Hewitt Survey On Health Care Is Revealing In It’s Findings
How workers view health care is examined in a new survey done by the National Business Group and Hewitt. These insights are important for employers to understand as they assess their existing and future health care approaches. Help for prescription medication is high on the list.
Employees may how to get healthy, but many are not taking action. Most (84%) think making good choices in every day life leads to good overall health, and nearly three-quarters (72%) think good health is a result of getting regular preventive care. Only half of the workers 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 help with the expensive prices of medication, most employees surveyed rated prescription program assistance very high.
Whilst satisfaction is by and large high in health programs, participation 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 popular programs include biometric screenings (61%), followed by online health information tools (53%) and health risk questionnaires (41%). The least popular programs were stress management programs and employee assistance programs. 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 financial 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 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 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”.