Employers Shift To PPO From HMOs

November 7th, 2008 PPO Plans hmo, ppo

For the first time, preferred provider organizations, or PPOs, surpassed HMOs as the health plan of choice for local employers.

In a just-completed survey by Benetech Inc., a North Greenbush-based benefits consulting firm, 75 percent of private- and public-sector employers in a 13-county area said they offered PPOs to their workers. That compares to 70 percent whose options included HMOs.

This is a big shift for an area that has been known as an “HMO town.” While employers in other parts of the state and country were switching to plans with up-front deductibles and co-insurance, employers here stuck with benefit-rich HMOs.

When Benetech conducted its survey last year, every respondent who provided employee health insurance offered an HMO, and half had a PPO