Hewitt Survey On Health Care Is Revealing In It Is Findings
Written by rifqi on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 in Productivity.
How employees view health care is looked out in a new survey carried out by the National Business Group and Hewitt. In order to plan their corporate health care strategies, it is critical 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. Most (84%) think making sensible choices in daily 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 cost of medication, most workers surveyed ranked prescription program assistance incredibly high.
Although satisfaction is by and large high in health programs, participation is low. Involvement in a lot of employer provided health programs is not as high as many employers would like to see, even though workers 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 have dependent coverage, a prescription program was the number one satisfying benefit.
Financial motivation is a strong factor in participation but non monetary, internal motivators can be just as effective. Frequently, businesses 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 participants 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. 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”.
