Health Care Survey Reveals Interesting Stats
Insights as to how employees and their dependents view health care is revealed in a new survey released by the National Business Group and done by Hewitt. These insights are significant for employers to know as they examine their existing and future health care approaches. Help for prescription drugs is high on the list.
Employees may how to get healthy, but many aren’t taking action. Most (84%) believe making good choices in daily life leads to good overall health, and approximately three-quarters (72%) think good health is a consequence of getting regular preventive care. Only half of the employees think they do a great or good job of eating healthy, while less than half (46%) reported doing a great or good job of working out on a regular basis. To help with the high prices of prescription medication, most employees surveyed ranked prescription program assistance pretty high.
In spite of high satisfaction in health programs, participation remains low. Participation in many employer provided health programs is not as high as many businesses would like to see, even though employees and their dependents report that they know what they need to do to get and stay healthy. The most popular programs include biometric screenings (61%), followed by online health information tools (53%) and health risk questionnaires (41%). Stress management programs and employee assistance programs (EAPs) were the least popular, with just nine percent participation in each. For workers that have dependent coverage, a prescription program was the number one satisfying benefit.
Financial motivation is a strong factor in participation but non financial, internal motivators can be just as valuable. Many businesses presume that offering cash incentives in exchange for involvement will generate the best results and incent workers to participate in health care programs. Nearly half would complete a health-risk questionnaire (HRQ) without any incentive because it is “the right thing to do”. About 30% of the participants would complete a survey if there was a penalty for not doing so and an additional 30% would do it if there was a monetary incentive involved. In addition, 44% of the employees surveyed said they would be willing to participate in a wellness program offered by their employer because “it’s the right thing to do”.