Sunglasses, They Make You Look Great!

How workers view health care is looked out in a new survey carried out by the National Business Group and Hewitt. These insights are significant for employers to know as they examine their existing and upcoming health care strategies. Help for prescription medication is high on the list. 

Employees might know how to get healthy, but a lot are not taking action. Seventy two percent of the employees surveyed believe that getting regular preventive care will result in good health. An additional 84% think that making wise 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 assist with the expensive prices of medication, most employees surveyed rated prescription program assistance very high. 

In spite of high satisfaction in health programs, involvement remains low. Workers 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. 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 employees 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 valuable. Frequently, businesses assume that providing monetary 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”. Twenty-nine percent would participate in a HRQ for an incentive and almost the same number would complete it if there was a penalty. Further, 44% of employees would participate in a wellness or health improvement program offered by their employer because it is the right thing to do.