Orange County and Southern California employers are looking to make changes to their health benefit plans to keep costs down, according to a national survey by Mercer LLC, a New York-based consulting company.
Mercer surveyed 139 Southern California employers about the health insurance plans they offer. Overall, the company looked at 2,914 private and public employers with 10 or more workers.
Here are selected results from the Southern California portion:
• Employees will pay more for their healthcare in 2010. Forty-two percent of Southern California respondents said they plan to raise deductibles, copayments or out-of-pocket maximums. Also, 43% of respondents said they’ll increase workers’ shares of the premium contribution, and 21% plan to increase employee cost-sharing some other way.
• If employers make no changes to their current health plans, they expect their costs to go up 9.9% in 2010. If they change their plan design or carrier, they expect costs to increase by 6.4%.
• More businesses are planning to offer what are known as consumer-directed health plans in 2010. These plans combine high-deductible catastrophic insurance with personal health savings accounts for routine health expenses.
• The majority of workers in employer-sponsored health plans—55%—belong to health maintenance organizations. Forty-one percent are in preferred-provider organizations or point-of-service plans, 3% are in consumer-directed health plans and 1% of workers are in traditional indemnity insurance plans.
As for 2009, Mercer’s Southern California survey participants said their total health benefit costs for active employees went up 7.3% to an average of $8,872 per person, compared to a national hike of 5.5% to $8,945 per person.
Beckman Cuts
Beckman Coulter Inc., a Brea-based maker of medical testing equipment, said it would lay off about a dozen employees from a plant in Webster, Texas, according to a report in the Houston Business Journal.
Beckman told the Texas Workforce Commission that it would be letting the employees go by Jan. 15, according to the article.
Beckman didn’t give a reason for the job cuts.
Beckman’s Webster plant has 92 full-time and five temporary workers, spokeswoman Mary Luthy told the newspaper. The plant makes reagents used in medical diagnostic tests and performs research and development functions.
UCI Health Conference
The University of California, Irvine’s February Health Care Forecast Conference at the Paul Merage School of Business will tackle health reform and what it means for midterm elections next year.
Norman Ornstein, a political pundit, TV commentator and resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, will be the conference’s keynote speaker for the 13th consecutive year.
The conference, on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, will feature other speakers from the private sector, government, think tanks and academia.
Attendees will be able to “gain insight into how the economics and politics of healthcare reform will affect your business organization and constituents,” the business school said.
Bits and Pieces:
Tustin drug developer Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it completed enrolling patients in a trial for its Cotara drug candidate for treating relapsed glioblastoma multiforme, a form of brain cancer. The final data from the trial, which is measuring maximum dosages and overall progress, is expected by the middle of 2010, Peregrine said …
Radient Pharmaceuticals Corp., a Tustin drug maker, said earlier this month that it completed a registered direct offering of its stock for about $1 million. Radient is going to use the proceeds from the offering for research and development of its Onko-Sure cancer test and general purposes …
Irvine-based ChromaDex Corp. said it raised $1 million in a private placement of its stock with Hong Kong’s Jinke Group Ltd. ChromaDex, which makes research tools for dietary supplements and the food and beverage industries, is going to use the money to fund expansion and general purposes …
The Children and Families Commission of Orange County in Irvine is creating a loan repayment program for pediatric sub-specialist doctors. Doctors who agree to provide care to children from birth to age 5 would be eligible to receive $125,000 during a three-year period to repay outstanding medical education loans …
Children’s Hospital of Orange County said it was one of eight children’s hospitals in the U.S. named to the Leapfrog 2009 top hospitals list. The Leapfrog Group is based in San Francisco and is made up of large businesses that aim to improve safety, quality and affordability of healthcare.
