Hewitt Survey On Health Care Is Revealing In It Is Findings

How workers view health care is examined in a new survey performed by the National Business Group and Hewitt. In order to prepare their corporate health care plans, it is key to understand the results of the survey. Help for prescription medication is high on the list. 

 

Despite the fact that workers say they might know how to get healthy, many aren’t taking action to do so. Seventy two percent of the workers surveyed believe that receiving 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 assist with the expensive prices of prescription medicine, most workers surveyed rated prescription program assistance very high. 

 

Despite the fact that satisfaction is generally high in health programs, involvement is low. Workers and dependents say they might know what actions they need to take to get and stay healthy, but participation in many employer-provided health improvement programs is not as high as businesses would like. The most accepted 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 have dependent coverage, a prescription program was the number one satisfying benefit.

 

Internal motivators can be just as effective as monetary ones. Frequently, employers 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 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 provided by their employer because “it is the right thing to do”.