Health Care Survey Of Workers Offers Insight To Participation In Employer Provided Programs
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Insights as to how workers and their dependents perceive health care is discovered in a new survey released by the National Business Group and conducted by Hewitt. These insights are critical for employers to recognize as they evaluate their existing and future health care plans. Help for prescription medicines is high on the list.
Despite the fact that employees say they know how to get healthy, many aren’t taking action to do so. Most (84%) believe making intelligent decisions in every day life leads to excellent overall health, and nearly three-quarters (72%) believe good health is a outcome of getting regular preventive care. Only 46% of the workers surveyed reported doing a “great” or “good job” of regular working out and only about half of the workers think they do a “great” or good job” of eating healthy. To help with the high prices of medication, most workers surveyed ranked prescription program assistance extremely high.
Whilst satisfaction is generally high in health programs, participation is low. Workers and dependents say they might know what actions they need to take to get and stay healthy, but involvement in many employer-provided health enhancement programs is not as high as businesses would like. The most accepted 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.
Internal motivators can be just as effective as monetary ones. 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”. Twenty-nine percent would participate in a HRQ for an incentive and almost the same number would complete it if there was a penalty. In addition, 44% of the employees surveyed said they would be willing to take part in a wellness program furnished by their employer because “it’s the right thing to do”.