Poll: Employers want guidance on - not a repeal of - healthcare reform

A new poll shows 48 percent of employers aren't waiting for a repeal of healthcare reform – but they are looking for guidance on specific provisions of the law before making decisions on benefit plans.

The poll, conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, found about two-thirds of organizations aren't waiting to see if specific provisions of the law are repealed, while about three-quarters aren't waiting for a repeal of the entire law before making decisions about their plans.

"A majority of organizations are not counting on repeal. They are seeking guidance and moving forward to make sure they comply with the law," said Mark Schmit, SHRM's director of research. "This is the smart approach because a healthcare plan design affects the entire organization."

Healthcare reform will be among issues examined by human resource experts at SHRM's Employment Law and Legislative Conference, taking place March 14-16 in Washington, D.C. Educational sessions at the conference include "Employers and Healthcare Reform Lessons Learned in Massachusetts" and "Healthcare Reform One Year Later."

SHRM's poll, "Health Care Reform – Where are Organizations in the Decision-Making Process," was conducted in late December and showed a growing number of organizations deciding not to drop healthcare coverage. According to the poll, 51 percent said they were not dropping coverage for employees as a result of reform – an increase from the 46 percent reported in SHRM's first healthcare reform poll in June.

Almost one-third of organizations – 27 percent – were conducting or planned to conduct an analysis on whether to continue offering healthcare coverage or drop it and pay opt-out fees.

[Do employers think healthcare will cost more under reform? See what a different survey says.]

The poll found that organizations with self-insured plans were more likely to have already conducted an analysis of the legislation and decided not to drop healthcare coverage for their employees.

Provisions of the landmark healthcare reform law go into effect between now and 2018. When asked about specific provisions of the law, 27 percent to 65 percent of organizations reported no barriers to putting them into place.

However, the cost of adding benefits for adult children up to age 26 was cited as a barrier for 54 percent of respondents, and the employee out-of-pocket cost was cited by 34 percent of organizations as a barrier forexcluding over-the-counter medications from flexible spending accounts. Also, 39 percent said implementing the tax form 1099 requirement for vendor transactions above $600 would be a burden.

[Congress is working on repealing the 1099 requirement.Read more.] 

More human resource professionals – 62 percent – reported being comfortable with their knowledge of the complex healthcare reform law that was passed in March 2010. That's an increase from 48 percent in June. 

A copy of the most recent SHRM survey can be found here.