Benefits update: yearly survey of what Indiana employers are offering.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

The good news: Compdata's 2005 Wage and Benefit Survey for Indiana showed the average health-care premium increase for employers was the lowest in five years. The bad news: It's still double digits, averaging 13.8 percent for those that had an increase (down from 16.3 percent in 2004), and higher than the national survey numbers of 12.3 percent.

The Kansas-based firm has been surveying Indiana employers for 18 years. For most of that time, health-insurance increases have been in the blistering double digits, dwarfing the overall inflation rate. Though there's been a myriad of managed-care trials and plan design cost-shifting schemes over that time, health-insurance costs continue to be the elephant in the boardroom, demanding the CEO's attention.

"The employee is acutely aware of their benefits as a part of their total compensation plan," says Theresa Worman, vice president at Compdata. "The cost of health benefits has affected employees' paychecks. Forty-four percent of Indiana employers increased the employee's portion of the health-care premium this year. In 2004, that was 51 percent, but I think that part of the change is the shift to consumer-driven health plans."

This year was the first time the survey included questions about the bally hooed consumer-driven, also called consumer-directed, health market. Nearly 10 percent responded that they offered a health savings account (HSA), up from 4.3 percent last year, and the number is expected to reach nearly 12 percent in 2006. An HSA is a high-deductible health plan coupled with an employee-funded pre-tax savings account from which medical claims are paid. Accounts belong to the employees, grow tax-deferred and are portable--employees take the accounts with them if they leave the employer. Fewer companies, 7.3 percent, offer the similar health reimbursement account, funded by the employer.

Another new Compdata question for 2005 was about health-insurance coverage for "non-traditional" dependents. Overall, nearly 11 percent offered coverage for domestic partners; the range, however, was from 0 percent in utilities and health care to 62.5 percent in the "other" category, which Worman says was heavily weighted by communications and media.

Also included in the non-traditional area was coverage for dependent parents, which is typically a voluntary benefit paid for by the employee. Only 1.4 percent of companies include this benefit now. "Believe me, as Baby Boomers get older and turn to their children...