Health Care Survey Of Employees Delivers Insight To Participation In Employer Provided Programs

Hewitt and the National Business Group on Health’s survey reveals five crucial insights into how workers and their dependents view health care. In order to prepare their company health care plans, it is critical to understand the results of the survey. Help for prescription drugs is high on the list.

Many workers are not doing what they need to do to get healthy even though they know better. Most (84%) think making intelligent choices in daily life leads to good overall health, and just about three-quarters (72%) think good health is a result 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 exercising on a regular basis. To assist with the high prices of prescription medication, most workers surveyed rated prescription program assistance pretty high.

Although satisfaction is generally high in health programs, involvement is low. Participation in many employer provided health programs is not as high as many employers 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 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 employees 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. Citing that it is “the right thing to do”, close to half of all employees surveyed would complete a health risk questionnaire About 30% of the individuals 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 workers 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”.