One of the participating employer groups, said they could get maternity information last year, but the carrier this year could not provide that data. All the employers participating in the survey covered maternity costs. Contraceptive Coverage Of the companies surveyed, all but 1 covered at least some contraceptives. But tremendous variation exists. 8 covered all contraceptives, except over the counter, such as condoms and spermacides, but the coverage depended on which plan the employee selects.
Tremendous variation exists within large employers that offer multiple plans.
Some had union plans, some had the contraceptive benefit only in the HMO product, those employers who offered multiple plans could not answer with any assurance which ones did or did not cover contraceptives. None could answer what percentage of the employees were taking advantage of the contraceptive benefit. The companies did not know and may have no way of knowing the percentage of their employees who used the contraceptive benefit. In all likelihood, data may not be able to be identified because most pharmaceutical prescriptions do not require a diagnosis. Given the time and financial limits of the study, we could not determine the extent of employee access to contraceptives if the employer offered more than one health plan.