New Benefits Survey Reports Impact of Rising Health Care Costs on Nonprofits

As Seen on ERIERI.com...

WASHINGTON, DC - While most U.S. employers reported that health benefit premiums increased only by single digits in 2008, cost shifting to employees continued, in the form of higher premiums for medical and dental plans, reduced coverage, higher deductibles, and higher out-of-pocket co-payments. A new report, entitled 2009 Benefits in Nonprofit Organizations, Ninth Edition, provides current data on health plan costs and benefit practices in nonprofit organizations that can be used to help evaluate benefit program design strategies to contain costs. The report, released July 1, 2009, provides specific types of benefits offered (and levels) effective January 1, 2009, by 21 different types of nonprofit organizations. The 107 respondents, with almost 60,000 employees, included 66 percent organizations with fewer than 100 employees and 24 percent with 100 to 499; the remaining 10 percent employed 500 or more. One hundred forty-three medical plans covering 26,000 nonprofit employees across the United States were reviewed, along with 110 dental plans.

Details on medical, vision, dental, disability, and life insurance, along with retirement plans, are presented, as well as paid leave and executive perquisites.

The 2009 findings include:

• 62% of respondents have a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan as the primary medical plan.
  • The average employee cost for employee-only coverage is almost $67 per month.
  • The average employer cost for employee-only coverage is $427 per month – 86% of the total premium cost.
• Although total employment was almost 60,000, only 26,000 were covered by these plans – meaning that 60% opted out of their nonprofit employer's plan.
• While 95% offer a retirement plan, only 10% are defined benefit plans; the most common type is a 403(b) plan.
• While 65% offer traditional leave plans typically consisting of sick days, vacation, bereavement leave, personal leave, and floating holidays, the remaining 35% combine all or part of paid leave into a pool (Paid Time Off or PTO plans), granting an average of nearly 18 days of paid leave after one year of employment; the average granted at 10 years of service is 26 days.
• 87% offer dental plans, with Dental PPOs (63%) as the most common type.
• Life insurance is provided by 88% of respondents and 73% offer a long-term disability plan.

Copies of the report are available for $489 at www.abbott-langer.com. A companion benefit report, the 2009 Health Care Benefits Benchmarking Survey, which includes nonprofit organizations, government entities, privately owned for-profit, and publicly owned for-profit organizations, was published in April 2009. This report, covering health care data, medical insurance, dental insurance, and vision insurance, is also offered by Abbott, Langer Association Surveys, Inc. and may be purchased online at www.abbott-langer.com.

About Abbott, Langer Association Surveys:

Since 1967, Abbott, Langer has provided a wide variety of compensation and benefit survey reports, with a particular focus on the nonprofit and manufacturing sectors. Now operating under license with ERI Economic Research Institute (www.erieri.com), Abbott, Langer uses ERI's patented online survey capabilities to produce reports used by thousands of customers for salary and benefit planning and other HR management decision-making. Users are diverse organizations that vary in size from extremely small to over $4 billion in annual sales volume, and include firms that operate locally, regionally, nationally, and even internationally. In February 2007, Abbott, Langer Association Surveys moved all survey operations and offices from Crete, Illinois, to Washington, DC. Please call 877-210-6563 or visit www.abbott-langer.com for more information and a complete list of available surveys.