2026 Employer Health Benefits
Survey Respondent Information Site

…you can expect questions on these topics during your interview:

Firm characteristics:

• Total number of employees at your location and total number of employees nationwide.
• Number or percentage of full-time employees making $38,000 or less per year and $82,000 or more per year; number or percentage of all employees working full-time (30 or more hours per week); percentage of all employees age 26 and under and 50 or over.
• Whether the firm has any employees in California, the number of employees in California, the plan types offered to California workers, and California plan enrollment.

Eligibility, enrollment and plan offerings:

• Whether health benefits are available to full-time workers, part-time workers, spouses and dependent children.
• Number of employees eligible for and covered by health benefits nationwide. Number or percent of employees enrolled in each plan type (HMO, PPO, POS & HSA-qualified). Whether the plan is self-insured.
• Dollar amounts the firm contributes to an HRA (health reimbursement arrangement) and/or HSA (health savings account).
• For employers with at least 200 employees: whether any retirees are offered health benefits and how those benefits are administered.

Plan characteristics for top two largest plans:

• General annual deductibles for single and family coverage, and if physician office visits or prescription drugs are covered before the deductible is met.
• Co-payments, coinsurance, and/or any separate deductibles for primary care office visits, specialty care office visits, hospital admissions, and/or outpatient surgery.
• Out-of-pocket limits for single coverage.
• Monthly premium or COBRA costs for single and family coverage, including the employee’s contribution and the firm’s contribution.
• Prescription drug benefit design, such as tiered drug plans, drug copayments, and/or coinsurance, including those for specialty drugs. Whether the firm has any separate annual drug deductibles.
• For employers with at least 50 workers: Whether the firm offers plan enrollees access to lower cost mail-order drugs, only covers some drugs through mail-order, and/or offers international sourcing of lower cost drugs.

Network Breadth:

• Whether the largest plan is a narrow network, as well as how broad the plan’s provider networks are.
• Whether the largest plan has expanded the availability of services to treat substance use conditions.

For employees with at least 200 workers: Plan Networks

• Whether the largest plan provides a product that replaces deductibles with varying copayments.

For employees with at least 50 workers: On-Site Clinics

• Whether the largest plan has an on-site or near-site health clinic.

Premium Increases:

• Whether the firm has taken any actions this year in response to higher projected health plan costs.

For employees with at least 200 workers: Coverage of GLP-1 drugs, importance and cost of GLP-1 drug coverage

• Whether the firm has case management requirements to receive GLP-1 agonist coverage.
• Usage of GLP-1 drugs by employees and impact on spending.

For employees with at least 200 workers: Fertility

• Whether the largest plan covers IVF.

For employees with at least 200 workers: Transparency

• Whether the firm receives useful information (such as summaries or more specific data reports) about the cost and use of medical services provided by their plan

Whether the firm has access to their plan enrollees claims data, and the usefulness of this data.

For employees with at least 200 workers: PBMs

• Whether the firm is able to obtain information on the cost and use of prescription drugs by plan enrollees, as well as current/future use of transparent PBMs.

For employees with at least 200 workers: Prior Authorization

• Whether the health plan with the largest enrollment has more or less services subject to prior authorization than the previous year, and the reason behind this change.

…you can expect questions on these topics during your interview:

• Total number of employees at your location & the total number of employees nationwide, as well as in California (if applicable).

• Number or percentage of full-time employees making $38,000 or less per year and $82,000 or more per year; number or percentage of all employees working full-time (30 or more hours per week); percentage of all employees age 26 and under and 50 and over.