Continued health-care hikes are forecast. (Business Briefs).Companies will continue to face double-digit health-care cost increases, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. an Aon Consulting survey of major health care providers. Based on data provided by the nation's largest medical, dental, Pharmacy pharmacy, art of compounding and dispensing drugs and medication. The term is also applied to an establishment used for such purposes. Until modern times medication was prepared and dispensed by the physician himself. In the 18th cent. Benefit Manager (PBM PBM - play by mail. See play by electronic mail. ) and vision vendors, Aon found that HMOs (health maintenance organizations) are expected to raise costs, on average by 16.2 percent for 2003 renewals. This marks a continuing shift in the landscape of health care plans--HMOs historically have not shown the increases of other types of plans, such as PPO PPO abbr. preferred provider organization PPO Managed care Preferred provider organization, see there Infectious disease Pleuropneumonia-like organism, see there (preferred provider organizations pre·ferred provider organization n. Abbr. PPO A medical insurance plan in which members receive more coverage if they choose health care providers approved by or affiliated with the plan. ) and POS (1) See point of sale and packet over SONET. (2) "Parent over shoulder." See digispeak. POS - point of sale (point of service) plans. In brief, the forecast for medical plan increases for 2003 renewals is looking this way: HMO With Prescription Drugs (Rx) 16.2 percent Without Rx 14.6 percent POS With Rx 16.0 percent Without 14.6 percent PPO With Rx 16.0 percent Without 14.5 percent Indemnity With Rx 18.3 percent Without 17.1 percent The Aon study also found that pharmacy plans are expected to rise at a 17.8 percent clip. Dental plan hikes all come in below 10 percent, with Dental HMOs only expected to increase by 4.4 percent. Vision plans are forecast to rise 3.2 percent. Figures provided by the companies are aggregated and represent national averages as forecast by Aon. The study is available at www.aon.com. |
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