Health Care Survey Of Employees Provides Insight To Participation In Employer Provided Programs
Insights as to how employees and their dependents view health care is discovered in a new survey released by the National Business Group and carried out by Hewitt. These insights are key for employers to be aware of as they evaluate their existing and future health care strategies. Help for prescription medication is high on the list.
Many employees are not doing what they need to do to get healthy even though they know better. Most (84%) think making sensible choices in every day life leads to excellent overall health, and approximately three-quarters (72%) believe good health is a result of getting regular preventive care. Only 46% of the employees surveyed reported doing a “great” or “good job” of regular exercising and only about half of the workers think they do a “great” or good job” of eating healthy. To assist with the high cost of prescription medicine, most employees surveyed rated prescription program assistance pretty high.
Though satisfaction is generally high in health programs, participation is low. Involvement in a lot of employer provided health programs isn’t 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. Biometric screenings are the most popular programs with online health information tools and health risk questionnaires following closely. Stress management programs and employee assistance programs (EAPs) were the least popular, with just nine percent participation in each. For workers that had 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 effective. Frequently, employers assume that providing monetary incentives for participating in programs will increase participation. 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”.
