding mental health telemedicine services or other resources like employee assistance programs. Fewer reported expanded their in-network mental health and substance abuse providers, waiving or reducing cost sharing for those services or increasing coverage for those services when out-of-network.
Other shifts in care delivery led employers to change their virtual care and telemedicine benefits. About two-thirds of companies with at least 50 workers made changes to their telehealth offerings for employees.
Nearly a quarter broadened covered telemedicine services and expanded the number and types of virtual providers.
This comes as major payers have launched virtual-first health coverage plans for employers that want to keep those offerings after the pandemic while using digital channels to cut costs.
In October, Cigna announced it's launching virtual-first health plans initially available to large, self-insured employers in 2022.
The payer acquired telemedicine vendor MDLive earlier this year and is integrating MDLive physicians into digital-first primary, dermatology, behavioral and urgent care.
Cigna customers insured through their job will have access to MDLive's network for virtual primary care providers for routine care, sick visits, prescription refills or any needed follow-up care after a wellness visit, according to the payer.
The KFF survey also found that larger employers are more likely to offer health benefits to at least some of their workers. Almost all employers with 200 or more workers reported offering coverage, while 56% of employers with fewer than 50 workers said the same.
Those smaller companies most often cited cost, their small size or workers using other coverage as reasons for doing so.
The full annual survey included responses from 1,686 employers with three or more employees, and an additional 2,413 employers responded to a single question about offering coverage. Responses were collected between January and July of this year.