Hewitt and the National Business Group on Health’s survey reveals five key insights into how workers and their dependents view health care. In order to prepare their company health care plans, it is significant to be aware of the results of the survey. Help for prescription medicines is high on the list.
Many workers are not doing what they ought 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 sensible decisions in their daily life will lead to overall good health. 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 working out on a regular basis. To help with the expensive cost of prescription medication, most workers surveyed ranked prescription program assistance pretty high.
Involvement in health programs is low, but satisfaction is high. Employees and dependents say they might know what actions they need to take to get and stay healthy, but involvement in many employer-provided health enhancement programs is not as high as employers would like. Biometric screenings are the most popular programs with online health information tools and health risk questionnaires following closely. The least popular programs were stress management programs and employee assistance programs. For workers that have 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. Nearly half would complete a health-risk questionnaire (HRQ) without any incentive because it is “the right thing to do”. 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 financial incentive involved. Further, 44% of employees would participate in a wellness or health improvement program offered by their employer because it’s the right thing to do.