Hewitt and the National Business Group on Health’s survey reveals five significant insights into how workers and their dependents view health care. In order to prepare their corporate health care plans, it is essential to understand the results of the survey. Help for prescription drugs is high on the list.
A lot of workers are not doing what they have to do to get healthy even though they know better. Seventy two percent of the employees surveyed think that getting regular preventive care will result in good health. Another 84% think that making wise decisions in their daily life will lead to overall good health. 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 cost of medication, most employees surveyed ranked prescription program assistance incredibly high.
Participation in health programs is low, but satisfaction is high. 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 employers 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 financial 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 participate in a wellness program provided by their employer because “it’s the right thing to do”.