Small Changes by Employers Can Raise Workers’ Health Costs
Some employers have offered cash incentives, made deposits into health savings accounts or given workers breaks on premiums if they filled out an assessment of their health risks. But it’s becoming more common, Watts said, for employers to tie the incentives to requirements that workers participate in biometric screening, such as measuring workers’ blood pressure, cholesterol or blood sugar levels to ensure they’re within recommended ranges.
Likewise, some employers that had already moved to require biometric screening to earn financial rewards are now moving to limit those perks to people who’ve achieved target levels or who are working with a health coach to get there.
Premium increases for dependents, especially spouses who have health insurance available through their own jobs, are likely to be higher next year than for employee-only coverage.
“If employee-only coverage is going up 5 percent, coverage for the spouse and maybe the family is going up 10 percent,” says Randall Abbott, a senior consultant at Towers Watson.
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