CHARLESTON, S.C., May 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Benefitfocus,
Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT), a leading provider of cloud-based benefits
management software, today released its "State of Employee Benefits
– Regional Edition"
research report, a snapshot of real, but anonymous employee
benefit election data from over 500 employers on the BENEFITFOCUS®
Platform, broken out by U.S. Census region. The data shows
voluntary benefits are gaining popularity across the country as
employees take on more financial responsibility for their health
care through high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), with the Midwest
leading the pack in terms of HDHP and voluntary benefit
adoption.
West Moves Away from Traditional Plans – Employees Invest in
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
- Employers increased HDHP offerings by 54 percent, driving
employee adoption with a 20 percent decrease in HMO
participation
- To protect against the deductible gap, employees are adopting
voluntary income protection benefits (138 percent increase in
participation) and health savings accounts (highest average
employee contribution in country)
Midwest Sees Highest HDHP Offerings & Participation Rate
– Results in High Adoption of Voluntary Benefits
- More employers in the Midwest offer HDHPs (67 percent) and more
employees elect these plans (42 percent) than all other
regions
- Employees are adopting voluntary benefits to manage rising out
of pocket costs, with a 567 percent increase in participation –
more than any other region (40 percent)
Employees in Northeast See Higher Premiums but Lower
Deductibles
- Employee-paid premiums are higher than all other regions,
regardless of plan – HDHPs up 7-11 percent ($1,164 individual, $3,582 family); PPOs close behind ($1,710 individual, $4,777 family)
- Yet, deductibles for PPOs and HDHPs are lower than all other
regions
Employees in South Face Highest Out-of-Pocket Costs for All
Plans
- More employers are embracing HDHPs (54 percent increase) and
voluntary benefits (49 percent increase, higher than all other
regions)
- Employees face higher PPO and HDHP deductibles than all regions
– PPO deductibles are 11-15 percent higher ($1,361 individual, $2,886 family); HDHP deductibles are nearly
double PPOs ($2,443 individual,
$4,855 family)
"Consumer-driven health is taking hold across the country, more
quickly in some regions than others, and employees are carefully
considering how to spend their health care dollars – some for the
first time," said Benefitfocus Co-founder and CEO Shawn Jenkins. "Employers on the Benefitfocus
platform realize they need to support their workers as they
transition to these plans, educating them on the importance of
voluntary benefits and HSAs in covering unexpected health care
costs. Without the necessary guidance, employees will not be
equipped to protect themselves or their loved ones."
For more findings, download the full Benefitfocus State of
Employee Benefits 2017 – Regional Edition.
About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus (NASDAQ: BNFT)
provides a leading cloud-based benefits management platform that
simplifies how organizations and individuals shop for, enroll in,
manage and exchange benefits. Every day leading employers,
insurance companies and the consumers they serve rely on our
platform to manage, scale and exchange benefits data
seamlessly. In an increasingly complex benefits landscape, we
bring order to chaos so our clients and their employees have access
to better information, make better decisions and lead better lives.
Learn more at www.benefitfocus.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Except for historical information, all of the statements,
expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are
forward-looking statements. Actual results might differ materially
from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially include: the need to innovate and provide useful
products and services; changes in government regulations; the
immature and volatile nature of the market for our products and
services and other factors that could impact our anticipated
growth; management of growth; fluctuations in our financial
results; general economic risks; reliance on key personnel; our
ability to compete effectively; our ability to maintain our culture
and recruit and retain qualified personnel; privacy, security and
other risks associated with our business; and the other risk
factors set forth from time to time in our SEC filings, copies of
which are available free of charge within the Investor Relations
section of the Benefitfocus website at
http://investor.benefitfocus.com/sec.cfm or upon request
from our investor relations department. Benefitfocus assumes no
obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking
statements, except as required by law.
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/benefitfocus-data-finds-voluntary-benefits-gaining-popularity-across-the-country-with-the-midwest-in-the-lead-300465717.html
SOURCE Benefitfocus, Inc.