Rochester area employers continue to explore ways to keep health insurance benefits affordable for them - and for their employees, according to the 2010 Health Benefits Survey, released by the Rochester Business Alliance.

An option drawing increased attention from employers this year: High-deductible health insurance plans, accompanied by a health savings account. Among the survey respondents, 30 percent said they offer one or more of such plans, up from only 15 percent in last year's survey.

"Employers tell us they are committed to offering health care benefits to their employees," said Sandy Parker, president and CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance. "But in order to afford this continually increasing expense, they have to be creative.

"In this economy, that's not easy to do. So while we applaud them for their efforts, we end up back to the same point we make every year: If our economy is to move ahead and grow, our community simply must find a way to lower health care costs. That's the focus of the RBA Health Care Initiative, and it will remain an important working goal for us until the issue is resolved."

Other cost-conscious highlights of the survey:

• Employers are expecting their 2011 health insurance premiums to rise by an average of 14.3 percent.
• Asked about covering the increase, 17 percent of the respondents say they plan to absorb the majority, while 15 percent plan to split the increase with employees and 10 percent plan to pass on the majority of the cost.
• 14 percent said they are considering reducing benefits or offering lower cost plans.
• 31 percent said they are considering or planning to offer a wellness program to keep their workforce healthy and offset costs, up from 30 percent a year ago.

Meanwhile, the survey found that employers continue to pay a significant share of their employees' health insurance premiums. Respondents said that this year, they were covering an average of 75 percent of single-person plan and 67 percent of two-person and family premiums. And 22 percent said they pay the full cost of single coverage for at least one plan, up from 16 percent a year ago.

Employer premium contributions as a percentage of payroll were 10 percent, relatively unchanged from 10.1 percent last year. The average employer contributions by health insurance plan contract level were:

• $276 a month or $3,312 a year for single coverage, up 10 percent from a year ago.
• $545 a month or $6,540 a year for a two-person household, up 7 percent.
• $647 a month of $7,764 a year for family coverage, up 8 percent.

Some 97 percent of the responding companies said they offer dental plans to their employees, relatively unchanged from last year's survey.

In comparing Rochester's health care costs with other communities, 13 percent said local costs are higher, compared with 18 percent last year; 40 percent said local costs were lower, down from 48 percent a year ago, while 48 percent said costs are about the same, up from 34 percent a year ago.

Some other findings:

• 29 percent said they provide cash incentives averaging $1,076 to employees who opt-out of employer-sponsored health insurance plans.
• 67 percent offer health benefits to their part-time employees, up from 63 percent a year ago.
• 17 percent offer health benefits to all retirees, up from 15 percent last year.
• 53 percent offer coverage for domestic partners, up from 48 percent last year.
• 42 percent of employers offered two health insurance plans to their employees this year, while 27 percent offered three plans, and 15 percent offered one plan.

This survey included responses from 182 organizations representing 84,950 employees. The Health and Benefits survey is conducted annually by the Rochester Business Alliance's Training and Business Information Services department, and is one of many annual wage, benefits, and human resource practice surveys conducted by the Rochester Business Alliance each year.

Full survey results are only available to RBA members who participated in the survey. Participation is open to the organization's Corporate and Partner level members.