Many aspects of healthcare reform are expected to boost the costof company-provided healthcare, including the removal of lifetimedollar limits, the pay-or-play requirement, the mandate to offercoverage to adult children and the requirement that companies autoenroll employees. Another source of costs has gotten lessattention: Employers face new fees as a result of the law, and theyare also likely to see cost increases that reflect the fees beinglevied on the providers of healthcare.

“There's just all sorts of fees,” says Tracy Watts, a partnerand senior health care consultant at Mercer. “This challenge ofcost is huge.”

Jane Jensen, a senior consulting actuary in the health and groupbenefits practice at Towers Watson, estimates that in 2014, feesmight mean additional costs equal to 1.5% to 2% of plan costs forself-funded plans.