By Erica R. Hendry

College and employee contributions to health-care premiums continued to rise this year along with the annual cost of health-care plans, according to the results of a survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

A report on the association's survey of employee health-care benefits at American colleges and universities during the 2009 fiscal year indicated that the total cost of the plans' premiums grew 3.7 percent for employee-only coverage and 5.7 percent for employee-and -family coverage. Over the past two years, those increases amounted to about 11 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

Institutions absorbed most of that increase, according to the survey. Employee contributions to annual premiums rose 4.3 percent for both employee-only and employee-and-family coverage, while institutions saw increases of 4.7 percent and 6 percent for those plans, respectively.

The survey was completed by 420 institutions, up from 400 last year, including 18 systems whose members responded individually. This year's data represent 582 colleges, compared with 516 last year.

Coverage of domestic same-sex and opposite-sex partners rose for the fourth consecutive year, with 46 percent of institutions reporting that they cover same-sex domestic partners and 37 percent doing the same for opposite-sex partners.

Following last year's cost-cutting trend of offering "consumer driven" health-care plans, institutions are now cutting back on some programs of their own. The number of institutions with a separate budget for wellness programs dropped 6 percent, and only 16 percent of reporting institutions offer a defined-contribution program to help with the medical expenses of future retirees.

According to the survey, about 20 percent of reporting institutions paid the entire monthly premium for employee-only coverage, but only about 7 percent did the same for employee-and-family coverage.

Plans of preferred-provider organizations continued to be the most commonly offered health plans, with 86 percent of institutions offering one or more of them, according to the survey.

Artificial insemination joined in vitro fertilization and acupuncture as services least likely to be covered, with slightly less than a third of the plans, on average, offering those benefits. Institutions reported that 61 percent of their pharmacy orders were for generic drugs, up from 57 percent last year.

The association surveyed institutions only about their health-care benefits this year. Other types of benefits are surveyed every other year, the association said, and will be included in the 2009-10 survey.