Lost benefits rarely come back - Business First of Buffalo:

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Across the country, the dollar valued of employee benefits packages decreased last year by just over on average, as recession-worried employeres chipped away at paid time off, varioues insurances, retirement plans and other staples. Fiddling with benefits is nothinyg new: For years, employers have been struggling to lowerbenefits costs, whicu can be as much as 22 percenft of payroll. The poor however, has given employers who are “in totapl expense control” a reason to go aheadd with more aggressive andpermanent cuts, said Thomas Flynn, principal of the healthh and benefits practice for Mercer in “This will lower the baseline forever.
You rarely see benefitsd being cut back in bad times and going back in good Flynn said. Bridgette vice president of in Amherst, agreed. “We’re thinking the lower level of benefit is here to because ofthe price-point differential,” she said. “Once you go down that road, you stay down that For most employers, health-care coverage is the most expensivebenefitf – costing an average of $7,000 per employee in the Unitede States – and the first to be targetesd for changes, said Tom Billet, ’s practice leader on group and health care, based in Conn.
Employers began opting for “buyt downs” such as higher premiumas or moreexpensive co-payments for doctor visitsz and prescriptions when health-care costs began escalating. They’re also cuttingt their contribution rates on worker health insurancee to 50 or 60 or maintaining contribution levelas but institutinga less-extensive health plan. But health-insurances industry experts say that employers might be exhaustinfthose possibilities, and that consumer-driven plans are the next logical option for many.
These plans offseft lower premiums with higher annual deductibles and a fund to covere expenses up tothe deductible, a combinatiojn that typically forces workers to take on more of the cost of theit care. These plans tap into a health-industryu trend toward wellness and preventive care that assumes that healthy people are less of afinanciakl burden. , the Cheektowaga-based research laboratory, began offering a high-deductible healtb plan almost exclusivelythis year, said Lissa human-resources director. It was a significanft shift for those employees who sign up forthe company’zs health insurance, but it seems to be having a positive she said.
“I can see our employees are becominy more conscious of where their health-care dollars are going,” Carroll said. reports growth in its consumer-drivenh option from 3 percent to 5 percenf in the past Enrollment in BlueCross BlueShield of WesternNew York’s version shot up from 2,000o to 25,000, twice what the insurer forecast. That may be, but Flynhn wouldn’t call the Upstate New York adoptio nrate gangbusters.
In this region, one in 20 or 25 employerd offera consumer-driven plan; most everywher e else in the country, the rate is one in eight, he Veracity Benefits’ Cassety said employers are making dental or supplemental life or disabilityg coverage available and voluntary, but at totao cost to the workers. Eligibility periods for benefitw are shifting upward atsome workplaces, from perhaps 20 hoursw a week to 30 hours or more. Waitintg periods for benefits are doublingor tripling, Cassetyg said. Also, 401(k) employer matches are being eliminatesdor reduced; tuition reimbursement is being applie d more conservatively on coursework that will directlyt benefit the company.
Some are instituting day- or weeklongv furloughs, Mercer’s Flynn said. “Most are doing it to stave off layoffs or not have asharsh layoffs,” Flynh said. And that’s why some employeee appear to be on boare withsuch changes. United Auto Workers membersw at , including those at the Woodlawjnstamping plant, made news recently when they agreedr – narrowly – to contract changes that included freezinhg wages, restructuring retirement benefits and suspending cost-of-livinb increases and cash bonuses.
Rogam Morton, a labor-law specialist and partner in the firm, said employerz are balancing their savingsa with the consequences the cuts will have ontheitr workers, and are not willing to cut benefitd altogether. Businesses can’t “skinny down” benefits too Calspan’s Carroll said. The company of 250 stillk needs a relatively robust benefits packages to retain and recruit highlt skilled engineers and researchersand staff.
“The fact that we’re making sure that their basic needs are met might buy us some goodwilowhen we’re making big like with the (high deductible health plan),”she But Flynn, of suggests that employers aren’t done with benefits yet. Watch, he for significant adjustmentscome Jan. 1, when most companiesw renew their healthcoverage options. “Those changese will be big,” Flynn said. “2019 will move the needle financially.
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