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Quality of Health Care After Adopting a Full-Replacement, High-Deductible Health Plan With a Health Savings Account: A Five-Year Study

With an ever-growing number of workers covered by health savings account (HSA)-eligible health plans, how does use of health care services used to measure quality compare with traditional managed care? New research from EBRI finds a mixed bag: Depending on the health care service, HSA-plans could result in higher or lower use, and in some cases no change whatsoever. EBRI Issue Brief Sep 16, 2014 20 pages

“Satisfaction With Health Coverage and Care: Findings from the 2013 EBRI/Greenwald & Associates Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey,” and “Contributory 'Negligence?' The Impact of Future Contributions to Defined Contribution Plans on Retirement ..

Health Plans: Who’s happier with their health plan—those in “traditional” managed care plans, or those in so-called “consumer-driven” and high-deductible plans? The latest data from EBRI show that the overall satisfaction rate among consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) enrollees is gradually increasing, while it is gradually decreasing among traditional enrollees.

Gen Xers: Are Gen Xers in worse shape than the Baby Boom generation when it comes to having enough money for retirement? Not if you take into account future contributions and the current trends in automatic plan design features, according to a new report by EBRI.

EBRI Notes Aug 14, 2014 28 pages

"Crisis" Management: Uncertainty and the Workplace

With major changes sweeping both health and retirement plans in the private sector, are employment-based benefits facing a “crisis” or merely an uncertain future? A recent industry-wide forum sponsored by EBRI brought together a variety of experts to focus on the issue and the challenges ahead. EBRI Issue Brief Aug 12, 2014 20 pages

What Does Consistent Participation in 401(k) Plans Generate? Changes in 401(k) Account Balances, 2007–2012

The average account balance of workers who participated consistently in a 401(k) plan from year-end 2007 to year-end 2012 increased at a compound average annual growth rate of 6.8 percent during that period, despite a 34.7 percent drop in that group’s average 401(k) account balance in 2008, according to a new study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute (ICI). The increase in account balances reflects several factors, including employer and worker contributions, investment returns, withdrawals, and loans. EBRI Issue Brief Jul 31, 2014 28 pages

“Lifetime Accumulations and Tax Savings from HSA Contributions” and “IRA Withdrawals in 2012 and Longitudinal Results, 2010–2012”

HSAs: With an ever-increasing number of Americans gaining access to health savings accounts (HSAs) via their employment-based health plan, how much could they accumulate for health care expenses in these accounts? The answer depends on how much is contributed to the HSA—a tax-exempt trust or custodial account that an individual can open and use to pay his or her health care expenses—as well as how much is withdrawn, and what the investment return and fees on the HSA are, according to new research by EBRI. Press release.

IRAs: Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) are a vital component of U.S. retirement savings, representing approximately one-quarter of all retirement assets in the nation. But as a growing number of Americans head into retirement, how much are they withdrawing from these accounts—and will it last? Press release

EBRI Notes Jul 29, 2014 24 pages

Employee Benefits: Today, Tomorrow, and Yesterday

While much has changed with health and retirement benefits during the past three decades—the first generation of the main federal law governing private-sector benefits, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)—many of the issues that were present at the founding of EBRI in 1978 remain with us today. EBRI Issue Brief Jul 24, 2014 24 pages