ATLANTA—Employer-sponsored health insurance plans have remained largely unchanged since 2008, though companies are reducing some benefits to stem burgeoning health care costs, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.

The survey results, announced during the weekend at the Alexandria, Va.-based association's 2012 Conference and Exposition in Atlanta, revealed that employer-sponsored health plans offer most of the same benefits in 2012 that they did in 2008.

Out of 42 specific benefits addressed in the survey, 33 showed no statistically significant change—a fluctuation of 5% or less—during the past five years in terms of prevalence among surveyed employers.

However, the survey indicated that employers have scaled back certain health and welfare benefits, including long-term care insurance, retiree health coverage and wholesale generic injectable drug programs.

According to the study, only 28% of employers surveyed were offering long-term care insurance in 2012, whereas 45% offered the coverage in 2008.

Coverage for retirees' health care dropped to 24% in 2012 from 32% in 2008.

The percentage of surveyed employers offering wholesale generic prescription programs for injectable drugs fell to 17% in 2012 from 24% in 2008, though it increased one percentage point since 2011.

Employers' care delivery models also have seen little fluctuation in the past five years. An overwhelming majority of employers surveyed still prefer preferred provider organization health plans—83% in 2012 compared with 85% in 2008. Twenty-three percent of employers currently offer point-of-service plans, compared with 26% in 2008.

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One notable change in care delivery since 2008 has been the drop in employers offering health maintenance organization plans. Only 32% of employers currently offered HMO plans, whereas 42% offered them five years ago.

SHRM's results in the survey, Employee Benefits: The Employee Benefits Landscape in a Recovering Economy—which included responses from 550 benefits and human resource managers—indicated a notable rise in the percentage of employers offering and participating in health savings accounts.

Forty-three percent of employers included HSAs in their benefit programs, whereas just 29% had offered them in 2008 and 35% in 2011. And one-quarter of employers offering HSAs make contributions to workers' accounts, compared with 13% in 2008.