And to offset increased costs in their own plans, more than 90 percent of respondents anticipate passing some or all of these additional costs on to their employees through higher employee contributions or reduced coverage.

Almost half of employers (48 percent) plan to facilitate improvements in employee health by increasing their wellness initiatives, with virtually no respondents saying they expect to reduce wellness programs.

Many employers remain committed to retaining their employees' health plans: 57 percent of respondents say they would not consider dropping their coverage with 46 percent of them saying dropping coverage would make their company uncompetitive in hiring and retaining their work force.

Still, 28 percent of respondents say they will consider eliminating health care benefits due to reform.

Organizational changes

Also in response to reform, most respondents indicate they expect to make organizational changes, create new management and leadership initiatives, and focus on efficiency and quality efforts.

The most predominate ways in which health care organizations plan to adjust their business to adapt to this new era of health care reform within the next three years include: accessing IT requirements (82 percent); structuring quality measures with their physicians (69 percent); developing an integrated network (60 percent) and developing medical home services (41 percent).

"Health care employers especially should be on the forefront of this changing health care delivery market to reinforce new and emerging strategies and manage costs," says Sheryl Grey, a principal with Buck Consultants. "Implementing plan changes aligned with quality and wellness initiatives, and the use of telemedicine, social media and smart phones allow employers to improve care."

Respondents expect these business changes to support increased efficiency and improved quality of care. Sixty-six percent of survey respondents believe health care reform will have at least some impact on increasing access to care. Health care organizations say they're currently implementing—or plan to implement—changes to improve care within the next three years. Most say they're doing this by placing a greater focus on cooperation and collaboration around patient care (84 percent); using electronic health records (85 percent) and taking steps to reduce patient readmissions (74 percent).

More health plan cost-containment articles from BenefitsPro

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• Cheaper drugs could offset HR costs
• Generic drug pipeline to benefit CDHP members
• Enrollment, costs up under health reform
• McKinsey: One-third of employers will drop health coverage