Health benefit costs rose at a greater rate in Pennsylvania than in the nation in 2009, new research indicates.

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Total health benefit costs for workers in Pennsylvania increased 7.2% in 2009, to an average of $9,408 per employee, according to the annual Mercer National Study of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans. A total of 126 employers headquartered in Pennsylvania were included in the state results.

Nationally, employers’ costs rose by 5.5% last year, the lowest increase in a decade, as large employers added health management programs and small-business owners shifted employees to account-based high-deductible plans, according to Mercer.

For 2010, survey respondents in Pennsylvania estimated that if they made no changes to their current plan, costs would rise by 10.4%. But they expect to lower their cost increase to 6.7% by making changes to plan design and/or plan vendors, Mercer reported.

Cost shifting

In Pennsylvania, 40% of respondents say they will shift costs to their employees in 2010 by raising deductibles, copays/coinsurance or out-of-pocket maximums. Almost half (46%) of respondents in Pennsylvania say they will increase employees’ share of the premium contribution, and 13% will increase employee cost-sharing some other way.

Some means of lowering costs are already in place. In Pennsylvania, 15% of respondents offered a consumer-directed health plan with a Health Savings Account feature and 6% of respondents offered a CDHP with a Health Resources Account feature in 2009.

Exactly 21% of survey participants in Pennsylvania say they are very likely to offer an HSA or HRA in 2010, including those that already offer a CDHP.

The average employee in Pennsylvania paid $91 a month for employee-only coverage for a PPO/POS plan, $91 monthly for an HMO and $96 monthly for a CDHP, Mercer found.

Nationally, PPO deductibles rose sharply in 2009, with the average individual deductible for in-network services reaching nearly $1,100. Regionally, employers in the South reported a median PPO in-network deductible of $1,000.

This story originally appeared in the January 2010 print edition of Insurance & Financial Advisor.