Health Care Survey Reveals Interesting Statistics

Insights as to how workers and their dependents view health care is revealed in a new survey released by the National Business Group and performed by Hewitt. In order to plan their company health care plans, it is key to be aware of the results of the survey. Help for prescription drugs is high on the list. 

 

Many employees are not doing what they need to do to get healthy even though they know better. Seventy two percent of the workers surveyed feel that getting regular preventive care will result in good health. Another 84% think that making smart decisions in their daily life will lead to overall good health. Only 46% of the employees 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 assist with the expensive cost of drugs, most workers surveyed ranked prescription program assistance pretty high. 

 

While satisfaction is by and large high in health programs, involvement is low. Employees and dependents say they know what actions they need to take to get and stay healthy, but involvement in many employer-provided health improvement programs is not as high as businesses would like. 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 employees that had dependent coverage, a prescription program was the number one satisfying benefit.

 

Internal motivators can be just as effective as monetary ones. Frequently, businesses assume that providing monetary incentives for participating in programs will increase participation. 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. Further, 44% of workers would participate in a wellness or health improvement program offered by their employer because it is the right thing to do.

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