Nearly one in four employers say they may move their employees to private exchanges within the next few years, but virtually none of them are considering public exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, new analysis from consulting firm Towers Watson finds.

The firm's Health Care Changes Ahead survey of 349 HR professionals at mid- and-large-sized companies found that 24 percent of those surveyed believe a private exchange will be a viable alternative for providing employee health benefits by 2016.

Meanwhile, just about everyone — 99.5 percent — said there was no way they were going to move everyone over to a public exchange. Three-quarters said they didn't consider public exchanges to be a viable alternative for active employees within the next two years.

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Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.