Many employers plan to adjust their health benefits to ensure that any requirements of health care reform will not cost them more.

The majority of the 433 mid- and large-sized company human resource and benefit executives surveyed said they would not absorb any costs resulting from reform, noting that reducing benefits, raising the cost of the goods and services they provide, or cutting staff were possibilities.

Just 11% of employers surveyed plan to take the cost of reform from their own pockets, according to the Towers Perrin survey, conducted in July.

It found that employers are watching Washington closely, with 80% monitoring developments.

Nearly one in four companies (23%) in the survey are currently rethinking benefit changes in light of possible reforms, and nearly all (89%) plan to reexamine their health benefit strategies for active employees in response to the passage of health care reform legislation.

“With employer health care costs rising more than 150% over the last decade, it’s no surprise that 90% of employers list cost containment as the most important health care reform goal,” said Dave Guilmette, managing director of the Towers Perrin Health and Welfare practice, in a statement. “Many large employers, however, feel that current reform proposals are focused on other health care issues such as expanding coverage and reforming certain insurance practices, and they feel they have already addressed these issues within their own workforces.”

Nearly two-thirds of employers (65%) believe that health care reform will have little or no impact on consumer behaviors, an area many leading employers have begun to target as one of their key cost-containment opportunities, the survey found.

A majority (53%) said they believe that research on effectiveness of alternative treatments will have a positive impact on their business by, over time, influencing the quality of care. Exactly 44% said they believe that reforming the health insurance market to ensure guaranteed access to coverage regardless of health status will have a positive impact.

Nearly half (47%) of survey respondents believe that an employer “pay or play” mandate would have a negative impact on businesses.