Aug 09, 2022
Employers are changing benefits to appeal to a diverse workforce. Versatile medical and voluntary benefits, in addition to compensation, are helping them retain and attract talent, according to a survey by Gallagher.
Employers are expanding health benefit offerings:
- Fertility: 46% now cover infertility services or fertility treatments.
- Fertility medications are the most common (77%), followed by a reproductive endocrinologist or infertility specialist evaluation (69%). Less popular benefits include surgery or intrauterine insemination (43% each) or cryopreservation (23%), which is the process of freezing eggs, sperm, or embryos.
- Applied Behavior Analysis: At 55%, It's the top elective service employers offered in 2022, up 4 points over the previous year. It is a type of interpersonal therapy in which a child works with a practitioner one-on-one. This increase indicates an increased awareness of the need for stronger mental health and emotional wellbeing support for employees and dependents.
- Autism Treatment: 45% of employers cover autism spectrum disorder treatment, up 3 points from 2021
- Bariatric surgery: At 49%, it's up 2 points from the prior year
- Transgender Benefits: 25% offer benefits for gender reassignment surgery. At 22%, coverage of transgender-inclusive benefits other than surgery was up 2 points.
- Gene Therapy Services: 14% offer these benefits, which is up 4 points
Employers Are Offering More Health Plan Choices:
- Multiple Plan Offerings: 77% of employers offer more than one plan. 35% of these employers provide two plans, 26% provide four plans, and 16% provide at least four plans
- PPOs: PPO/point of service plans are the most frequently offered at 83%
- CDHPs: 51% of employers pair a consumer-directed health plan (CDHP) with a health savings account (HSA), which is a 5-point increase from 2021. A CDHP+HSA is also slowly growing annually as the top choice from an enrollment perspective, up 4 points since 2020
Employers Are Holding Back on Cost Sharing:
- 50% did not increase employee cost-sharing in 2022, which is slightly higher than the preceding three years.
- Among those increasing employee costs, health plan premiums were the most common target (44%), outpacing deductibles (13%), and out-of-pocket maximums (11%)
- The median health plan premium increase was 4% to 4.9% at the most recent renewal. However, 25% reported increases of less than 1%.
- 18% had premium increases of 10% or higher
Employers Are Offering More Voluntary Benefits:
- 25% enhanced the voluntary or supplemental aspects of total rewards to boost recruitment and retention.
- Accident (67%) and critical illness (61%) insurance consistently rank as top options. Meanwhile, nearly half of employers provide permanent life (46%), hospital indemnity (45%), or cancer care (43%) insurance
- 44% percent of employers offer employee perks or discount programs, 37% offer legal services, 35% offer identity theft protection, and 29% offer employee purchase programs
- Looking ahead to 2024, traditional healthcare options such as critical illness (16%), long-term care (16%), and hospital indemnity (14%) coverage are slated for additional investment. Thirty-one percent plan to add pet insurance
