NEW YORK – Employers have become less satisfied with their health insurers, according to a study released Tuesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute.

Hit hard by the recession, employers of all sizes seem to be taking a critical look at their health benefits strategy and the value they derive from it, according to PwC. They are looking to their health plan providers for information, technology and strategies to help reduce waste in healthcare spending and better engage employees in managing their health.

In the report, “What employers want from health insurers in 2010: Better information, more value,” PwC analyzed nearly 250 employers, ranging from large U.S.-based multi-national corporations to privately held small companies.

The analysis looks at how employers viewed health plans in 2009 in 12 key service areas across four main categories: financial, customer service and claims administration, use of technology and population health management.

Overall satisfaction of health insurers by large employers has decreased to 59 percent from 64 percent in 2008, and small employers are even less satisfied, with overall satisfaction remaining steady at 52 percent, but the gap between large and small employers is narrowing as large employer satisfaction erodes.

“Employers recognize that it’s better to manage the health of their workforce than to manage the cost of illness, and they want their health plan to help manage the entire health continuum,” said Paul Veronneau, principal and U.S. healthcare payer leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to the study:   

• Employee cost-sharing continues to be the most prevalent strategy for employers. Sixty percent of employers surveyed said they would further increase cost-sharing for healthcare with their employees in the year ahead.
• Claims processing, administrative fees and provider discounts remain among the most important basic service offerings for large and small employers – though among large employers, wellness programs surpassed provider discounts as the more important offering.
• While wellness and disease management programs are popular among employers, companies that offer them are frustrated with the low level of employee participation.
• 71 percent of companies surveyed offer wellness programs and 67 percent offer disease management programs. 
• Employee participation in wellness programs continues to hover at around 50 percent. Many employers are finding that simple financial incentives such as cash, gift cards and annual premium savings are no longer working as a way to engage employees. 
• Nearly half of all employers say it is important for insurers to offer personal technology tools such as personal health records and online comparison tools, but less than half are satisfied with what they are getting.

“There is only so much insurers can do to manage health and cost through provider discounts or on the back end of a claim,” said Veronneau. “This is an opportunity for health insurers to look beyond traditional strategies and get more aggressive about healthcare quality and value.”

PwC found that small and large employers are now more closely aligned in what they want from insurers than in 2008.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is offering recommendations to improve satisfaction:

• Be a consultative partner with employers to help improve workers’ health and advocate for employer health strategies.
• Take a more active role in waste reduction.
• Offer better strategies for engaging employees in wellness and disease management programs.
• Provide more meaningful, actionable and higher-quality data to build workforce profiles that will help employers better understand the health of their workforce, find intervention points for better outcomes and create targeted outreach and engagement campaigns.
• Deliver consistent and transparent health benefit plan reporting.
• Provide personal technology tools for employees.
• Assist in the continuity and coordination of care among patients and physicians.
• Provide education that will simplify health plans and benefits, engage workers in real behavior change and translate benefit information into actions that promote wellness.