What employers are offering: a survey of Indiana employee-benefits professionals.

• Author: Davidoff, Douglass T.

Call this year the calm before the storm. Everyone knows Washington will eventually decree a change--perhaps radical change--in the nation's system of funding health care. But no one, not even the professionals in health-care insurance, can predict with much certainty what reforms will be enacted.

What to do while waiting for reform to come down from Capitol Hill? For many Hoosier companies, the answer lies in mitigating the effects of rapidly rising health-care costs, which socked corporate finances in the 1980s and early 1990s. Another tactic: take advantage of a strange window of stability that has fallen over health-care economics for now. Be grateful that the rise in health-care costs moderated significantly last year, perhaps in a national reaction to the prospect of a new national health plan.

Leading health-care benefits consultants in Indiana say that the market for health-care insurance this year is a little better than during the past few years. Providers and insurers, it seems, are hoping to enter the reform era from positions of strength. "It's a buyer's market right now," says Mark Stadler, principal and head of the Indianapolis office of William M. Mercer Inc., a leading national benefits-consulting house. "All the providers and carriers are going for market share."

Employers also are finding now to be a good time to catch their breath and institute a range of benefits, effectively turning the corporate work force into a buying club for new insurance options and perks.

Unfortunately, that's the extent of good news. The bad news is that health-care insurance executives at company after company in Indiana are flocking to Washington in an attempt to divine through firsthand talks on the Hill, or more commonly through seminars and trade-association meetings, exactly what is going to happen. Answer so far: Who knows?

To make matters worse, health care isn't the only rapidly changing facet of employee benefits concerning employers these days. Another problem is the tax-and-budget bill Congress passed last year at President Clinton's behest. Its provisions are causing big headaches for senior managers making more than $150,000 annually. To keep the services of such well-paid talent, companies are asking Hoosier executive-benefits consultants for help in creating shelters that ameliorate the impact of the new tax burdens that go along with making so much money.

Since it affects far more people inside Hoosier companies, we'll explore...